Abstract
In this chapter, Grant and Nash consider how contemporary postfeminism is deployed in Girls. Through a comparative analysis of Girls and Sex and the City (SATC), Grant and Nash argue that while both shows exemplify postfeminist culture, they are inflected differently in relation to the representation of sexualities, reproductive choice, and feminine embodiment, suggesting a shift towards a new kind of postfeminist narrative. Compared to SATC, Girls represents a novel approach to representing young women’s lives, re-articulating and re-mobilising previous conceptualisations of postfeminism. To conclude, the term ‘post? feminism’ is proposed to describe Dunham’s ‘new’ version of postfeminism for the millennial generation.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adriaens, F. (2009). November 9. Post feminism in popular culture: A potential for critical resistance? Politics and Culture. Retrieved from http://politicsandculture.org/2009/11/09/postfeminism-in-popular-culture-a-potential-for-critical-resistance/.
Adriaens, F., & Van Bauwel, S. (2014). Sex and the City: A postfeminist point of view? Or, how popular culture functions as a channel for feminist discourse. Journal of Popular Culture, 47(1), 174–195.
Arthurs, J. (2003). Sex and the City and consumer culture: Remediating postfeminist drama. Feminist Media Studies, 3(1), 83–98.
Baumgardner, J., & Richards, A. (2000). Manifesta: Young women, feminism, and the future. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
Bell, K. (2013). Obvie, we’re the ladies! Postfeminism, privilege and HBO’s newest Girls. Feminist Media Studies, 13(2), 363–266.
Braithwaite, A. (2002). The personal, the political, third-wave, and postfeminisms. Feminist Theory, 3(3), 335–344.
Brooks, A. (1997). Postfeminisms: Feminism, cultural theory and cultural forms. London: Routledge.
Danes, C. (2012). Lena Dunham. Interview. Retrieved from http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/lena-dunham-1/#/_.
Gagnon, J.H., & Simon, W. (1973). Sexual conduct: The social sources of human sexuality. Chicago: Aldine.
Gerhard, J. (2005). Sex and the City: Carrie Bradshaw’s queer postfeminism. Feminist Media Studies, 5(1), 37–49.
Gill, R. (2007). Postfeminist media culture: Elements of a sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(4), 147–166.
Gill, R. (2008). Culture and subjectivity in neoliberal and postfeminist times. Subjectivity, 25(1), 432–445.
Gill, R. (2011). Sexism reloaded, or, it’s time to get angry again! Feminist Media Studies, 11(1), 61–71.
Goldsworthy, A. (2013). Unfinished business: Sex, freedom and misogyny. Quarterly Essay, 50(1), 1–79.
Gurley Brown, H. (1962). Sex and the single girl. New York: Geis.
Harris, A. (2004). Future girl: Young women in the twenty-first century. New York: Routledge.
Heller, N. (2014). Lena Dunham: The new queen of comedy’s first Vogue cover. Vogue. Retrieved from http://www.vogue.com/magazine/article/lena-dunham-the-new-queen-of-comedys-first-vogue-cover/#1.
Henry, A. (2004). Orgasms and empowerment: Sex and the City and the third wave feminism. In K. Akass, & J. McCabe (Eds.), Reading Sex and the City (pp. 65–83). London: I.B. Tauris.
Markle, G. (2008). Can women have sex like a man? Sexual scripts in Sex and the City. Sexuality and Culture, 12(1), 45–57.
McRobbie, A. (1994). Postmodernism and popular culture. London: Routledge.
McRobbie, A. (2009). The aftermath of feminism: Gender, culture and social change. London: Sage.
Morgan, E.M., & Zurbriggen, E.L. (2007). Wanting sex and wanting to wait: Young adults’ accounts of sexual messages from first significant dating partners. Feminism and Psychology, 17(4), 515–541.
Morrissey, T.E. (2013, November 2). ‘What kind of guy does a girl who looks like Lena Dunham ‘deserve’? Jezebel. Retrieved from http://jezebel.com/5983437/what-kind-of-guy-does-a-girl-who-looks-like-lena-dunham-deserve.
Negra, D. (2009). What a girl wants: Fantasizing the reclamation of self in postfeminism. London: Routledge.
Nussbaum, E. (2008). Sarah Jessica Parker would like a few words with Carrie Bradshaw. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/movies/profiles/46660/.
Perkins, C. (2014). Dancing on my own: Girls and television of the body. Critical Studies in Television, 9(3), 33–43.
Rosenfelt, D., & Stacey, J. (1990). Second thoughts on the second wave. In K.V. Hansen & I.J. Philipson (Eds.), Women, class, and the feminist imagination: A socialist-feminist reader (pp. 549–567). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Shaw, R. (2010). Our bodies, ourselves, technology, and questions of ethics: Cyberfeminism and the lived body. Australian Feminist Studies, 18(40), 45–55.
Tasker, Y., & Negra, D. (2007). Interrogating postfeminism: Gender and the politics of popular culture. North Carolina: Duke University Press.
Whelehan, I. (2000). Overloaded: Popular culture and the future of feminism. London: Women’s Press.
Whelehan, I. (2010). Remaking feminism: Or, why is postfeminism so boring? Nordic Journal of English Studies, 9(3), 155–172.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Grant, R., Nash, M. (2017). From Sex and the City to Girls: Paving the Way for ‘Post? Feminism’. In: Nash, M., Whelehan, I. (eds) Reading Lena Dunham’s Girls. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52971-4_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52971-4_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52970-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52971-4
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)