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Managed makeovers? Gendered and sexualized subjectivities in postfeminist media culture

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Abstract

This article continues the discussion of new articulations of gender and sexuality in late modern societies. It examines the shaping of postfeminist, neoliberal subjectivity through the different articulations of ‘gay’ and ‘straight’, femininity and masculinity. The interrelatedness of discursive, material and affective in the constitution of subject positions is of special interest. This article includes an analysis of two makeover series – How to Look Good Naked and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy – and suggests that practices such as consumption, choosing ‘freely’ and bodily management constitute men and masculinity as well as women and femininity, even if the subject positions in the shows differ in ways that contribute to re-traditionalizing gender. Despite their reflexive ways of realizing the transformations, the programmes involve ambivalent ways of making gender difference, such as re-gendering masculinity and femininity. Also, the gay experts in the shows ambivalently participate in maintaining gender dichotomy and heteronormativity.

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Notes

  1. How to Look Good Naked (2006–2008) UK, Channel 4.

  2. Sillä silmällä (Queer Eye for the Straight Guy) (2006) Finland, Nelonen.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Media Pedagogy/Faculty of Education, University of Lapland, Yliopistonkatu 8, Rovaniemi, 96101, Finland

    Marjo Kolehmainen

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Kolehmainen, M. Managed makeovers? Gendered and sexualized subjectivities in postfeminist media culture. Subjectivity 5, 180–199 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1057/sub.2012.7

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