Gender, Media and Voice

This book explores the increasing imperatives to speak up, to speak out, and to ‘find one’s voice’ in contemporary media culture. It considers how, for women in particular, this seems to constitute a radical break with the historical idealization of silence and demureness. However, the author argues that there is a growing and pernicious gap between the seductive promise of voice, and voice as it actually exists. While brutal instruments such as the ducking stool and scold’s bridle are no longer in use to punish women’s speech, Kay proposes that communicative injustice now operates in much more insidious ways. The wide-ranging chapters explore the mediated ‘voices’ of women such as Monica Lewinsky, Hannah Gadsby, Diane Abbott, and Yassmin Abdel-Magied, as well as the problems and possibilities of gossip, nagging, and the ‘traumatised voice’ in television talk shows. It critiques the optimistic claims about the ‘unleashing’ of women’s voices post-#MeToo and examines the ways that women’s speech continues to be trivialized and devalued. Communicative justice, the author argues, is not about empowering individuals to ‘find their voice’, but about collectively transforming the whole communicative terrain.

“What does it mean to have a voice? In this brilliant analysis Jilly Kay explores the contradictions of a culture which increasingly impels women to speak out, yet simultaneously punishes them for doing so. Exploring examples from talk shows to #MeToo activism, this important book sets out a nuanced and incisive understanding of the communicative injustices at the heart of neoliberal societies. Beautifully written, important and engaging.” (Rosalind Gill, City, University of London)

“With insight, erudition, and sparkling prose, this book offers a much-needed feminist analysis of the myriad ways in which the violence of exclusion and erasure—of women, LGBTQ people, people of colour, working-class people, disabled people and other ‘others’—has taken place through normative conceptions of voice and good communication. Kay brilliantly demonstrates how the contemporary exhortation to “speak out” buttresses patriarchy and neoliberal capitalism by focusing on particular and individual voices, while provocatively--and rightly--insisting on the need for a cacophonous and collective voice that seeks to transform the entire communicative terrain.  A key contribution to feminist theory, this book highlights that any struggle for social justice must entail the struggle for communicative justice.” (Catherine Rottenberg, author of The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism) 

“Gender, Media and Voice is a wonderful exploration of ‘communicative injustice’ and its amplification and contestation in contemporary media. Powerful, thoughtful and wide-ranging in scope, it offers nuanced readings of the gendered power imbalances manifest across a range of media forms, arguing persuasively and forcefully that we need to collectively take back the means of communicative production.” (Jo Littler, Professor of Sociology, St John St, City, University of London, UK) 

“What happens when women (try to) speak publicly? This important and thought-provoking workencourages us to think about the ways in which women have been denied voice.  Jilly Boyce Kay traces this phenomenon historically, offering a sophisticated discussion as to the ways in which women have been policed, silenced, derided and demeaned when publicly expressing their interests and views.  At the same time, she carefully articulates how women are able to reclaim their voice.  Her conceptualisation of communicative injustice neatly encapsulates not only what the problem is, but also entails the conditions needed for change.  Through developing the notion of ‘re(s)pair’ Kay articulates a powerful political call to action.  Her beautifully written and eloquent analysis also reminds us that silencing women is an issue of social justice - an issue, she argues persuasively, that can be addressed through rethinking not just what counts as legitimate or valuable speech, but the context in which we communicate, and the gendered nature of this terrain.” (Heather Savigny, Professor of Gender, Media and Politics, De Montfort University, UK) 

“This timely and wide-ranging discussion of gender, media and voice demands a new approach to feminist media studies, one which centres intersectional communicative justice and asks urgent questions about representation, responsibility and access. Kay weaves a fascinating and historically-nuanced account which takes us from the ducking stool to Hannah Gadbsy’s Nanette, from the racist and misogynist abuse directed against British MP Diane Abbott, to the commercial and political exploitation of gendered inappropriateness by the alt-right. This is interdisciplinary scholarship at its finest: rigorous, thoughtful, provocative.” (Karen Boyle, Professor of Feminist Media Studies, University of Strathclyde)

Jilly Boyce Kay is lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Leicester, UK, specializing in feminist theory. She is co-editor of The Wedding Spectacle Across Contemporary Media and Culture, and has also published on feminist anger, the suffragettes, reality television, and women’s television histories. She edits the Cultural Commons section in the European Journal of Cultural Studies.