“When She Talks, I Hear the Revolution”: Pop Feminism Between Hegemony and Subalternity

Abstract

Can you hear the revolution? When talking about pop feminism, the first associations that pop into our minds might look something like this: loud, rhetorical, shiny, pink, depoliticized, devoid of meaning, shallow. Especially from an academic point of view, pop feminsim might seem not critical enough and thus unnecessary for, or even harmful to feminist struggles. Using Antonio Gramsci’s political theory, this article argues against these accusations. Pop feminism is understood to be part of the force relations within the State. It therefore plays an active part in the struggle for hegemony within civil society and can tie in with the common sense of subaltern groups. It can therefore develop subversive character—and at the very least builds necessary bridges between theory and praxis.