Postfeminism – for whom or by whom?

Applying discourse analysis in research on the body and beauty (the case of black hair)

Authors

  • Ewa Glapka University of the Free State

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.30898

Keywords:

black femininity, consumption/commodification, discourse analysis, body/beauty, postfeminism, intersectionality

Abstract

This article explores postfeminism in the context of beauty consumption in the Global South. Advocating a transnational feminist perspective, it construes incorporation of postfeminism into the Global South in two senses - as the reception of a globally circulated discourse and as the embodiment(s) of it in different dimensions of lived femininity. Specifically, it examines how postfeminism is interpreted by black South African women in their beauty consumption. A combined, discursive-and-embodied approach is advanced to transcend the body/discourse binary and hence reflect on the intricate relationship between postfeminist discourse and the body in which it materialises. The article concludes by discussing the discursive dynamics of arriving at the subjective understanding(s) of the Western cultural logic of postfeminism in the cultural reality of postcolonial Africa, and by suggesting the methodology of research on discourse and beauty.

Author Biography

  • Ewa Glapka, University of the Free State

    Ewa Glapka is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of English Studies at University of the Free State, South Africa. Her research areas include discourse and gender, media discourse, and media reception, as well as cultural studies and qualitative sociology. She is the author of Reading Bridal Magazines from a Critical Discursive Perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014). She is currently conducting a qualitative, intersectional research on the body and beauty in the socio-culturally heterogeneous context of South Africa. She has published on applying discourse analysis in cultural and gender studies (International Journal of Cultural Studies, Journal of Critical Discourse Studies), as well as specifically on the discursive constructions of the female body (Journal of International Women's Studies, Qualitative Sociology Review).

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Published

2018-07-05

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Glapka, E. (2018). Postfeminism – for whom or by whom? Applying discourse analysis in research on the body and beauty (the case of black hair). Gender and Language, 12(2), 242-268. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.30898