Critically explore the term postfeminism in relation to any aspect of Essay

Critically explore the term postfeminism in relation to any aspect of contemporary culture in a national context of your choice - Essay Example Others such as Lotz argue that post-feminism is a part of third wave feminism (2001). According to Lotz, post-feminism includes poststructuralism and women-of-colour feminism influenced by poststructuralist, postmodern and postcolonial ideologies. In another representation of post-feminism, Rachel Moseley, a media critic sees post-feminism as a â€Å"re-evaluation of the tension which was often thought to exist between feminism and femininity† (Richardson 2006, p. 163). By this, she implies that post-feminism puts feminity (such as glamour and sexual objectification of women) back into feminist politics that originally are against feminity. 6 Some critics such as Tania Modleski take an opposite stance and argue that post-feminism is in fact discarding the achievements of second wave feminists by â€Å"delivering us back to a prefeminist world† (Richardson 2006, p. 164). Thus, there are paradoxical and opposing representations of the term ‘post-feminism’ and this contradiction is also reflected in the characters played in contemporary media. 6 The first use of the term ‘post-feminism’ was in 1920s press when it stated that feminist activism was not needed any longer and that a post-feminist era had dawned (Lotz 2001). The term’s critical academic use was in the post-second-wave era when it was defined as an emerging ideology and culture which incorporated, depoliticized and revised a large number of fundamental issues put forth by second-wave feminism (Lotz 2001). Faludi later on used the term to state that women no longer cared about feminism (McRobbie 2004). 6 Authors have debated post-feminism in terms of gender politics in popular magazines such as Time and People. However, there is no shared understanding of this term and its theoretical explorations are very expansive and unclear. Earlier representations of women in media, such as Mary Richards in The Mary Tyler Moore Show during the 1980s and 90s