Gill, Rosalind and Elias, Ana Sofia. 2014. 'Awaken your incredible': Love your body discourses and postfeminist contradictions. International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, 10(2), pp. 179-188. ISSN 1740-8296 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

In this article we focus on a new yet under-examined cultural phenomenon: the turn to ‘Love your body’ (LYB) discourses. Taking a feminist critical standpoint, we move away from an affirmative reading of LYB discourses and instead understand them as a postfeminist articulation of sexism. Our analysis identifies the key motifs of LYB discourses and contextualizes their dramatic proliferation over the last decade. Situated at the historical convergence of neoliberal governmentality, emotional capitalism, the growth of social media and commodity feminism, we trace how LYB discourses have emerged within the advertising genre to quickly saturate media more broadly. The article concludes with a critical assessment of LYB discourses that seeks to flesh out its distinctive contradictions and its ideological workings. In so doing, we will argue that far from representing a liberation from harmful beauty standards, LYB discourses are implicated in a deeper and more pernicious regulation of women that has shifted from bodily to psychic regulation.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1386/macp.10.2.179_1
Additional Information:	© Rosalind Gill and Ana Sofia Elias, 2014. The definitive, peer reviewed and edited version of this article is published in International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, Volume 10, Issue 2, Jun 2014, p. 179 - 188, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/macp.10.2.179_1.
Keywords:	Advertising, Beauty politics, Emotional capitalism, Governmentality, Love your body discourses, Postfeminism, Sexism, Social media
Departments, Centres and Research Units:	Institute for Cultural and Creative Entrepreneurship (ICCE)
Dates:	Date Event 1 June 2014 Published
Item ID:	37636
Date Deposited:	26 Sep 2024 13:25
Last Modified:	26 Sep 2024 15:54
Peer Reviewed:	Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.
URI:	https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/37636

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