Neo-Feminist Cinema

by Hilary Radner

What lies behind current feminist discontent with contemporary cinema? Through a combination of cultural and industry analysis, Hilary Radner’s Neo-Feminist Girly Films, Chick Flicks and Consumer Culture shows how the needs of conglomerate Hollywood have encouraged an emphasis on consumer culture within films made for women. By exploring a number of representative "girly films," including Pretty Woman, Legally Blonde, Maid in Manhattan, The Devil Wears Prada , and Sex and the The Movie , Radner proposes that rather than being "post-feminist," as is usually assumed, such films are better described as "neo-feminist." Examining their narrative format, as it revolves around the story of an ambitious unmarried woman who defines herself through consumer culture as much as through work or romance, Radner argues that these films exemplify neo-liberalist values rather than those of feminism. As such, Neo-Feminist Cinema offers a new explanation as to why feminist-oriented scholars and audiences who are seeking more than "labels and love" from their film experience have viewed recent "girly films" as a betrayal of second-wave feminism, and why, on the other hand, such films have proven to be so successful at the box office.

Genres: Academic

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2010

About the author

Hilary Radner is associate professor in the Department of Film, Television, and Theater at the University of Notre Dame.

Reviews

[Caroline Petruzzi McHale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting premise. The author argues that the term "neo-feminism" refers to the tendency in feminine culture to evoke choice, independence and the development of feminine identity but realized through consumer culture in which the woman is encouraged to achieve self-fulfillment by purchasing, adorning or surrounding herself with the goods that this culture can offer. Many of the films reviewed in the book do just that, some of which in turn end up perpetuating stereotypes, but some of which end up being empowering (really enjoyed the study of Jennifer Lopez and her style of leadership and feminism).

[Adrienne Urbanski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Radner posits a convincing and interesting analysis of the neofeminist movement in popular culture. Her detail by detail analysis of some of the specific films however becomes dry and bogged down in the language of academia.

[Cassie · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it was an interesting idea, this book provided no critique of the consumer culture that these girly films embrace. In embracing capitalist culture, it failed to connect the interlocking structures of power that keep women from equality.