We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement

by Andi Zeisler

the idea that female consumers are empowered by their personal consumer choices—indeed, that choice, rather than being a means to an end, is the end itself. The idea that it matters less what you choose than that you have the right to choose is the crux of “choice feminism,”

Suddenly, there was a name for the phenomenon: “femvertising”—or, excuse me, #Femvertising. It was a hot topic on ad-industry trade sites, and panels on how to do this astonishing new thing of not insulting women became a draw for conference slates and seminars.

“She’s the central character. There’s no male character to validate her.”)

It shouldn’t be a radical notion that the experiences of women have the potential to be as universal and as broadly felt as those of men.

Treating feminism as a fixed metric flattens out the narrative possibilities that make people want to see movies in the first place.