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

by Andi Zeisler

“empowertising”—an

great word.

Hollywood’s version of “feminist” content often feels like presenting a graduate student with a copy of Pat the Bunny and saying, “I heard you love to read!”

an ideology that has largely been defined by people hostile to it.

star Michael Douglas was equally disparaging, saying, “If you want to know, I’m really tired of feminists, sick of them.… Guys are going through a terrible crisis right now because of women’s unreasonable demands.”

Ugh.

just another ingredient in a consumer word salad.

so much salad

feminism is a deeply heteronormative, white- and middle class–centric movement that’s become hopelessly stuck up its own ass.

truth. intersectionalism is the only solution.

The wingwoman of neoliberalism, marketplace feminism’s focus is on casting systemic issues as personal ones and cheerily dispensing commercial fixes for them.