Waving or Drowning? Perceptions of Second Wave Feminism Through a Twenty-First Century Lens

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Bralesford, Helen Margaret (2006) Waving or Drowning? Perceptions of Second Wave Feminism Through a Twenty-First Century Lens. [Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

This dissertation sets out to explore some twenty-first century perceptions of second wave feminism with as little mediation from the academy as possible by employing the lens of popular culture to tease out and examine some of the assumptions about the second wave that have become culturally embedded at a grass roots level.

The first chapter takes Betty Friedan���������������¢��������������������������������s seminal text The Feminine Mystique and explores, through three versions of The Stepford Wives (Ira Levin���������������¢��������������������������������s 1972 novel, the Bryan Forbes���������������¢�������������������������������� film of 1974 and the 2004 Frank Oz remake) the ways in which popular attitudes have changed towards Friedan���������������¢��������������������������������s work over the past forty years, and pertinently, too, the subtle ways in which sometimes attitudes have not changed much at all. Similarly, chapter two examines Kate Millett���������������¢��������������������������������s Sexual Politics focussing on it through the lens of popular versions of William Shakespeare���������������¢��������������������������������s The Taming of the Shrew. These run from the 1953 MGM version of Cole Porter���������������¢��������������������������������s stage musical Kiss Me, Kate to the 1999 teen comedy romance 10 Things I Hate About You. Finally, some of the issues raised in Marilyn French���������������¢��������������������������������s 1977 novel The Women���������������¢��������������������������������s Room are scrutinised through links with what I argue is, like French���������������¢��������������������������������s book itself, a modern soap opera ���������������¢�������������������������������� Desperate Housewives.

Throughout, reception theory, in particular the work of Tamar Liebes and Elihu Katz, regarding what they term the ���������������¢��������������������������������referent���������������¢�������������������������������� is employed to tease out possible audience responses to the texts examined. This strategy takes into account the changing audiences throughout the last half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first century, with the aim of discovering whether we are in a truly post-feminist era or whether we just think we are.

Item Type: Dissertation (University of Nottingham only)
Keywords: Second Wave Feminism, Post-feminism
Depositing User: EP, Services
Date Deposited: 21 Nov 2008
Last Modified: 02 Feb 2018 08:06
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/20794

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