Posfeminismo / Genealogía, geografía y contornos de un concepto.

Article published in Debate Feminista.

The term postfeminism has had multiple and contradictory uses in the anglo-american media context and scholarly circuit. Despite the fact that the phenomenon it denotes has expanded beyond the borders of the social, economic, cultural and geographical context where it emerged, works in Spanish that consider it are virtually non-existent. This article aims at bridging this gap. Starting with a review of what I argue are the three foundational texts of postfeminism as a field of study (McRobbie 2004; McRobbie 2009; Gill 2007), I move on to review and critically engage with two more texts that attempt to expand the outreach of postfeminism as a critical concept (Jess Butler 2013; Dosekun 2015) and to present own work (Giraldo 2016), which connects it with “the coloniality of gender” (Lugones 2007). The final part of the article outlines postfeminism as analytical concept by, firstly, explaining other concepts inherent to it; secondly, critically reading hypersexualisation; thirdly, problematising —via Foucault’s approach to power (1980) and Judith Butler’s theory of subjection (1997)— postfeminism’s underlying notion of “agency”. The article aims at showing that the theoretical potential of postfeminism as a concept lies in understanding it as a regime of female subjectivity that has been projected globally, is intrinsically connected with capitalism and with the neoliberal ethos, incorporates spectacular femininity and hypersexualisation, puts the coloniality of gender to work, and, instead of destabilising it, reinforces patriarchy.