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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Sharon MavinORCiD
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2019.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
This article utilizes economies of visibility to interpret how two UK women political leaders’ bodies are constructed in the press, on-line and by audience responses across several media platforms via a multimodal analysis. We contribute politicizing economies of visibility, lying at the intersection of politics of visibility and economies of visibility, as a possible new modality of feminist politics. We suggest this offers a space where feminism can be progressed. Analysis illustrates how economies of visibility moderate feminism and tie women leaders in various ways to their bodies; commodities constantly scrutinized. The study surfaces how media insist upon femininity through appearance from women leaders, serving to moderate power and feminist potential. We consider complexities attached to public consumption of powerful women’s constructions, set up in opposition, where sexism is visible and visceral. This simultaneously fortifies moderate feminism and provokes feminism. The insistence on femininity nevertheless disrupts, through an arousal of audible and commanding feminist voices, to reconnect with the political project of women’s equality.
Author(s): Mavin S, Elliott C, Stead V, Williams J
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Gender, Work & Organization
Year: 2019
Volume: 26
Issue: 8
Pages: 1156-1175
Print publication date: 01/08/2019
Online publication date: 14/10/2018
Acceptance date: 05/07/2018
Date deposited: 26/07/2018
ISSN (print): 0968-6673
ISSN (electronic): 1468-0432
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd
URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12291
DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12291
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