When: Wednesday, March 31, 2021, 9:00 AM - 10:00 AMWhere: Online, Zoom
Speaker: Sarah Riley, Professor in Critical Health Psychology at Massey University
Sarah Riley, Professor in Critical Health Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand, will describe some of the main elements of postfeminist sensibility, both historically and how it manifests today.
Abstract
In this talk, Professor Riley describes some of the main elements of postfeminist sensibility, both historically and how it manifests today. This overview highlights a focus on sexuality as a source of women’s power, an affirmative turn towards body positivity and traditional gender roles, and new visibilities of feminist activism which manifest against a backdrop of networked misogyny. Building on this, she then examines three figures illuminated within postfeminism: the sexual connoisseur, the intensive mother, and the loser feminist. Describing the studies in which these figures emerged, including an analysis of Daily Mail comments on her research, Professor Riley considers the implications of postfeminism for health and organisational inequalities that intersect along axes of gender, race and class.
Speaker
Sarah Riley is a Professor in Critical Health Psychology at Massey University, New Zealand and a Visiting Professor with the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity at Queen Mary University of London. Located in psychology, she also draws on sociology, cultural and media studies to explore the psychological impact of neoliberalism, addressing questions of gender, health, and citizenship. She has been funded by the EU, ESRC, EPSRC, British Academy, and the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. Her work includes the co-authored books Critical Bodies (Palgrave, 2008), Technologies of Sexiness (Oxford University Press, USA, 2014) and Postfeminism & Health (Routledge, 2018); she is currently working on Postfeminism & Body Image (Routledge), and is the Vice-Chair for the International Society for Critical Health Psychology.
Followed by Q&A. This event will be recorded.