A Celebratory Feminist Aesthetics in Postfeminist Times

TitleA Celebratory Feminist Aesthetics in Postfeminist Times
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2013
AuthorsMargaret Henderson
JournalAustralian Feminist Studies
Volume28
Issue77
Pagination250-262
ISSN08164649
Abstract

In 2011, something surprising happened in terms of Australian feminist cultural memory: a celebratory feminism arrived in the shape of the hugely popular ABC television mini-series,Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo. Eschewing dour social realism for a stylish and ludic narrative,Paper Giants uses the story of the women's magazine Cleo to tell the story of Australian women's liberation. This essay analyses the components of the mini-series' celebratory feminist aesthetics, examining the ways in which it mobilises feminist tropes to speak an intelligible feminist language in postfeminist times. Further, I detail how women's liberation becomes central to the national historical narrative underpinning the programme.

DOI10.1080/08164649.2013.821727