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Agencing femininity : digital Mrs. Consumer in intra-action

Petersson McIntyre, Magdalena LU (2020) In Journal of Cultural Economy 13(1). p.55-72
Abstract
Social media is abound with women writing about consumption goods and practices associated with femininity and heterosexual nuclear family life, such as being married, dressing, cooking and home decoration. This article examines how the housewife ideal can be an attractive identity in the 2010s and, drawing on the post-humanist performativity by Karen Barad (2007), it maps the material-discursive agencies that enable the re-emergence of this figure. Building on in-depth interviews with women who refer to themselves as influencers and bloggers, and visual and textual analyses of their Instagram-accounts, including links to sponsors and comments from followers, the article analyzes how the tensions between these women's real lives and their... (More)
Social media is abound with women writing about consumption goods and practices associated with femininity and heterosexual nuclear family life, such as being married, dressing, cooking and home decoration. This article examines how the housewife ideal can be an attractive identity in the 2010s and, drawing on the post-humanist performativity by Karen Barad (2007), it maps the material-discursive agencies that enable the re-emergence of this figure. Building on in-depth interviews with women who refer to themselves as influencers and bloggers, and visual and textual analyses of their Instagram-accounts, including links to sponsors and comments from followers, the article analyzes how the tensions between these women's real lives and their cyber lives, become meaningful in this technological culture. The breaking of boundaries between human and non-human resulting from digital technology has re-configured the housewife role by transforming boundaries between intimate and commercial practices. By focusing on the three areas: Transforming the feminine body, Transforming Intimacy, and Entrepreneurial femininity the article shows how agency emerges from within transforming practices of body, intimacy and entrepreneurship, intra-acting within this new housewife phenomenon. In doing so it discusses the negotiations and space for agency these women thought that digital technologies provided for them. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Femininity, blogs, intra-activity, influencers, digital devices
in
Journal of Cultural Economy
volume
13
issue
1
pages
17 pages
publisher
Routledge
ISSN
1753-0350
DOI
10.1080/17530350.2019.1639529
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
8fb8835c-3adc-4756-ac93-b9d19717314f
date added to LUP
2024-06-04 17:17:59
date last changed
2024-06-17 14:02:33
@article{8fb8835c-3adc-4756-ac93-b9d19717314f,
  abstract     = {{Social media is abound with women writing about consumption goods and practices associated with femininity and heterosexual nuclear family life, such as being married, dressing, cooking and home decoration. This article examines how the housewife ideal can be an attractive identity in the 2010s and, drawing on the post-humanist performativity by Karen Barad (2007), it maps the material-discursive agencies that enable the re-emergence of this figure. Building on in-depth interviews with women who refer to themselves as influencers and bloggers, and visual and textual analyses of their Instagram-accounts, including links to sponsors and comments from followers, the article analyzes how the tensions between these women's real lives and their cyber lives, become meaningful in this technological culture. The breaking of boundaries between human and non-human resulting from digital technology has re-configured the housewife role by transforming boundaries between intimate and commercial practices. By focusing on the three areas: Transforming the feminine body, Transforming Intimacy, and Entrepreneurial femininity the article shows how agency emerges from within transforming practices of body, intimacy and entrepreneurship, intra-acting within this new housewife phenomenon. In doing so it discusses the negotiations and space for agency these women thought that digital technologies provided for them.}},
  author       = {{Petersson McIntyre, Magdalena}},
  issn         = {{1753-0350}},
  keywords     = {{Femininity; blogs; intra-activity; influencers; digital devices}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{1}},
  pages        = {{55--72}},
  publisher    = {{Routledge}},
  series       = {{Journal of Cultural Economy}},
  title        = {{Agencing femininity : digital Mrs. Consumer in intra-action}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/188322739/Agencing_femininity_digital_Mrs_Consumer_in_intra_action.pdf}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/17530350.2019.1639529}},
  volume       = {{13}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}