CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2022
| Author | Pearson, Elsa |
|---|---|
| Title | Post-feminist luminosities: Negotiating covering the female body in the contemporary media environment |
| Summary | Billie Eilish is an American female pop star who, since her rise to fame as a teenager, has challenged the conventions of dress in the pop industry through the way she covers and uncovers her body. My thesis uses Eilish as a case study to consider this negotiation of covering and uncovering the body as a feminist issue. Through the use of visual and discourse analysis to examine Eilish’s visual self-presentation, her reasons behind it, and the online media response to it, I argue that Eilish’s example is revelatory of the oppressive post-feminist constraints that exist in Western society today, and are particularly visible in the popular culture media context. Throughout my analysis, the concept of luminosities is used to shed light on the struggles that Eilish faces as a young woman negotiating her hypervisibility in the music industry, as well as her privilege in being able to assert her agency through her dress and be praised for it. Exploring the intricacies and contradictions within both Eilish’s experiences (such as her simultaneous struggle and privilege), and the media response to her dress practices, I facilitate an understanding of the complex ways that women’s bodies are policed in the contemporary culture environment, as well as the importance of an intersectional perspective in understanding this policing: Eilish’s experience of covering her body is very different from how Muslim female coverings have been received in the west. Understanding this regulatory context, I argue that, unavoidably, covering and uncovering the female body remains an issue charged with meaning in the contemporary Western world and considering and critiquing the politics of these processes remains an essential task for feminists today. |
| Supervisor | Barát, Erzsébet |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2022/pearson_elsa.pdf |
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