Selling Feminism: How Female Empowerment Campaigns Employ Postfeminist Discourses

Abstract

Femvertising messages are advertisements aimed at empowering women through pro-female messages, and they are celebrated by the industry. But recent critical research has found femvertisements that use postfeminist discourses, which both incorporate and repudiate feminist ideals, neutralizing feminism’s political force. Using qualitative (N = 26) and quantitative content analyses (N = 106), this study analyzed postfeminist articulations in award-winning femvertisements. Results showcase six commonly utilized discourses and elements of postfeminism: commodity feminism, individualization, self-surveillance, a new lens on the embrace of femininity, confidence cult(ure), and love your body. Two studies show how and how often disempowering discourses appear in female empowerment advertising.