“Willpower knows no obstacles”: Examining Neoliberal Postfeminist Messaging in Nike’s Transnational Advertisements for Women

Nike, a US-headquartered transnational corporation lauded for its putatively empowering women-centered advertisements, frequently releases nationally/regionally focused advertisements depicting women determinedly engaging in physical activity and, in doing so, overcoming gendered barriers and stigmas. Indeed, the global ubiquity of the empowered (Nike-clad) woman illustrates Nike’s role in advancing women’s empowerment, both in the US and globally. Universalizing “just do it” beyond geographical borders, Nike’s form of transnational feminism centers on a carefully manufactured, Western-centered image of empowered female athleticism. However, this notably contradicts transnational feminist efforts to reject the universalization of Western-centered representations of women. Using a critical cultural studies approach in concert with a transnational feminist framework, we analyze six recent Nike advertisements (the United States, Mexico, the Middle East, Turkey, India, and Russia) and critique the corporation’s universalization of neoliberal postfeminist messaging within its global marketing strategies. We find that Nike utilizes three thematics to extend their caricature of the (Nike-powered) female athlete beyond the spatial and symbolic borders of the US market: responsibilitization, competitive individualism, and empowerment. We conclude that Nike normalizes a white, Western-centered neoliberal postfeminism, undermining the structural and sporting realities of the non-white/non-Western women their promotional campaigning seeks to embolden.

Mujeres errantes: Cuerpo, género y política revolucionaria en el cine judío latinoamericano

This article focuses on the points of contact between Jewishness, gender, and revolutionary politics in Latin American films set in the 1960s and 1970s. The piece introduces the term “mujeres errantes” to explore how Latin American Jewish women filmmakers have crafted depictions of Jewish women who err from the norms with which they are expected to conform as they come into contact with pan-Latin American revolutionary political move­ments of the 1960s and 1970s. The study analyzes the specific representations of women- and Jewish-identified fictional protagonists in the films El amigo alemán and Novia que te vea. Through a discussion of how each film engages with the notion of “Mujeres errantes,” this article considers the place of revolutionary politics in film as cultural representations of Jewish Latin American women.

Changes in Women’s Representations in Turkish Cinema from the 1980s to the Early 1990s

This article focuses on the representations of women alongside the social and historical background of Turkish cinema from the 1980s through the early 1990s. In the following section, I articulate the political events in the 1980s - the early1990s and its impacts on Turkish society and cinema. I delve into the modernist representations of women in the 1980s cinema to analyze women’s gender codes (based on social/cultural and cinematic codes). Finally, in the last section, I examine Atıf Yılmaz’s cinematic images of women in his films and analyze two of his films A Sip of Love (1984) and The Night, Angel and Our Gang (1994) in terms of gender codes.

Constituting the 'Woman Artist': A Feminist Genealogy of Aotearoa New Zealand's Art History 1928 - 1989

<p>This thesis considers the ways in which the figure of the ‘woman artist’ has been constituted in published sources in Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history, between 1928 and 1989. Most of the texts dedicated specifically to women artists in this country were written in the latter half of the twentieth century, and were produced with the intention of writing women artists back in to the histories from which they had been excluded. This thesis operates from a different perspective. Rather than assuming a starting point of women’s absence from a national art history, it traces instead those written representations of the ‘woman artist’ as they exist in the published literature. Through the construction of a genealogy of such representation, this thesis examines the ideologies which are both embedded in, and perpetuated by them. In doing so it makes evident and interrogates the gendered power dynamics which have shaped the writing of Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history. This thesis is structured chronologically, charting the formation and expansion of a coherent national arts discourse against shifting notions of national and cultural identity. The trajectory of this discourse was shaped by a canonical impulse, constructing an unfolding narrative which centres upon a succession of key artistic figures. This thesis argues that the structuring of this – largely male, Pākehā – narrative, acted to subsume gendered difference, rendering women increasingly peripheral within its pages. The model of subsumed difference is also apparent in feminist critiques of this dominant art history, which are critically interrogated in the latter half of this thesis. As women sought to challenge the relative exclusion of women artists from this dominant narrative, they also perpetuated their own exclusions, often in terms of culture or sexuality. Through discursive analysis of both ‘mainstream’ art history, and the feminist writings which addressed it, this thesis presents two significant arguments. First, that stereotypical representations of women artists play a structural role – to marginalise women – within Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history. Secondly, that feminist interrogations of such histories failed to account for the multiplicity of women’s subjectivity. I conclude by instantiating and calling for an alternative approach that challenges the subsuming of such difference within a single, homogenous narrative. Such an approach will produce histories that interrogate, rather than perpetuate, the gendered and cultural power dynamics embedded within society.</p>

Constituting the 'Woman Artist': A Feminist Genealogy of Aotearoa New Zealand's Art History 1928 - 1989

<p>This thesis considers the ways in which the figure of the ‘woman artist’ has been constituted in published sources in Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history, between 1928 and 1989. Most of the texts dedicated specifically to women artists in this country were written in the latter half of the twentieth century, and were produced with the intention of writing women artists back in to the histories from which they had been excluded. This thesis operates from a different perspective. Rather than assuming a starting point of women’s absence from a national art history, it traces instead those written representations of the ‘woman artist’ as they exist in the published literature. Through the construction of a genealogy of such representation, this thesis examines the ideologies which are both embedded in, and perpetuated by them. In doing so it makes evident and interrogates the gendered power dynamics which have shaped the writing of Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history. This thesis is structured chronologically, charting the formation and expansion of a coherent national arts discourse against shifting notions of national and cultural identity. The trajectory of this discourse was shaped by a canonical impulse, constructing an unfolding narrative which centres upon a succession of key artistic figures. This thesis argues that the structuring of this – largely male, Pākehā – narrative, acted to subsume gendered difference, rendering women increasingly peripheral within its pages. The model of subsumed difference is also apparent in feminist critiques of this dominant art history, which are critically interrogated in the latter half of this thesis. As women sought to challenge the relative exclusion of women artists from this dominant narrative, they also perpetuated their own exclusions, often in terms of culture or sexuality. Through discursive analysis of both ‘mainstream’ art history, and the feminist writings which addressed it, this thesis presents two significant arguments. First, that stereotypical representations of women artists play a structural role – to marginalise women – within Aotearoa New Zealand’s art history. Secondly, that feminist interrogations of such histories failed to account for the multiplicity of women’s subjectivity. I conclude by instantiating and calling for an alternative approach that challenges the subsuming of such difference within a single, homogenous narrative. Such an approach will produce histories that interrogate, rather than perpetuate, the gendered and cultural power dynamics embedded within society.</p>

Drawing on the Past, Regenerating the Present: A Comparison of the Works of Ayi Kwei Armah and Nicolás Guillén

<p>Novelist Ayi Kwei Armah and poet Nicolás Guillén are, respectively, Ghanaian and Cuban writers who embody the efforts of mid-twentieth-century artists to depict the day-to-day socio-political conditions and struggles of societies seeking to move beyond histories of racial and economic oppression. Both engage powerfully and controversially with ongoing debates around damaging colonial histories and disappointing contemporary realities. The achievement of independence did not usher in the new, improved nations sought by way of struggle and suffering in either country. Uncompromisingly, Armah’s and Guillén’s works portray both the irredeemable parts of colonial histories and those that can be put to the benefit of the present, together with the tension that this disparity between expectation and achievement engenders. Granted the varied nature of the subject matter of the works of the two authors and the seeming lack of relation between them, this study makes use of a selection of theoretical frameworks to find common ground for analysing their work. The analysis of Nicolás Guillén’s poetry is based on concepts fundamental to Latin American social and cultural criticism, notably, the ideology of whitening or blanqueamiento, cultural mixing or mestizaje, and feminist criticism. The study of Ayi Kwei Armah’s first novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) employs socio-cultural theories including traditional Ghanaian concepts such sankofa and the Akan symbol of adinkra, together with Jean Paul Sartre’s concept of the “engaged writer.” This thesis argues that, in spite of their different national and ethnic backgrounds, both writers draw on traditional aspects of African culture to provide the impetus for social and cultural regeneration in their societies. Critics have read Armah as presenting disillusioned and decadent images of Ghana and promoting limited roles for women in his work. Guillén too has been portrayed by critics as offering an objectified representation of women in his poetry of the 1920s and 1930s and has been accused of ignoring, as a poet of meztizaje or ethnic mixture, the issues of Blacks and Blackness. This thesis contests these limiting critical positions, arguing that the writers’ representations of women, Blacks and Blackness are more positive and progressive than has been allowed. Acknowledging the burden of racist histories, the false promise of postcolonial liberation, the blatant corruption and the unrealised expectations of their times, they nevertheless allow for the possibility of regeneration in the societies they both dissect and, in part, restore.</p>

Drawing on the Past, Regenerating the Present: A Comparison of the Works of Ayi Kwei Armah and Nicolás Guillén

<p>Novelist Ayi Kwei Armah and poet Nicolás Guillén are, respectively, Ghanaian and Cuban writers who embody the efforts of mid-twentieth-century artists to depict the day-to-day socio-political conditions and struggles of societies seeking to move beyond histories of racial and economic oppression. Both engage powerfully and controversially with ongoing debates around damaging colonial histories and disappointing contemporary realities. The achievement of independence did not usher in the new, improved nations sought by way of struggle and suffering in either country. Uncompromisingly, Armah’s and Guillén’s works portray both the irredeemable parts of colonial histories and those that can be put to the benefit of the present, together with the tension that this disparity between expectation and achievement engenders. Granted the varied nature of the subject matter of the works of the two authors and the seeming lack of relation between them, this study makes use of a selection of theoretical frameworks to find common ground for analysing their work. The analysis of Nicolás Guillén’s poetry is based on concepts fundamental to Latin American social and cultural criticism, notably, the ideology of whitening or blanqueamiento, cultural mixing or mestizaje, and feminist criticism. The study of Ayi Kwei Armah’s first novel The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) employs socio-cultural theories including traditional Ghanaian concepts such sankofa and the Akan symbol of adinkra, together with Jean Paul Sartre’s concept of the “engaged writer.” This thesis argues that, in spite of their different national and ethnic backgrounds, both writers draw on traditional aspects of African culture to provide the impetus for social and cultural regeneration in their societies. Critics have read Armah as presenting disillusioned and decadent images of Ghana and promoting limited roles for women in his work. Guillén too has been portrayed by critics as offering an objectified representation of women in his poetry of the 1920s and 1930s and has been accused of ignoring, as a poet of meztizaje or ethnic mixture, the issues of Blacks and Blackness. This thesis contests these limiting critical positions, arguing that the writers’ representations of women, Blacks and Blackness are more positive and progressive than has been allowed. Acknowledging the burden of racist histories, the false promise of postcolonial liberation, the blatant corruption and the unrealised expectations of their times, they nevertheless allow for the possibility of regeneration in the societies they both dissect and, in part, restore.</p>

The women of N. K. Jemisin: Representations of women and gender roles in the science-fantasy The Fifth Season

The following paper deals with representations of women and gender roles in science-fiction and fantasy. It briefly discusses the issue in these genres in general, but it is primarily concerned with one specific example, i.e. N. K. Jemisin’s science-fantasy novel The Fifth Season. The paper’s main aim is to highlight the changing nature of representations of women in science fiction and fantasy and pay tribute to a literary work depicting women from a modern perspective. Thus, it presents the analysis of said novel from the perspective of feminist criticism and gender studies, focusing on how the novel explores through its main and side women characters, ideas of representation, biological sex versus “gendering”, and related notions of femininity, gender roles and gender stereotypes and myths.

From Print to Digital: Reappropriation of the Ready-Made Image in Works of Margit Sielska and Weronika Gęsicka

between print and digital photomontage practices through theworks of two women artists, Margit Sielska (1900-1980) and Weronika Gęsicka (1984-),addressingthe way these lesser-known, non-Anglophone artists reveal a continuity ofinterests across time. Changes in technology have allowed the cut and pastetechnique of photomontage to evolve from the use of scissors and glue to the useof software. Byreappropriating and manipulating the ready-made image of women andstereotypical family life from printed and photographic materials, both artistschallenge assumptions about a woman’s role in society while constructing newsettings and realities for their subjects to occupy. In both instances, thecombinatory process of montage serves to question and disrupt traditional andnormative representations of women and domesticity. By drawing on theparallels between artworks made with different techniques but deriving from theshared creative process of appropriating and manipulating the ready-made imageto create new, unexpected situations, the article reveals a continuity betweencertain modernist practices and contemporary digital culture.&nbsp;