Further information
About the authors
Hannah Garden is a HDR candidate at Deakin University. Her current research focuses on Australian online women’s websites and their engagement with feminism. Drawing on understandings of postfeminist media culture, she examines the ambivalence of popular feminism expressed through mainstream media.
Kim Toffoletti is a senior lecturer in Sociology at Deakin University. Her research explores gender identities and relations in popular cultural, sporting and leisure contexts.
Publication details
Volume 36, May 2017
Feminism, celebrity and lifestyle in the Australian digital news site Mamamia
Abstract
Prompted by claims of feminism’s increased profile in popular media discourse, this article explores where and how feminism appears in the online Australian women’s digital publication Mamamia. As one of the largest and most well-known Australian online news networks catering for a female audience, it is emblematic of the kind of mass media cultural product in which popular feminist discourses are said to circulate. Therefore, Mamamia offers a rich site through which to chart where and how feminist themes, agendas and sensibilities manifest in online content directed at female readers, and to investigate the various forms that feminism might take. A content analysis of the site indicates that feminism is depicted positively and that it is invoked in ways that enmesh political/activist agendas with commercialised and celebrity postfeminist forms. In finding that Mamamia publishes content that discusses and engages with feminism in a diversity of ways, we argue for a nuanced understanding of postfeminism that can account for new forms of feminist address and expression in women’s digital media cultures.
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CRICOS Code: 00126G
