Postfeminism believes that all the idea of the female gender has been achieved, and therefore women don’t need to participate in the activities fighting for their rights. Postfeminism also features in pop culture, where feminist ideas and themes are included in the media services such as television shows, films and music and new media such as social media platforms. Also, females have more roles in journalism careers and commentaries than before. This is evidenced in the workplace, whereby there is an increasing number of women in various job specializations, unlike before the 20th century. Besides, women have been given top priority in leadership and job positions provided they have the recommended qualifications to fit in their career line. This is a huge improvement in the women’s line of employment, and it is an implication of women’s transformation, where in the modern world, they have a voice more than before (Schmeichel et al., 2023). They are equal to have power and access to what the male gender has accessed in society. The marginalization that existed in the past is erased, and that is why postfeminism uses that transformation to hold that women no longer need feminist activism to improve their lives in society. This research will explore postfeminism based on the question of argument, “Has postfeminism as a sensibility disempowered women?”
The idea of whether postfeminism has disempowered women is complex and still debated. The definition of postfeminism refers to the political and cultural change that emerged in the late 20th century; this was when feminist was involved in the media and mainstream culture. The fact of gender equality characterizes this aspect as having been achieved or is in the process of being achieved. The belief was that women no longer needed to engage in feminist activism. The study by Ling (2022) holds that female lives are no longer slavery-like before, which implies that their lives have transformed and the reason for feminist activism has been achieved. Women are in politics, and this has influenced the entire world. Some women have practised successfully in the country’s leadership, and some are presidents of some countries. The election of women is valued like that of men, provided they have a promising manifesto to be accepted by society. The cases of stereotypes have decreased compared to the past centuries before the 20th century. Society has encountered positive development in gender equality, which can be assumed to be the desired change in society achieved as expected. However, some have argued that the rise of postfeminism has disempowered women in society; this implies that women are going back to the past days of marginalization.
Several pitfalls for women characterize postfeminism; women have received criticism that promotes an individualistic approach to empowerment. It emphasizes self-improvement and self-actualization over several actions and systematic change. This encourages them to focus on their achievements and self-presentation instead of focusing on the broader issue of social justice and gender inequality. Women in the modern days have probably transformed into the worse, whereby they are no longer interested in operating in collaboration to fight against gender inequality and social injustice; rather, they are more concerned with their well-being and development (Presswood, 2019). Individualist feminism is a liberation that believes in personal autonomy, choice, and freedom. Even though it protests for women’s equality, it is more focused on individuals and their growth as a person. It encourages women to take charge of their own life, owns them and make it their full responsibility to work on them. It holds that they are adults with the power and strength to make their own decisions, and even the government should not be involved in interfering with their decisions. Even though it seems to have changed the female gender, it has created a gap in interaction among women, and there is no female balance in development.
The concept of individual choices for females has destroyed the solidarity that existed, and now a few are willing to work in oneness towards fulfilling’s a common goal; rather, they focus on the work as a single person, which creates a slow growth in the community. Women are pressured to make the right choices that might affect their future. An example is some of the authors who have advocated the ideas of individualism as a result of postfeminism, Wendy McElroy is an author from Canada who has protested for individualism and has used a lot of books and articles to pass his message across, and most of his writing has majored on the women who are protesting for freedom. In her statement, she holds that human beings have the freedom to make their choices, and women are not an exception in making choices. One of her selling books “ Sexual correctness, the gender feminist attack on Women” has brought out a clear concept of why women should be valued and deserve the freedom which will be free from slavery, and she emphasizes that it was possible by working on the self-individual rights will support the freedom of women. The author says that the idea of rape in women should be erased because it makes them feel low and weak, being that they can’t have ownership in society. Women in postfeminism are stuck between making the right choices and the change about the feminists.
The rise of postfeminism’s hypersexuality in the modern has affected female representation and the reputation in the community. In the modern century, women have been portrayed wrong in the media and marketing firms, especially in the beauty and fashion industries. This is the common area where women dominate, the companies where the investors take advantage of their bodies to market their products. Fashion and beauty industries have channelled their interest in the female gender to market their products. This is the act of gender stereotyping, where one gender in society is taken advantage of over the other. The women featured in the adverts in the sexually portrayed manner and half naked is an implication that the male is still dominant over the female. Even though feminist activists fought for equality, the increased sexual objectification of women in the advertisement has disempowered women who seem valueless over the other gender. Advertisement for beauty and fashion are publicly sexist and portrays that there is a big difference between male and female gender where one manipulates, and this is evidenced by the recent saturation of the sexual images of female in advertisement to attract buyers. A study conducted by Liao and Ling (2022) on women’s sexual representation in the fashion and beauty industry holds that the increasing demand for women in these industries is alarming, and the investors have used it as an advantage to show the world that sex sells and they are willing to manipulate one gender in exchange of their profits in a different line of operation. The manipulation of women’s image in the sexual display for marketing is rising, and the future of respect for females in society is at risk.
Moreover, in the traditional and new media, women have been wrongly represented in the media. In social media, the female is more dominant with images half naked, and some have chosen to go naked, based on the transformation taking over in the current world of postfeminism. Women have been disempowered, so they are no longer respected gender in society. Statistics show that about 51.8% of advertisement features women, and they are presented as sexual objects. Even though the products may attract buyers, it sends a wrong impression to the society where this gender has lost respect in the community. Women have been objectified in the media by investors to make money by using their images for advertisement with no atom of respect for gender. Postfeminism had made women lose value, unlike before feminism became more common and overpowered the resistance against change in the female gender. According to UNICEF, studies say that women are depicted sexually compared to men, and this has attracted the girls growing up to assume a normal act to dress, exposing the entire body outside. Most of the time, females appear in the media for advertisements, like in men’s magazines; they are sexually objectified, affecting teens to follow the same path of sexual objection and dressing.
This idea of hypersexualization of the female gender in the media might affect their mental and emotional well-being. Some may lack the self-esteem to face the situations affecting their lives due to the intimidation that they have received from the postfeminism effects. The studies by Nadin et al. (2020) hold that modern women suffer from postfeminism. They have now become sexual objects in the media, and the male gender has used them to misuse them. Have been assaulted sexually, and the community has nothing to say to defend them because they believe they deserve the consequences of exposure in the media. The statistics, according to WHO, holds about 1 in 3 women have encountered sexual violence in their lifetime, and about 7% of the women have had rape attempt, based on the report in early 2023. Sexual violence has been a normal societal act globally in developed and developing countries. The change increased cases of violence, where some are not reported because the women were misused in the media in exchange for a small token. However, the act of sexual portrayal has gone a long way in disempowering women. Women sometimes have no voice in society because the media temper their reputation, which might take time to reset back to normal where decency in females is valued.
In essence, postfeminism is useful to society. However, what lies behind it is the destruction of the female gender. It has lowered their self-esteem, and women no longer have value in their image in society. The respect that existed is no longer there. The rise of social media is a major contributor to postfeminism, where the female gender has taken advantage of the site to display all the natural images, and they assume it is normal to display their bodies sexually (Tiusanen, 2021). Even the young girls who are supposed to be shaped by the morals of society are no longer shaped by their culture; rather, they learn from the social media platform. An example is social media, where women are forced to modify their bodies to fit in the class of their friends and find likes and comments from global friends. This is demoralizing and devalues the female gender because they believe that to be liked and appreciated in the digital society of social media is to dress half-naked. The increased competition in social media images has affected female self-esteem and self-monitoring, whereby their obsession is which beauty and fashion appear better than others. In this issue, women have fallen under the pressure of making the wrong choices to move with the waves of society because they want to feel appreciated and valued in society. A new social media platform is coming up, and each has a photo-uploading site, attracting most females. The beauty and fashion industry has used the sites to market its products using female images. With this in place, social media has been effectively used as a platform for promoting postfeminism as it has continued to expand in society globally.
The idea of feminism rose because women were submissive and passive. They rejected their rights and went into being homemakers, which meant there was no way they would focus on their careers and work for themselves. Instead, they depended on men to work and provide for them as housewives. Denying their rights led to them facing stereotypes which meant the entire society discriminated against them, and no one saw them as having any power or potential to work for themselves, and they were subjected to all types of forced labour and manipulation by the male gender. It was an era of suffering before the feminist activist came in to fight for their rights and rescue the women from the dangers subjected to them. The question we should ask ourselves is, is postfeminism taking us back to the days of women’s manipulation? In this era, the dominating area of postfeminism can be compared to those days of feminism. Women today have focused on excess self-monitoring, a lot of makeovers and an increased rate of hypersexuality. There are narratives in society that force women to behave in that manner, and with this rate, postfeminism is taking over and disempowering women back into the stereotyping life they had and the discrimination they faced over the male gender (Rome and Lambert, 2020). In the modern days, hypersensitivity seems the new normal to women, and they are forced into the act as a norm, which has seemed normal to society.
Excess self-monitoring in women is characterized by self-esteem issues that arise with time. Besides, in postfeminism, individualism is dominant, and any woman who doesn’t practice individualism in society is portrayed as different from others. Women have issues making the right choices because they are forced to decide to fit in society based on the issues at hand. What is happening to women in postfeminism is the same act that happened in the prefeminism time, when they were sexually harassed and subjected to discrimination and stereotypes by the male gender, which seemed normal in society. The issue of stereotypes has become common among women in society, whereby the other gender publicly discriminates against the majority of these genders. However, they have to power to raise their voice against them based on what the society in the era of postfeminism has subjected them to. Women are devalued and, at the same time, disempowered. Most of the activities they engage in in the modern days are about individualism, where most have ended up suffering based on their path. This implies that postfeminism has contributed to the destruction of women, even though some claim that it is good. However, in reality, it harms the women and subjects the future generation of women to a higher risk. In the past, women’s body was valued and was covered as a sign of respect. Even the marketers and the adverts showed some respect. However, today it is the opposite; they are taken advantage of to make money. Women have volunteered to display their nakedness publicly in exchange for small incentives. However, in the end, what is destroyed is the reputation of the female gender. The people who have an idea of the effects of postfeminism on society and the female gender, in particular, will find a way to correct the issue before it worsens.
The film Facelifts portrayed the idea of postfeminism in women and the gender it possesses to this gender. This film about cosmetic surgery has a moral lesson for such actions in society. It reminds society that women are the victims of such actions that might fall into traps, and romantic acts emerge after one is obsessed with beauty. The story’s protagonist is Virginia, a woman obsessed with beauty. Virginia has self-esteem issues with her body and is willing to do anything to be beautiful based on her description of beauty. She is envious of other female beauty and wants to be like them. Her obsession with becoming beautiful is to overcome her current state, which she assumes is ugly. The obsessed protagonist goes to any length of using her pee to put in her face, enduring all the smell, for they believe it will tighten her skin, and this is a reflection of the sacrifices women in real life due as a result of postfeminism. They want to fit in at all costs, and the price they will pay is not a matter as long as they get what they want. This is the negative consequence of postfeminism; the women are willing to harm themselves, believing it will change them into what they desire.
Romance is another implication of postfeminism that has featured well in the film. Virginia portrays the act as the protagonist of the story. In this aspect, Virginia is influenced by Bernie, the neighbour, and she is ready to conduct the surgery to become beautiful like the person she admires. In her perception, he wants to get beautiful not for her benefit but to attract a romantic partner; she believes it is easier to get him after getting beautiful for him since men always get attracted to beautiful women. This aspect has reflected in the role of women in society. Since ancient times, women were believed to be tools of men, and therefore, they dressed and applied beautiful materials purposely to attract men. Virginia is willing to risk surgery to spend money on surgery to impress the men. This implies that women are the male gaze and act as a tool of attraction to men where. They have to be dressed and be beautiful to attract them. This takes us back to the days of slavery, and women’s manipulation, where their central role in society was to impress men, and every woman was trying their best to appear beautiful. Even though it was not the definition of beauty in postfeminism, it strongly links to modern-day women’s societal roles. However, what is happening today are the consequences of postfeminism in society.
Virginia has brought out the concept of women in society. What used to happen in the past is taking over today. Women seem not to have any value anymore. What they were empowered with in the old days seems impractical because they are not the tool of sex for men. Based on what Virginia is interested in the outside appearance, and she is ready to go the extra mile in doing anything to own the outside beauty to attract the male gender. However, this is all about last and infatuation, which is attracted to the outside nature of women. The main implication of postfeminism has destroyed women’s value in the past days before the 20th century. The definition of the beauty of the past has been erased. Most women look for artificial beauty to attract men, and at the end of the day, they serve as sexual objects that men are attracted to see. Modern beauty and cosmetic technology have contributed to subjecting women to slavery, where they believe they must be beautiful, even if going artificial to attract the opposite gender. Virginia has brought out the clear concept of the role of women in modern society. Moreso, most of them with artificial bodies are there to serve as the male gaze. This character of women has contributed to their being valued, and the men have lost respect for them. Postfeminism has disempowered women in society.
Women are the tools of manipulation and sexual abuse. Even though women are trying to be impressive to the male gender, however, they are treated contrary to their expectations. This is seen when Virginia is well dressed at his best he meets him. However, as the man shows up, he is not alone. He is with Cassie, a blonde lady whom they schooled with Virginia in the college. However, Cassie is younger than Virginia; she seems 20 years younger. Upon seeing this, Virginia gets jealous, and what’s to know more about him selecting a different person from her. Virginia realizes he has lost Bernie to Cassie, and she admires her body. She decides to discover the secret and notices that it is plastic surgery Cassie did, particularly by Dr Enid Perle. With too much obsession with beauty, Virginia decides to go for it. This is the implication of postfeminism, whereby beauty is no longer natural as it was perceived in the olden days. Rather, it has become a business where every woman who wants to attract a man goes for it with the hopes they will become younger. Nowadays, no woman wants to get older, and they are willing to artificialize their skin to look younger when they are older. This is the consequence of postfeminism because women are no longer empowered to believe in themselves and grow their confidence. Rather, the beauty issue with the available cosmetic technology has pushed many into artificial bodies.
The other aspect portrayed in the film is the idea of individual choices. In the film, the characters are free to do what they want, even if it has consequences in the future. In the case of Virginia, the protagonist wants to go for surgery and artificial beauty because of her low self-esteem. However, she should be ready for the consequences of her actions because weight loss is the consequence. This refers to postfeminism, which shows that a person can have choices. However, the consequences of their choices will affect them alone. In this way, women have fallen into the pitfalls of postfeminism. Another aspect that aligns with postfeminism is the desire for plastic surgery which promotes consumerism. Virginia is only interested in loving what she sees in the mirror, so she sells everything she has, the assets she owns, to pay for the surgery cost. She risks going into debt to get the surgery done. This is a clear act of consumerism that is connected to postfeminism. People must sacrifice their last hope of survival in exchange for beauty. No matter the cost of the surgery, Virginia was ready was, a must she consume it. The act, Virginia, implies the pressure she sees from the media and the advertisement of female images, which many women in the modern days have fallen into.
There is a price to pay for the modern beauty of the postfeminism era. Virginia, in the end, realizes that what she wanted is not what she got at the end, she is turned into a pig in the crowd of others, and she is converted into a sacrificial pig which other beautiful people are hunting to kill as a sacrifice for them to remain young and immortal as well as beautiful. Her choice has landed her into a pitfall, implying that every choice women make in postfeminism has a price to pay, and some have paid it bitterly with regrets (Martinussen et al., 2021). Also, it reminds us that some of the goods things women own have manipulated others to own them. Virginia, out of her obsession with beauty and risking everything, is manipulated and turned into a tool to benefit others. This reflects real life, whereby women who lack satisfaction have been exploited for their desperation to be abused. The postfeminism, most people are not willing to help. Rather, they are there for their selfish wants. Virginia wanted someone who could grow her self-esteem and gradually learn to appreciate her natural body. Instead, she landed into beasts who destroyed her life completely, and she realized when it was too late to return to her previous state. In postfeminism, women should be careful with their choices and the people they involve in their choice. Cassie didn’t open up to Virginia. Instead, she betrayed her selling her into destruction. The implication of individualism where women are not willing to support others. Rather, they choose to destroy those seeking help.
In real life, the idea of plastic surgery is everywhere in the media. People women, in particular, have sacrificed a lot in exchange for artificial beauty. In the era of postfeminism, people no longer believe in the idea of natural beauty. Rather, it is a competition for surgery. Even though it is expensive, however, those in demand of the product don’t see the expensive part of it. Rather, they compete to look beautiful and younger to attract men. Men have responded to artificial beauty by sexually misusing the female gender. This is the implication of postfeminism which has devalued and disempowered women. Plastic surgery is a painful process. However, women are still at risk for it. We see the evidence from Virginia, where she feels much pain after the process to the level the daughter steps in to help her eat and their daily household activities. Women in modern-day’s real life who goes for surgery have self-esteem issue and believe it’s the only surgery that can solve their issues. Some of these women, as a result of postfeminism, have developed depression as a result of self-esteem. Some have eating disorders, while others have suicidal thoughts because they are not ready to accept their natural being. Rather they want to redesign in a way that pleases them. One of the studies by Dutta (2021)holds that a lack of self-esteem in the media images has made many use filters to appear beautiful in the presence of their peers.
Characteristics of feminism
Postfeminism dominates the modern world and believes that gender equality has been achieved. There is no need for feminist activism to continue because the main goal has been achieved. Femininity is a bodily property preoccupied with the body, and a clear understanding of femininity as a bodily feature instead of based on the social, psychological and structural aspects. The human body is the source of power in terms of motherhood and sex appeal, and it is an unruly rule surface that should be managed. The main characteristics of postfeminism are sexualization of culture. This implies that femininity and girlhood are hypersexualized, and society sees them as normal. Another characteristic is it views women from sex objects to desiring sexual subjects. It has converted women from the sexual object they were into the desiring subject who decides to present themselves as an object to attain their main goal, such as engaging in sex with the male gender. The female repackages their desires purposely to please a man instead of themselves.
Individualism is another characteristic. Postfeminism views all issues about women as a personal choice. Women have been granted to choose how they want and what pleases them as individuals, for example, choosing beauty and what it takes to get it for the male gaze. However, some of the choices have led them into a pitfall. It also promotes self-monitoring and self-surveillance, and discipline. Females, in their nature, are entitled to work with certain standards of femininity, which has pushed them to do things that make them be of that standard. Some of them like keeping beautiful and smooth skin and satisfying a man whichever way he demands (Ferraz et al., .2022). Besides, the women also keep monitoring themselves to ensure they are perfect in beauty and weight. They are entitled to self-care, which means they should be disciplined in some areas. However, in reality, the women in postfeminism lives have lost respect and are responsible for working and restoring that respect. Besides, postfeminism believes that the sexual difference between the male and female gender was biology decision and, therefore, women are meant to be the object and the subject of the male gender, and society had promoted the act. Postfeminism contains irony and knowingness, where it represents sexism as the way of having it both ways, which implies what suffers most are the women because they are manipulated in any way as long as the male gender is satisfied with what they want from the female gender.
