ashi wrote: ↑Mon Apr 12, 2021 6:33 pm
I will start things with Gail Dines' "Neo-Liberalism and the Defanging of Feminism" from 2012, with the note that everything mentioned here has become significantly worse in the time since.
There's a lot of parts I agree with and a good few parts I disagree with, or at least would say that she's overreaching.
I guess overall I am not sure about the context of the talk. Like if it is intended to be an academic lecture, playing devil's advocate, I think that there are many parts that are problematic (anecdotal accounts, no references provided, too much pov presented in a matter-of-fact way). If it is intended to be a talk from an ideological perspective, it makes more sense.
I agree in large part from an ideological standpoint with neoliberalism, with the danger of individualism, with the problems of hegemony, with the importance of collective agency and looking out for the most vulnerable, etc. I also agree that some of the examples she gave from third wave feminism are batshit crazy.
I think she is being disingenuous or naive in other parts. She seems to relate fandom of 50 Shades of Gray as something that stems from ideology, permitted by Third Wave Feminism, for example. My sister went to the premiere of the movie with some of our cousins. The Third Wave Feminism washed up some distance before the hilly regions of the West of Ireland from which my family is from. She rebukes an account from a woman working in the porn industry via a superficial and pretentious reference to Marx (though I guess she sort of has a point about neglecting the vulnerable). She quotes some horrible anecdotes from the porn industry for impact, but one could do something similar for any social activity, like talking about people who were decapitated while driving cars (not to equate the two, but just to say that the anecdotal form of argument is poor).
This is not to say that she is incorrect, and for sure the porn industry is fucked up in many ways ... just the manner and certainty with which she portrays certain viewpoints are not academically sound in my opinion, and immediately switch me into devil's advocate mode. If the talk is intended to be ideological, then more power to her.