Mediating Post-Socialist Femininities

This book examines how popular media re-constructs ideas and ideals of femininity in the post-socialist cultural space. The authors explore how post-socialist women have engaged with media as media producers and consumers, as well as objects of media representation, and what the consequences are of the commodification of femininity in the post-socialist context. This book highlights the need to reconsider feminism as a political and theoretical project with many faces, bridging research on the mediation of post-socialist femininities with broader concerns about the transnational trajectories of feminism today. It was originally published as a special issue of Feminist Media Studies.

Twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this collection of essays examines the ways in which popular media re-construct ideas and ideals of femininity in the post-socialist cultural space. The authors explore a comprehensive range of questions including: How have post-socialist women engaged with media as media producers and consumers, as well as objects of media representation? What are the consequences of the commodification of femininity in the post-socialist context? How does the female body serve as a battleground for the enactment and renegotiation of gendered identities and ideologies? How can we understand and theorize post-socialist women’s activist movements?

In seeking answers to such questions, this volume highlights the need to reconsider feminism as a political and theoretical project with many faces. It bridges research on the mediation of post-socialist femininities with broader concerns about the transnational trajectories of feminism today.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Feminist Media Studies.