White anger, Black anger: The politics of female rage in Little Fires Everywhere (HULU, 2020)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12795/IC.2022.I19.14Keywords:
Female rage, Popular culture, Little Fires Everywhere, race, intersectionalityAbstract
This article examines the TV show Little Fires Everywhere through the operationalisation of the concept of “anger competence” (Chemaly, 2018). The interest in the series lies in its representation of female rage. We contend that its narrative approach both legitimizes its expression and unravels the structures and practices of subject(ificat)ion through the axis of class and race. To prove it, we tackle the construction of the enraged subject, what the mediatization unfolds and its effects.
References
Adamson, Maria (2016). Postfeminism, neoliberalism and a ‘successfully’ balanced femininity in celebrity CEO autobiographies. Gender, Work and Organization, 24, 314-327. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12167
Ahmed, Sara (2004). The cultural politics of emotion. University of Edinburgh Press.
Ahmed, Sara (2010a). The Promise of Happiness. Duke University Press.
Ahmed, Sara (2010b). Killing Joy: Feminism and the History of Happiness. Signs, 35(3), 571–594. https://doi.org/10.1086/648513
Ally, Shireen (2015). Domesti-City. Colonial anxieties and postcolonial fantasies in the figure of the maid. In V. K. Haskins & C. Lowrie (Eds.), Colonization and domestic service: Historical and contemporary perspectives (pp. 45-62). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Anwaruddin, Sardar M. (2016). Why critical literacy should turn to ‘the affective turn’: making a case for critical affective literacy. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 37(3), 381-396. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2015.1042429
Banet-Weiser, Sarah (2018). Empowered: Popular feminism and popular misogyny. Duke University Press.
Banet-Weiser, Sarah; Gill, Rosalind & Rottenberg, Catherine (2020). Postfeminism, popular feminism and neoliberal feminism? Sarah Banet-Weiser, Rosalind Gill and Catherine Rottenberg in conversation. Feminist Theory, 21(1), 3-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464700119842555
Barker, Martin (2011). A ‘Toxic Genre’: The Iraq War Films. Pluto Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt183p980
Bracke, Sarah (2016). Bouncing Back. Vulnerability and Resistance in Times of Resilience. In J. Butler, Z. Gambetti & L. Sabsay (Eds.), Vulnerability in Resistance (pp. 52-75). Durham & London: Duke University Press [eBook].
Butler, Judith (2004). Precarious life: The powers of mourning and violence. Verso.
- (2010a). Frames of war: When is life grievable? Verso.
- (2010b). Performative Agency. Journal of Cultural Economy, 3(2),147-161. https://doi.org/10.1080/17530350.2010.494117
Cabanas, Edgar & Illouz, Eva (2018). Happycracia. Cómo la ciencia y la industria de la felicidad controlan nuestras vidas. Paidós.
Castel, Robert (1997). La metamorfosis de la cuestión social. Paidós.
Chemaly, Soraya (2018). Rage becomes Her. The Power of Women’s Anger. Atria.
Clough, Patricia Ticineto & Halley, Jean (Eds.) (2007). The affective turn: Theorizing the social. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822389606
Cooper, Brittney (2018) Eloquent Rage. A Black Feminist Discovers Her Super Powers. [Audible] New York: Picador.
Davis, Angela Y. (1981) Women, Race, and Class. New York: Random House.
Dobson, Amy Shields & Kanai, Akane (2019). From ‘can-do’ girls to insecure and angry: affective dissonances in young women’s post-recessional media. Feminist Media Studies, 19(6), 771-786. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2018.1546206
Favaro, L. & Gill, R. (2019) ‘Pump Up the Positivity’: Neoliberalism, affective entrepreneurship and the victimhood/agency debate. In Re-writing Women as Victims: From Theory to Practice, edited by M.J. Gámez Fuentes, S. Núñez Puente and E. Gómez Nicolau. Routledge.
Fischer, Agneta H. (2000). Gender and Emotion. Social Psychological Perspectives.Cambridge University Press. https://www.cambridge.org/es/academic/subjects/psychology/social-psychology/gender-and-emotion-social-psychological-perspectives?format=PB
Foucault, Michel (1999). Vigilar y castigar. Nacimiento de la prisión. Siglo XXI.
Gámez Fuentes, María José (2021). Breaking the logic of neoliberal victimhood: Vulnerability, interdependence and memory in Captain Marvel (Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, 2019). European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(1), 94-106. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420985839
Gámez Fuentes, María José & Maseda García, Rebeca (2020). Transformando la victimización de las mujeres y la responsabilidad ante la violencia de género en “The Fall” y “Big Little Lies”. In Mónica Moreno (Coord). Activistas, creadoras y transgresoras: Disidencias y representaciones (pp. 221-242). Dykinson.
Gessen, Masha (2020, February 9) Judith Butler wants us to reshape our rage. The New Yorker, 9 February. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/judith-butler-wants-us-to-reshape-our-rage
Gill, Rosalind & Donaghue, Ngaire (2013). As if Postfeminism Had Come True: The Turn to Agency in Cultural Studies of ‘Sexualisation’. In Sumi Madhok, Anne Phillips & Kalpana (Eds.) Gender, Agency, and Coercion. Thinking Gender in Transnational Times. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137295613_14
Gill, Rosalind, & Kanai, Akane (2018). Mediating Neoliberal Capitalism: Affect, Subjectivity and Inequality. Journal of Communication, 68(2), 318-326. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy002
Gill, Rosalind (2017). The affective, cultural and psychic life of postfeminism: A postfeminist sensibility 10 years on. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6), 606-626. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549417733003
Gill, Rosalind & Orgad, Shani (2015). The confidence cult(ure). Australian Feminist Studies, 30(86), 324-344.https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2016.1148001
Gill, Rosalind (2007). Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 147-166. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549407075898
Gray, Herman (2013). Race, Media, and the Cultivation of Concern. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, 10(2-3), 253-258. https://doi.org/10.1080/14791420.2013.821641
Gregg, Melissa & Seigworth, Gregory J. (Eds.) (2010). The Affect Theory Reader. Duke University Press. https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-affect-theory-reader
Ging, Debbie (2019) “Alphas, Betas, and Incels: Theorizing the Masculinities of the Manosphere,” Men and Masculinities, 22(4), pp. 638–657. doi: 10.1177/1097184X17706401.
Guerrero, L. (2016). Can I Live? Contemporary Black Satire and the State of Postmodern Double Consciousness. Studies in American Humor 2, 266–79. https://doi.org/10.5325/studamerhumor.2.2.0266
Halberstam, Judith (1993). Imagined Violence/Queer Violence: Representation, Rage, and Resistance. Social Text, 37,187-20. https://www.jstor.org/stable/466268?seq=1
Hill Collins, Patricia (1990). Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Perspectives on Gender). Routledge.
Hipfl, Brigitte (2018). Affect in Media and Communication Studies: Potentials and Assemblages. Media and Communication, 6(3), 5-14. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v6i3.1470
Hochschild, Arlie Russell (2003/1983). The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Human Feeling. University of California Press. https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520272941/the-managed-heart (Original work published 1920)
Kanai, Akane (2019). On not taking the self seriously: Resilience, relatability and humour in young women’s Tumblr blogs. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 22(1), 60-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549417722092
Kay, Jilly Boyce (2019). Introduction: anger, media, and feminism: the gender politics of mediated rage. Feminist Media Studies, 19(4), 591-615. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1609197
Kay, Jilly Boyce & Banet-Weiser, Sarah (2019). Feminist anger and feminist respair. Feminist Media Studies, 19 (4),603-609. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1609231
Kennedy, Gwynee & Freeh, John (2002). Just Anger: Representing Women’s Anger in Early Modern England. In Ingrid Kasten, Gesa Stedman & Margarete Zimmermann (Eds). Querelles: Jahrbuch für Frauenforschung. J.B. Metzler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-02869-3_18
Kimmel, Michael (2017) Angry White Men, 2nd Edition: American Masculinity at the End of an Era. New York: Nation Books.
Lessage, Julia (1988). Women’s rage. In Cary Nelson & Lawrence Grossberg, Marxism and the interpretation of culture (pp. 419-428). University of Illinois Press.
Littler, Jo (2017) Against meritocracy. Taylor & Francis. Available at: http://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/25903/1/1004179.pdf
Litosseliti, Lia, Gill, Rosalind & García-Favaro, Laura (2019). Postfeminism as a critical tool for gender and language study. Gender and Language, 13(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.34599
Lorde, Audre (1981) The uses of anger. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 9(3), 7-10. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40003905
Manne, Kate (2018, September 26). Brett Kavanaugh and America’s “Himpathy” Reckoning. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/26/opinion/brett-kavanaugh-hearing-himpathy.html
Martínez, María (2019). Identidades en proceso. Una propuesta a partir del análisis de las movilizaciones feministas contemporáneas. CIS.
McRobbie, Angela (2020). Feminism and the politics of resilience: Essays on gender, media and the end of welfare. Polity Press, 2020. https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Feminism+and+the+Politics+of+Resilience:+Essays+on+Gender,+Media+and+the+End+of+Welfare-p-9781509525072
McRobbie Angela (2009). The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. Sage. https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/the-aftermath-of-feminism/book211463
McRobbie, Angela (2015). Notes on the Perfect. Australian Feminist Studies, 30(83), 3-20.
Orgad, Shani & Gill, Rosalind (2019). Safety valves for mediated female rage in the #MeToo era. Feminist Media Studies, 19(4), 596-603. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1609198
Phipps, Alison (2021). White tears, white rage: Victimhood and (as) violence in mainstream feminism. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 24(1), 81-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549420985852
Rottenberg, Catherine (2014). The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism. Cultural Studies 28(3), 418-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361
Rottenberg, Catherine (2019). Women Who Work: The limits of the neoliberal feminist paradigm. Gender, Work & Organization, 26(8), 1073-1082. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12287
Springer, Kimberly (2007). Divas, Evil Black Bitches, and American Women in Postfeminist and Post-Civil-Rights popular culture. In Yvonne Tasker & Diane Negra (Eds.), Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture (pp. 249-77). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822390411-012
Srinivasan, Amia (2018). The Aptness of Anger. The Journal of Political Philosophy, 26(2), 123-144. https://doi.org/10.1111/jopp.12130
Tillery Jr., Alvin B. (2019) What Kind of Movement is Black Lives Matter? The View from Twitter. The Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, 4, 297–323
Traister, Rebecca (2018). Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger. Simon & Schuster.
White, Rosie (2013). Women are Angry! Feminist Media Studies, 13(3), 415-426. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2011.651732
Williams, Raymond (1978). Marxism and Literature. Oxford University Press.
Wood, Helen (2019). Fuck the patriarchy: towards an intersectional politics of irreverent rage. Feminist Media Studies, 19(4), 609-615. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2019.1609232
Yarrow, Allison (2018). 90s bitch: Media, culture, and the failed promise of gender equality. Harper Perennial.