Feminism, Cultural Studies and the 'Great Moving Right Show'

Event outline

This lecture by Emeritus Professor Angela McRobbie follows a Stuart Hall-inspired pathway through a feminist sociological lens to reflect on how women as a demographic and gender as a category have played a role in, first, the neoliberal project of the New Labour years, and then in the recent 'swing to the right'.

The lecture will be in four parts. First, we will consider young women's role in the early 2000s push for meritocracy as a post-feminist programme analysed through a focus on figurations of femininity.

Then, attention will focus on the recent "Tradwife" (traditional wife) and its political valency as white supremacy maternal nationalism.

In the last two sections, Hall's writing will be brought into conversation with the recent debate on right wing sovereignty (Davies 2021). Finally, there will be some resources for challenge and contestation in the kind of open pedagogy embodied by Hall and with a feminist inflection.