Confidence Culture by Shani Orgad

Confidence Culture by Shani Orgad

In Confidence Culture, Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue that imperatives directed at women to “love your body” and “believe in yourself” imply that psychological blocks rather than entrenched social injustices hold women back. Interrogating the prominence of confidence in contemporary discourse about body image, workplace, relationships, motherhood, and international development, Orgad and Gill draw on Foucault’s notion of technologies of self to demonstrate how “confidence culture” demands of women near-constant introspection and vigilance in the service of self-improvement. They argue that while confidence messaging may feel good, it does not address structural and systemic oppression. Rather, confidence culture suggests that women-along with people of color, the disabled, and other marginalized groups-are responsible for their own conditions. Rejecting confidence culture’s remaking of feminism along individualistic and neoliberal lines, Orgad and Gill explore alternative articulations of feminism that go beyond the confidence imperative.

“Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill’s brilliant study of the intersections within and between ‘confidence culture’ and neoliberal capitalism makes a vital contribution to how we think about gender, the body, and mediaComplicating analyses on both the media representation and the user applications of the contemporary confidence movement, this crucially important book will appeal to media studies, American studies, and feminist scholars as well as a wide public audience.” -- Sarah Banet-Weiser, author of * Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny *
"Recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals." -- M. M. Ferree * Choice *
"Confidence Culture offers critical feminist insight into the conditions shaping our existence, experiences and our feelings. . . . An absolute necessity for scholars of gender, media studies, sociology and other interdisciplinary areas." -- Ipsita Pradhan * LSE Review of Books *

Shani Orgad is Professor of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science and author of Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality.

Rosalind Gill is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at City, University of London, and author of Gender and the Media.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781478017608
ISBN 10	1478017600
Title	Confidence Culture
Author	Shani Orgad
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Duke University Press
Year published	2022-02-09
Number of pages	256
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.