Postfeminism and Purity Culture: Examining the Coverage of Female Musicians in the 2000s American Music Press

Postfeminism and Purity Culture: Examining the Coverage of Female Musicians in the 2000s American Music Press

Gabbi Santeiro (M.A. Journalism student). “Postfeminism and Purity Culture: Examining the Coverage of Female Musicians in the 2000s American Music Press,” abstract accepted for presentation by the Commission on the Status of Women for the AEJMC Southeast Colloquium in Tampa, FL, March 12-14. Abstract: The public response to 2021’s Framing Britney Spears documentary demonstrated that the 2000s-era popular culture was steeped in post-feminist rhetoric and mixed messages about purity. Women were told they finally had rights, and that they had no business fighting. Meanwhile, the media placed pressure on women to conform to the paradoxical standards of tabloid hedonism and purity culture. This study will apply the framework of symbolic annihilation — or the media's trivialization and malignment of women — to the 2000s music press. It will examine the American political and media landscape of the decade, informing its textual analysis of the treatment of female musicians by accredited music publications in the 2000s.

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