Journal
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CULTURAL STUDIES
Volume 26, Issue 6, Pages 822-839Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/13675494221136617
Keywords
Authentic self; authenticity; popular culture; post-feminism; women's magazines
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This article examines discourses of authenticity embedded in European popular culture based on an empirical study of British and Greek women's magazines. The analysis suggests that these discourses contain contradictory elements, emphasizing women's agency and self-acceptance while silencing societal barriers.
This article examines discourses of authenticity embedded in European popular culture based on an empirical study of British and Greek women's magazines. After a quantitative content analysis of 575 articles published in Greek and British editions of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire during 2012-2016, we conducted a qualitative repertoire analysis of 80 articles and identified a shared discursive repertoire, that of women's 'authentic self'. Our analysis suggests that discourses of authenticity in women's magazines contain contradictory elements. First, they are characterised by a 'can do' philosophy, an emphasis on 'body-positivity', 'self-acceptance' and self-help advice, which suggests women's agency as well as a normalisation of postfeminist gender anxieties. Second, the discourses encourage women to accept their bodies, 'internal selves' and current circumstances through self-monitoring and self-surveillance, while silencing societal barriers that form obstacles to achieving 'an authentic self'. These authenticity discourses rely on a triple entanglement of notions derived from third-wave feminism, post-feminism and neoliberal discourse.
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