ABSTRACT
These are certainly interesting times for feminism and feminists. For many years, negative stories dominated the public discourse about feminism; self-identifying as a feminist was inconceivable for many women. However, this chapter argues that the new discourse and representation of feminism has a strong affinity with postfeminism, challenging core feminist traditions of collective and political action against gender inequality. Postfeminism has supported the selective take-up and restrained implementation of the feminist values of choice, empowerment and agency. The chapter argues that the discursive phenomenon of postfeminism challenges the two core traditions of feminism: the traditions of collective and political action. The positive response to changes in gender identities is based on the supposition that gender and gendered practices are characterised by fluidity. Gender is presented as a fundamental organising principle in all spheres of social life meaning that all social relations in patriarchal society are structured by hierarchical differences between women and men.
