ABSTRACT
Leigh Goldstein and Meenasarani Linde Murugan read the Hulu series Little Fires Everywhere arguing that in it, feminism is defined as white women’s exploitation of women of color. Among the trenchant questions they pose are: what does Hollywood’s disarticulation of advocacy for women from the label “feminist” enable? And what does it impede or inhibit? In their analysis of the series’ racial politics, its relatedness to prior television hits such as Big Little Lies and its association with female celebrity cultural producers (notably Reese Witherspoon), they discern an ameliorative project, one which celebrates the idea of female success without acknowledging the histories of struggle that made such success possible.
