First thing’s first, men should read this book. And men who read Progress should definitely read this book. Because it is intensely political, while hardly mentioning politics or politicians. It is a book about modern patriarchy but also about modern capitalism. It is a book written by two women in their twenties, who represent a generation that is unrepresented in mainstream politics and statistically the least likely to vote. It is a critique of the media, of society and of power but it is funny and edgy and really does not take itself too seriously. Oh, and there is lots and lots of swearing!
There are occasional casual generalisations about ‘the media’ but these are dwarfed by the myriad specific examples, often from the last two or three years, of real headline and actual features in women’s magazines. For me, the most significant sections are the parts where the authors really get their teeth into the economic forces driving the patriarchal, patronising and, at times, misogynistic tendencies in women’s magazines. Not to mention the parts where they offer what we would call a blue Labour critique of an economy that ‘no longer works for working people’.
‘Capitalism,’ they say, ‘has never looked kindly on its underlings, and unfortunately, that’s what women still are.’ Although not expressed in these terms, their most powerful and interesting critique of women’s magazines (and their websites) is their function in an advanced capitalist society. It’s almost a neo-Gramscian study of hegemony in our digital age. Seriously. ‘Despite our increased ability to work from home thanks to new technology,’ they argue, ‘flexible working hours remain as fantastical as the Diet Coke guy.’ Perhaps the 21st century laptop/tablet/smartphone offers an even more efficient repression and commodification, with the illusion of liberation, than the advent of the washing machine for the 1950s housewife.
But the Vagendists are not ‘right on’. They are not ’politically correct’. Nor are they ‘angry feminists’. Their fourth wave feminist argument is that ‘if you want equality, it has to be equality in all respects.’ But, along with traditionalist sexism, they also take aim at the lad (and, by extension, ladette) culture of the 1990s and the ‘capitalist feminism’ of the 1980s. The authors offer a precise snapshot of the cultural zeitgeist and their book might (and should) end up on the reading lists of the university courses of the future because of the way it captures a hidden spirit of our age.
One of the few politicians who does get a mention is Louise Mensch, for her advocacy of ‘rightwing feminist’ seeking ‘financial equality … through selfish individualism’. ‘There’s no point breaking through the glass ceiling if you’re going to pull up the ladder after you,’ they say. And Facebook chief executive Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In book is rightly critiqued for the way that ‘the presence of a supportive male spouse and an expensive education’ are the prerequisites for ‘having it all.’
There is no doubt that this is a socialist, even Marxist, feminist book but the authors are not revolutionary, they are reformers. They love magazines, while hating a lot of what is written in them. They love shopping, while hating the inter-relationship between advertising and editorial. They hate inequality but they are not seeking to limit women’s, or men’s, choices. They are progressives. But they might never think of writing for Progress.
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Richard Darlington is the author of Through the Looking Glass, a Demos report on teenage girls’ self-esteem
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The Vagenda: a zero tolerance guide to the media
Rhiannon Lucy Coslett and Holly Baxter
Random House | 304pp | £12.99