This book examines the representation of the single woman in contemporary popular culture from the UK, US, and Europe, and places it in juxtaposition to the experience and self-narratives of single femininity in everyday life. Through interviews with 25 women living in London and analyses of eight cross-genre media texts across the US, UK, and Europe, Kate R. Gilchrist illuminates where women''s experiences draw on or converge with representations of single women and where their narratives resist and rework such ideas. Gilchrist interrogates the representation of the ''successful'' single woman in media, who is portrayed as free, autonomous, and independent, yet whose only path to success paradoxically relies upon intensive self-regulation and self-transformation. When the single woman fails to do so, she is subject to painful processes of silencing, invisibility, and incoherence, reinforcing the notion of the ''ideal'' femininity as a coupled one. Building on existing research that has largely centered on North American-based contexts, Gilchrist also considers how these discourses manifest intersectionally across age, class, and regional groups to achieve a fuller understanding of how experiences of singledom are shaped by external factors. Ultimately, this book significantly expands upon and complicates our theorizations of the relationship between cultural representations and gendered subjectivity formation in a postfeminist cultural context.

Autorentext

Kate R. Gilchristis Lecturer in Digital Media at University College London's Department of Culture, Communication and Media, UK. She completed her PhD in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics in 2021. As well as publications based on her thesis, and representations of female desire in popular culture, Kate has also co-published on topics ranging from menopause, media and the workplace, to inequalities in the gig economy. She was previously a Postdoctoral Researcher at Goldsmiths, University of London, and a Lecturer in Gender at the University of Lincoln. She has also taught at the London School of Economics and King's College London.

Klappentext

In Fantasies of Singledom, Kate R. Gilchrist examines how the representation of the single woman manifests itself in contemporary popular culture across the United Kingdom, the United States, and Europe, placing this image in juxtaposition to the lived experiences and self-narratives of single femininity in everyday life. Gilchrist skillfully brings these two conceptualizations of feminine singlehood into conversation with one another by incorporating in-depth interviews with twenty-five women living in London alongside critical analyses of eight cross-genre media texts which foreground single women. In doing so, she illuminates not only the ways in which women's experiences draw on or converge with media representations, but also where their narratives resist or rework such ideas, interrogating recurring themes of success, transformation, autonomy, silencing, invisibility, and-perhaps most prominently-the notion of the "ideal" femininity being a coupled one. Building on research that has largely centered on North American contexts until now, Gilchrist also considers how these discourses manifest intersectionally across age, class, and regional demographics, demonstrating the necessity of a multi-faceted approach in achieving a fuller understanding of how experiences of singledom are shaped by external factors. Ultimately, Fantasies of Singledom significantly expands upon and complicates existing theorizations of the relationship between cultural representation and gendered subjectivity formation in postfeminist cultural contexts.

Inhalt

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements

Introduction: The Rise in Single Women and the Cultural Figure of the Single Woman

1. Fantasies of Freedom: Independence and the 'Successful' Single Subject
2. The Self-Surveilling Subject: Finding, Regulating, and Transforming the Single Self
3. The 'Failed' Single Subject: (Re)negotiating the Boundaries of Feminine Subjectivity
   Conclusion: Postfeminist and Post-Pandemic Re-imaginings

Appendix 1
Methodology
Appendix 2
Demographics of Interviewees and Interview Locations
Appendix 3
*Media Texts

Bibliography
About the Author
Index*