Postfeminism and Health Critical psychology and media perspectives [Paperback]

This groundbreaking book employs a transdisciplinary and poststructuralist methodology to develop the concept of postfeminist healthism, a twenty-first-century understanding of womens physical and mental health formed at the intersections of postfeminist sensibilities, neoliberal constructs of citizenship and the notion of health as an individual responsibility managed through consumption. Postfeminist healthism is used in this book to explore seven topics where postfeminist sensibility has the most impact on womens health: self-help, weight, surgical technologies, sex, pregnancy, responsibilities for others health and pro-anorexia communities. The book explores the ways in which the desire to be normal and live a good life is tied to expectations of normal-perfection circulated across interpersonal interactions, media representations and expert discourses. It diagnoses postfeminist healthism as unhealthy for both those women who participate in it and those whom it excludes and considers how more positive directions may emerge.

By exploring the under-researched intersection of postfeminism and health studies, this book will be invaluable to researchers and students in psychology, gender and womens studies, health research, media studies and sociology.

Series Editor Preface

Prologue

1. Self-Help

2. Weight

3. Technologies

4. Sex

5. Pregnancy

6. Intimate Responsibilities

7. Pro-Ana

Epilogue

In this brilliant and original book Riley, Evans and Robson introduce the concept of postfeminist healthism  a set of ideas that shape our thinking about everything from weight to sex to pregnancy and pro-Ana. With vivid and up-to-date examples, the authors launch a new research agenda, outline a novel critical perspective, and outline a set of ideas that look set to shape health studies for years to come. Thisló,