Abstract
In this paper, we analyse the website TubeCrush, where people post and share unsolicited photographs of “guy candy” on the London Underground. We use TubeCrush as a case study to develop Berlant’s intimate publics as lens for examining postfeminist sensibility and masculinity in the liminal space between home/work. The paper responds to notions of reverse sexism and post-sexism used to make sense of women’s apparent objectification of men in digital space, by asking instead where the value of such images lies. We suggest that in TubeCrush, value is directed onto the bodies of particular men, creating a visual economy of postfeminist masculinity of whiteness, physical strength and economic wealth. This celebration of masculine capital is done through humour and the knowing wink, but the outcome is a reaffirmation of urban hegemonic masculinity.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 996-1011 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Feminist Media Studies |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 23 Aug 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2 Nov 2018 |
Bibliographical note
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Feminist Media Studies on 23/08/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14680777.2017.1367701Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.
Keywords
- postfeminist sensibility
- masculinity
- intimate publics
- gender normativity
- TubeCrush
