Due to a cancellation, we are seeking a presenter for the following panel: „Popfeminism, Postfeminism, and Genderfuck: Redefining Feminist and Queer Cultures for Contemporary Germany“

GSA October 8-11, 2009, Washington, DC

In a 2008 article for the online edition of Die Zeit, Chris Köver proclaimed the “Frauenfrage” is back, posing urgent questions for a new generation of feminists. Conceived as a backlash to the anti- feminism of the demographic debate and to postfeminism as well as a response to the persisting image of Alice Schwarzer as sole icon of German feminism, popfeminism utilizes the symbols of pop culture in order to create its own critical subculture, defined, not constrained, by gender. In this manner, previously autonomous feminist cultures (queer activism) and traditionally anti-feminist topics (pornography) are included under the larger umbrella of hybrid feminist cultures. Already in their titles, popfeminist texts such as Wir Alpha-Mädchen, Hot Topic, and Das F-Wort published between 2006 and 2008 articulate vulgarity integral to the movement. Taking cues from the US Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s, this brand of feminism recodes the internationalism of pop in a manner that intends the redefinition of gender and Germanness; it thus utlilizes the experiences found in a specifically German urban culture to speak to Neue Deutsche Mädchen (Hensel).

This panel examines the remodeling of German femininities for contemporary political and cultural realities in a unified and internationalized Germany as expressed by both the anti-feminist and postfeminist debates as well as the resurgence of a new feminism organized around the concept of politicized pop. It will also explore the manner in which these models emerge in literature, film, zines, music or other cultural artifacts – or indeed the manner in which these cultural artifacts inform the reception of such femininities by the public and in the media.

Topics could include but are not limited to:

• popular culture, film, music, zines, and other politicized „girl“ cultures
• the Fraeuleinwunder and interrogating gender specificity in literary generic categories
• revisioning feminist and queer methodologies
• relationships between feminist, postfeminism, and queer theory
• the resurgence of Pop-feminism and its relationship to the Riot Grrrl models/legacies
• redefinitions of queer femininities
• complicating and negotiating notions of German nationality, Germany/ies,
• and/or Germanness in conjunction with gender hybridities

Please submit 150-200 word abstracts to both organizers by Feb. 7: Carrie Smith-Prei (carrie.smith-prei#ualberta.ca) and Faye Stewart (fayestewart#gsu.edu).

Source: FEMALE-L@JKU.AT