Confidence Culture (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781478017608)

In Confidence Culture, Shani Orgad and Rosalind Gill argue that imperatives directed at women to "love your body" and "believe in yourself" imply that psychological blocks rather than entrenched social injustices hold women back. Interrogating the prominence of confidence in contemporary discourse about body image, workplace, relationships, motherhood, and international development, Orgad and Gill draw on Foucault's notion of technologies of self to demonstrate how "confidence culture" demands of women near-constant introspection and vigilance in the service of self-improvement. They argue that while confidence messaging may feel good, it does not address structural and systemic oppression. Rather, confidence culture suggests that women--along with people of color, the disabled, and other marginalized groups--are responsible for their own conditions. Rejecting confidence culture's remaking of feminism along individualistic and neoliberal lines, Orgad and Gill explore alternative articulations of feminism that go beyond the confidence imperative.

Author: Shani Orgad, Rosalind Gill
ISBN-10: 1478017600
ISBN-13: 9781478017608
Publisher: Duke University Press
Language: English
Published: 02/09/2022
Pages: 256
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.76lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.53d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 12/01/2022