Working Women on Screen: Paid Labour and Fourth Wave Feminism

Acknowledgements
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
1 Introduction: Work it, Girl!
	Introduction
	Fourth Wave Feminism
	Technology and Digital Activism
	Gendered Divisions of Labour
	Introducing the Chapters
	References
Part I Aesthetic Labour
2 “The Person Inside has Experienced the Most Change…”: The Labour of Fitness, Positivity and Narratives of Suffering
	Introduction
	Let Me Work It!
	Body Positivity and Self-Love
	Past, Present, Future Happy
	Branding Intimate Life
	Conclusion
	References
3 Selling Sunset… and My Postfeminist Sexual Capital: New Sexual Subjectivities in Reality TV
	Introduction
	Sex, Sexualisation and Postfeminism
	Sexual Capital in Neoliberal Times
	Chrishell Stause: Working Towards Feminine Respectability
	Christine Quinn: Working Towards Hypersexual Femininity
	Conclusion: Selling Sunset’s Postfeminist Sexual Capital
	References
4 “Millennial Dumplings” at Work: Women’s Emotional and Aesthetic Navigation of Creative Workplaces in US Comedy Drama Series Shrill and Mythic Quest
	Introduction
	The Cultural and Creative Industries: Informality, Individuality, and Insecurity
	Shrill: Embodied Experiences of Creative Work
	Mythic Quest—Playing the Gendered Labour Game
	Conclusion
	References
5 Making Nüzhubo: Commodified Intimacy and Gendered Labour in Chinese Live/Life Streaming
	Introduction
	The Work of Nüzhubo: From Camming to Creating Intimacy
	The Gendered Forms of Labour in Digital Media Cultures and Economies
	Stylised Looks and Normalised Filters
	Live/Life Streaming’s “Gift” Economy
	Mediating Intimacy at Scale
	Conclusion
	References
Part II Power, Politics and Neoliberal Industries
6 Recuperating Women’s Care Work in 2010s Television Fictions of Nurses and Nursing in the Neoliberal NHS
	Introduction
	The Form Will Get Filled in, but the Shit Will Stay on the Chair: Getting On and the Absurdities of Nursing as Care Work in the Neoliberal NHS
	Trust Me… I’m an NHS Whistleblower
	Conclusion
	References
7 “I Am the Highest Paid Showrunner in Television!” Shonda Rhimes’ Work and Influence in the Media Industry
	Introduction
	Black and Intersectional Feminism
	Methodology
	Discussion: Induction Into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, 2017
	Discussion: ELLE's Women in Hollywood Acceptance Speech, 2018
	Conclusion
	References
8 Who’s in Control?: Negotiating Hierarchies, Neoliberal Subjectivation, and Feminist Resistance in the World of Work
	Introduction
	Women in Video Games
	Methodology
	Analysis
		Hierarchies and Roles
	Neoliberal Subjectivation
	Narrative vs. Ludic and Feminist vs. Neoliberal Tensions
	Conclusion
	References
9 “You Deserve to Be Satisfied”: Women in Tech and the Affective Reconfiguration of the Workplace Through Song in Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
	Introduction
	A Brogrammers’ World: The Masculine Culture of the Technology Industries
	The Work of Confidence and the Affective Reconfiguration of the Workplace
	Empowering Female Friendships in the Workplace
	Conclusion
	References
10 “I Took a Dump on the Glass Ceiling”: Veep, Incompetence, and Populist Political Culture
	Introduction
	US Televisual Heroines in Post/Feminist Media Culture
	Incompetence as Gender Stereotype of Women at Work
	Selina Meyer’s Ideological Vacuum
	Feminism as a Marker of Workplace Competence
	Populism, Gender, and Political Culture
	Conclusion
	References
Part III Sex, Sexuality, and Relationships
11 The Maternal Gaze: The Labour of Mothering in Tully
	Introduction
	“Imperfect” Femininity and Mothering and the Failure of Heterosexuality
	Paid Meets Unpaid Caring: The Queer Dream Team
	Doubling, Unravelling, and the Maternal Gaze
	Conclusion
	References
12 A Quest for Autonomy: Work and Personal Fulfilment in the Japanese Film 37 Seconds
	Introduction
	Stage One: Depending on the Employer’s Goodwill
	A Quest to Live as an Independent Worker
	Conclusion
	References
13 Representing Sex Workers: The Experiences of Shae, Ros and Daisy in Game of Thrones (2011–2019)
	Introduction
	Legitimate Labour: Precarity and Intersectionality
	Exploiting the Sex Worker
	The Sex Worker on the Margins
	Conclusion
	References
14 Work It, Robot! Exploring Forced Choices of Femininity in I’m Your Man [Ich bin dein Mensch] (Maria Schrader, Germany, 2021)
	Introduction
	Setting the Scene
	Precarious Bodies and “Porous” Boundaries
	The In-Between: De-Monstrative Realms
	Alma and the Neoliberal Market
	Final Thoughts
	References
Index