by Belinda Smith
Feminism has come a long way. But how far has it really come? Patriarchal structures still exist and are yet to be completely vanquished. However, there may have been some victories achieved in the last few decades that warrant debates around the vexed post-feminist agenda.
Simidele Dosekun cleverly utilises beauty politics as a direct organising principle of thought on the navigations, negotiations, and cultivations of ver- sions of feminism that women in Nigeria engage to traverse patriarchal and deeply-rooted cultural norms.The author describes the fashioning of the study participants as being “spectacularly feminine” (1), which is characterised by long expensive hair extensions, exaggerated makeup, false lashes, manicured nails, designer clothes, and accessories. Further, the author shows how post-feminist discourse is transnationalised and that women in the Global South are active partakers.
The book delves into the lives of 18 women of privilege and class to reveal how women of Nigeria, particularly in Lagos, view themselves as feminists using transnational fashion style to demonstrate the mindset and situation of post-femininity in Nigeria. The central question advanced by the author is to ascertain what kinds of women are made from these performative acts of hyperfeminine artifice and how the women in turn perceive themselves.Through her interviews, she explores the disparity between external perceptions of these women and their internal self-perceptions and delves into profound notions of post-feminist self-presentation and subjectivity within diverse cultural and socioeconomic contexts. Post-feminism can be understood from Dosekun’s conceptualisation as a prevailing cultural phenomenon and sensibility that centres around the perceived notion of feminism's pastness, rather than being conceived as a discrete historical era or a definitive state following feminism. It should not be seen as an epistemological shift within the realm of feminism either. Post-feminism remains a contentious subject.
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