Feminism has hit the big time. Once a dirty word brushed away with a grimace, "feminist" has been rebranded as a shiny label sported by movie and pop stars, fashion designers, and multi-hyphenate powerhouses like Beyonc-It drives advertising and marketing campaigns for everything from wireless plans to underwear to perfume, presenting what''s long been a movement for social justice as just another consumer choice in a vast market. Individual self-actualization is the goal, shopping more often than not the means, and celebrities the mouthpieces.
But what does it mean when social change becomes a brand identity? Feminism''s splashy arrival at the center of today''s media and pop-culture marketplace, after all, hasn''t offered solutions to the movement''s unfinished business. Planned Parenthood is under sustained attack, women are still paid 77 percent-or less-of the man''s dollar, and vicious attacks on women, both on- and offline, are utterly routine.
Andi Zeisler, a
