Cashing in on feminism

“Girl Power” attire is in the mainstream. But most companies who are selling feminist merchandise are not supporting the movement for gender equality. Josefine Cook explores how capitalism affects feminism

There’s a fashion for “feminism”. Tops, badges, tote bags and phone cases stamped with “Girls support girls” or “Girl Power” are worn across the UK with confidence and a clear conscience. With Trump in the White House, and the Weinstein and Kavanaugh cases still bubbling, there has been an outburst of #MeToo and #TimesUp tweets and references. Feminism has reached a level of cultural relevance it hasn’t enjoyed in years. But can anyone gain the right to identify as a feminist by purchasing a “Girl Power” t-shirt from Asos, a company where, on average, women earn 40.9% less per hour than men?

Female empowerment has become a marketing tool for many companies. But feminism isn’t a trend. It is not something we buy and sell. Feminism is a serious movement. It is the fight for equality of the sexes. Buying and selling feminism as a trendy product without supporting the movement is a cop out by the consumer and exploitation by the producer. “Companies have started to profit from the ideals of feminism while embodying the opposite. KPMG (leading provider of audit, tax and advisory services) running a campaign about smashing the glass ceiling while being the subject of a $400M class-action lawsuit alleging a pattern of gender discrimination, denying promotions to women and penalizing them for taking maternity leave is hardly helpful to the real fight for women’s equality,” says Katie Martell, an on-demand marketing expert with a special interest in ‘femvertising’ – the use of feminism in advertising. “It is a hypocrisy and nothing but lip service by organizations,” she says. According to Martell, the rise of femvertising is partly driven by industry pressures to attract female customers. “On the surface, femvertising reflects ideals of equality. These ads align with the values of feminist women, so the potential for free promotion via social sharing enormous.”

Aside from exploitation, another issue with selling feminism as a trendy product is that it inevitably over-simplifies the complex movement into a marketable bitesize message. Diane Atkinson, author of Rise Up, Women! The Remarkable Lives of The Suffragettes, believes this dumbing-down of feminism goes against the movement. “The suffragettes wouldn’t recognise buying a feminist t-shirt as an act of feminism,” she says. “They were prepared to go to prison, go on hunger strike, go against society and be highly disliked. They put their lives on the line. But most women today just want to buy a nice tote bag and think that’s enough. You can carry a nice bag and identify yourself as a feminist, but what are you going to do? Are you going to live according to feminist principles? Are you actually going to get together with other like-minded women and do something for the better of other women? The suffragettes had a great slogan, “Deeds, not words”.  Stop talking about it and do something.”

More than a century after the advent of the women’s suffrage movement, we are surfing down an ambiguous fourth wave of feminism. It is often defined by the use of social media, hashtag activism and “speaking out”. Women tweet about body image and catcalling, but we rarely go beyond that. “Stop talking about it over a glass of wine. The only way it’s going to happen is if you do it,” says Atkinson. “People wear a t-shirt saying ‘I am a feminist’, but what they should be doing is performing acts which enhance, celebrate, promote and expose equality.”

Using feminism as marketing bait also creates an “illusion of progress”. Martell says femvertising “tricks us into thinking society is more progressive than it truly is”. According to McKinsey & Company, an international management consulting firm, “Men are more likely to think the workplace is equitable, whereas women see a workplace that is less fair and offers less support.” Martell explains this type of advertising creates “diversity blind spots”. “The truth is, we can’t solve problems as a society that we don’t see or understand clearly. By accepting these illusions of support, we are telling corporations they can cash in on feminism.”

In the UK, we may be living in an age of “lazy”, misinformed feminism where words are more common than deeds, but there is an enduring, authentic campaign for gender equality in other parts of the world. The Outrage is an American activist apparel company with merchandise and social spaces “for the resistance”, and an official partner of The Women’s March. Every purchase is donated to feminist charities and organisations. Aside from selling feminist merchandise, the company also hosts events and talks about feminism to promote a more informed, outspoken society. “If a co-worker says something micro-aggressive, you can bring them in, have a beer and talk. There is a template on the wall showing how to engage in difficult dialogues,” says Michelle Howell, the Director of Community and Branding at The Outrage. Although conversations are encouraged, isn’t The Outrage still showcasing marketplace feminism? “We’re not doing that. It’s really important for us that we use retail as a conduit for change. Every person that comes in our store is automatically registered to vote when they check out. Every single facet of our store is devoted to promoting conversation.”

The Outrage is certainly more involved in the activism, not marketing, of feminism. However, in the UK, there is a lack of such an approach. Atkinson believes women in the UK aren’t doing much more than talking. Whereas according to Howell, women in the US are protesting in the streets. “During the Kavanaugh Supreme Court hearings, individuals were protesting and being arrested every day. The suffragettes went on hunger strikes, but think how many black and brown women put their bodies on the line to protect their kids. Looking at immigration at the border right now, how many sacrifices are those individuals having to make just to provide a better life for their children?” There is clearly a difference in how women fight for their rights across the pond. This may be to do with the fact that Trump, Weinstein and Kavanaugh – the misogynists of the century, are all based in America. But this doesn’t mean that British women shouldn’t take inspiration from their American sisters. Atkinson says “we have to make politicians listen. And the only way to do that is to do something really, really outrageous. The only way the suffragettes got anybody interested was by being provocative, interrupting meetings and behaving in a very unladylike way.”

Using feminism as a marketing tool has undeniably helped with spreading the word about women’s issues. “We are talking about issues that we were not previously addressing on a regular basis,” says Howell. But another negative consequence of selling a false sense of feminism in retail is that it contributes to slacktivism – showing support for a cause with the

main purpose of boosting one’s egos. As Howell puts it: “You buy a shirt from a shop that donates, and therefore you’ve done your deed this month.” Atkinson agrees, saying for many, purchasing “feminist” merchandise is a way to “self-identify as a feminist” and feel like an activist. Howell believes at the end it all comes down to the consumer’s action. “Are you showing up? Maybe you’ve always gone to the Women’s March, but are you supporting Black Lives Matter and Immigration Rights? If not, you’re not making the change that we need. We’ve seen a cultural shift, but if this new dialogue is not leading to action, then it is a commodification,” says Howell.

Some may say all publicity is good, but in the case of feminism, using it as an empty promise to print on clothes mostly just leads to stagnation within the movement. Perhaps there is a good reason for why current feminists aren’t as aggressive as their 1st, 2nd and 3rd wave ancestors. In the Western world, most women have achieved their basic rights – they can vote, study, work or run for president or prime minister. Powerful women in politics and in media give current feminists a sense of relief. But women are still far away from achieving equality with men – something that takes more than policies to happen.

Overall, Howell is hopeful about women’s future, but she worries we’re not “riding this momentum”. “A movement is people moving, so are we moving every day or are we complacent?” Martell explains we can’t “reduce decades of real effort down to a marketing tagline. By doing so, we associate the real work of women’s equality with shallow activity like buying shampoo. The work is truly to organize, change perceptions, create policy. Not to share an ad on social media.” Today’s social media feminism may have a big impact on many women, but one wonders whether it has any impact at all on the outside world. Atkinson believes we should take inspiration from the suffragettes. “They didn’t give up on the first knock back. We should emulate their persistence and endurance.”