“Mars and Venus” in Virtual Space: Post-feminist Humor and the Internet

Jewish-Israeli Girls' Online Discourse about International Women's Day: Post-feminism or “feminist insensibility”?

“…Online user generated humor seems to be following the same route (Shifman & Lemish, 2011). The girls used IWD as an opportunity to call for an end to this, but even then they hedge their messages with an emoticon.…”

“…In user generated online humor, self-directed humor seems to be an indication of empowerment and "coolness," despite its working to unwind the achievements of the feminist movement (Shifman & Lemish, 2011). LenusiK is neither critical about nor alarmed by the significance of such web data and treats it as a joke, as if accepting humiliation is a form of self-humor.…”

“…While post-feminism is a common term in the public discourse and research, it is still somewhat ambiguous concept and has evoked debate in the research literature (Shifman & Lemish, 2011). Supporters of post-feminism believe it is a new form of feminism updated to late twentieth to early twenty first-century modes of living that incorporate achievements of previous waves of the feminist movement (Shifman & Lemish, 2011). Opponents of post-feminism see it as a factionalized, fragmented and apolitical movement, buying into dominant ideologies and perpetuating hegemony (Battaglia, 2012).…”

“Can't Have it All”: Representations of Older Women in Popular Culture

“…Collectively, then, such representations provide a unique arena for understanding social and cultural phenomena including politics, ethnicity, and gender (Shifman & Lemish, 2010a, 2010b.…”

Texts (and Tweets) fromHillary: Meta‐Meming and Postfeminist Political Culture

“…Limor Shifman and Dafna Lemis (, 256) explain that postfeminist discourses—in particular those that are expressed in the context of Internet humor—often employ irony as a “way to ‘have it both ways,’” couching ostensibly subversive humor within a broader, more conservative, framework. Two types of Internet humor identified by Shifman and Lemis (, 261, 265) are “Mars and Venus” humor that “highlights gender differences between men and women,” and “Girl Power” humor that asserts that “being a strong, successful, sexual, and independent woman does not negate the pleasure of embracing feminine qualities and performances.” Our analysis will demonstrate the ways in the “Texts from Hillary” meme replicated both of these humor types, which Shifman and Lemis (, 266) assert align with “key elements of post‐feminist sensibility,” namely, the “ ‘reassertion of sexual difference’ and ‘individualism, choice and empowerment.’” Postfeminist humor is appealing not just because postfeminist narratives fit within conservative frameworks, but also because they introduce a sense of playfulness into conversations about gender that some people perceive to be relatively humorless. Despite the long, rich history of feminist humor, its subversive nature has made it unpalatable and/or threatening to mass audiences.…”