Moving from sisterhood to girl power.

Abstract

In a 2013 interview with BBC News, pop star Miley Cyrus announced that she sees herself as "one of the biggest feminists in the world" because "I tell women not to be scared of anything and . . . girls are beautiful. . . . Guys get to show their titties on the beach, why can't we?" (Butterly, 2013). In 2015 she added, "Feminism . . . is the greatest thing ever" because "I think it's cool to be a woman and be, like, super in charge. . . . I think [women] are more free than we've ever been" (Press, 2015).Cyrus's statements, analyzed alongside the media discourse surrounding her, shed light on popular definitions and (mis)interpretations of feminism in the new millennium. Just months before the BBC interview, Cyrus had performed at the MTV Video Music Awards. In a skin-toned body suit, Cyrus sang her hit "We Can't Stop," moving around the stage "mugging and twerking, and paused to spank and simulate analingus upon the ass of a thickly set African-American backup dancer" (Rosen, 2013, para. 4). Later in the performance, Robin Thicke, a White male pop star, joined her for a duet of his single "Blurred Lines," a song that had been facing criticism from feminists for promoting rape culture with its repetitive hook "I know you want it" and lines such as "So, hit me up when you pass through / I'll give you something big enough to tear your ass in two." During this part of the performance, Cyrus danced with a fully suited Thicke while grinding her behind into his crotch and then used a giant foam finger to caress her own and Thicke's genitalia.Critics were split on their analysis of the politics of Cyrus's performance: She was molesting Thicke;

Women Information Technology Professionals: Digital Sisterhood

“…In her follow up anthology, Sisterhood is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, Morgan makes a piercing analysis of the structures of patriarchy, she writes, 'patriarchy's genius lies in emphasising differences between people, so we may as well emphasize similarities wherever we can find them' (Mann & Huffman, 2005). Even though the theme of sisterhood was criticised for failing to attack the gender oppression that emerged across the intersecting domains of race, class and ethnicity, yet in the arguments and voices of criticisms against sisterhood, the notion of 'collectivity' continued to find support and endorsement (Zaslow, 2018). One of the fiercely critical voices, prominent feminist Hooks (2000) commented in her work titled Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics that political solidarity among women raises consciousness among them about their common suffering being rooted in patriarchy.…”