Mia Patel
The 2014 article What Julia Knew: Domestic Labor in the Recession-Era Chick Flick by Pamela Thoma is part of the book Gendering the Recession: Media and Culture in an Age of Austerity, edited by Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker. The article explores the emergence of two sub-genres in American cinema: the recessionary 'chick flick' and the corporate melodrama, each presenting distinct gendered accounts of the recession. Thoma's analysis focuses on the former, examining how these films showcase new femininities and challenge traditional gender scripts, particularly in relation to female labour and domesticity.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Title | What Julia Knew: Domestic Labor in the Recession-Era Chick Flick |
| Author | Pamela Thoma |
| Year | 2014 |
| Book | Gendering the Recession: Media and Culture in an Age of Austerity |
| Editors | Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker |
| Publisher | Duke University Press |
| Pages | 107–135 |
| Themes | Domestic labor, gender inequality, female labor, postfeminism, gendered scripts, gender and recessionary culture |
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Female unemployment
The 2014 article, "What Julia Knew: Domestic Labor in the Recession-Era Chick Flick", by Pamela Thoma, explores the representation of female unemployment in recession-era chick flicks. Thoma's analysis focuses on how these films navigate the complexities of gender and labour in the context of the global financial crisis.
Thoma's essay is part of a broader collection titled "Gendering the Recession: Media and Culture in an Age of Austerity", edited by Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker. This collection examines the role of media in shaping cultural and political understandings of the economic downturn, with a specific focus on gender inequalities.
In her essay, Thoma discusses how recession-era chick flicks reflect societal anxieties about women's increasing presence in the workforce and the resulting disruption of traditional gender dynamics. The article analyses films such as "Julie & Julia" and "Eat Pray Love", which feature female protagonists navigating the tensions between their professional ambitions and domestic responsibilities.
While the article acknowledges that chick flicks have often been criticised for their limited engagement with economic contexts, it highlights a notable shift in post-recession films. These films often grapple with gender inequalities, class dynamics, and evolving relationship norms in the shadow of financial crisis.
Thoma's analysis reveals how recession-inflected narratives employ self-transformation and makeover tropes to address anxieties about women's participation in the workplace. By showcasing female protagonists who redefine themselves through entrepreneurial endeavours, often linked to domestic labour, these films offer a means of containing societal fears about the impact of female employment on traditional power relations.
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Gender inequality
The 2014 article "What Julia Knew: Domestic Labor in the Recession-Era Chick Flick" by Pamela Thoma, published in the book "Gendering the Recession: Media and Culture in an Age of Austerity", explores gender inequality through the lens of recession-era chick flicks.
Thoma's analysis focuses on how these films reflect and reinforce societal anxieties about women's changing roles in the workplace and their impact on traditional gender dynamics. The article specifically discusses the films Julie & Julia and Eat Pray Love, highlighting how they navigate gendered expectations and insecurities in the context of the global recession.
One key aspect of gender inequality addressed in these films is the "'downshifting' of female ambition and labour." Pre-recession chick flicks often featured unambitious female characters willing to sacrifice work for love or relationships. In contrast, post-recession chick flicks, like Julie & Julia and Eat Pray Love, showcase female protagonists navigating career and personal crises simultaneously. These films reflect a revision of old certainties about gender, class, and relationships, presenting a more complex view of female ambition and success.
The article also delves into the theme of the "mancession," a narrative that emerged after the economic crisis, suggesting that men were more affected by the recession than women. Thoma critiques this notion, arguing that chick flicks often downplay female unemployment and financial struggles, framing them as relationship issues. Meanwhile, male unemployment is portrayed as a life-changing event in corporate melodramas, contributing to a perception of gendered inequality in the face of economic hardship.
Furthermore, Thoma explores how recession-era chick flicks grapple with the disruption of traditional gender divisions of labour. For example, in the film referenced in the article, Liz's wage labour surpasses conventional power relations, rendering the male breadwinner-female homemaker model obsolete. This dynamic sparks social anxieties about how women's increasing presence in the workforce might upset longstanding status relations between middle-class femininity and masculinity.
Through its examination of these cinematic tropes, "What Julia Knew: Domestic Labor in the Recession-Era Chick Flick" offers a critical perspective on gender inequality, shedding light on the complexities of female representation in popular culture during a time of economic upheaval.
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Female success
The 2010s saw a shift in the representation of women in the film industry, with the emergence of the recession-era 'chick flick' sub-genre. This shift was a response to the changing socio-economic climate and the need to tackle gender inequalities exacerbated by the financial crisis. These films showcase new femininities, with female protagonists navigating the complexities of a recessionary social landscape.
One such example is "What Julia Knew: Domestic Labor in the Recession-Era Chick Flick" by Pamela Thoma. This film, and others like it, challenge the "mancession" narrative, which falsely assumes that men were more affected by the recession than women. Instead, these films highlight the successes and empowerment of women in the workplace, addressing issues of sexism and gender inequality. They also explore the impact of female success on traditional gender dynamics, such as the male breadwinner–female homemaker model, and the resulting social anxieties.
Recession-era chick flicks often present a gloomier view of relationships, reflecting a “sense of suspicion of any affective attachment". They also tend to avoid sustained commentary on female unemployment, instead framing financial problems as relationship issues. This is in contrast to pre-2008 chick flicks, which were more optimistic and downplayed the importance of female labour, often celebrating unambitious characters or those willing to sacrifice work for love.
The emergence of the recession-era chick flick sub-genre has provided a platform for exploring female success and empowerment in a challenging economic context. These films have offered a revised portrayal of gender dynamics, class, and relationships, reflecting contemporary cultural anxieties and shifting societal norms.
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Domestic labour
Chick flicks set during the recession era often showcase new femininities and reshape masculinity in the context of a challenging economic climate. These films reflect the cultural and economic uncertainties of the time, adapting familiar gender scripts to make sense of changing social dynamics.
"What Julia Knew: Domestic Labor in the Recession-Era Chick Flick" by Pamela Thoma is an example of this emerging sub-genre. The film engages with the theme of domestic labour and how it intersects with gender roles and economic anxieties. It explores how female characters navigate the complexities of work and relationships in a recessionary landscape, potentially disrupting traditional power dynamics between the sexes.
Recession-era chick flicks often grapple with the tension between female labour and traditional gender expectations. Thoma's work examines how these films may downplay the importance of female labour, portraying career-oriented women willing to sacrifice their ambitions for love or retreating from professional pursuits. This reflects a broader societal unease about women's participation in the workplace and the potential disruption of customary status relations between the genders.
The film also engages with the theme of "makeovers" or self-transformations inspired by destabilized market employment. By reclaiming domestic labour, the female protagonist may navigate her professional and personal dilemmas, containing anxieties about the place of middle-class femininity in relation to masculinity, particularly in the context of a recession.
Through its exploration of domestic labour, "What Julia Knew" offers a unique perspective on the social and economic uncertainties of the recession era, providing a lens into the complexities of gender dynamics and the evolving representation of women in cinema.
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Gendered scripts
Chick flicks and male-centred corporate melodramas are two sub-genres that demonstrate different approaches to an altered socio-economic climate. The former showcases new femininities, while the latter centres on reshaping masculinity in a recessionary context.
Recession-era chick flicks attempt to distance themselves from the consumerist patterns typically found in postfeminist culture. They also connect to earlier chick flicks that registered increased demands for female labour under neoliberalism, only to easily resolve concerns and anxieties surrounding women’s participation in the workplace. The resolution of workplace strife in pre-recession postfeminist popular culture customarily involved “downshifting” a female protagonist’s work ethic. This trope reads quite differently in the context of the economic downturn.
Recession-inflected narratives feature self-transformations or makeovers inspired by destabilized or dissatisfying market employment and by the entrepreneurial potential of certain forms of labour, particularly writing, that may be allied and closely associated with gendered domestic labour.
Recession-era chick flicks register social anxieties about how women in the workforce may disrupt customary status relations between white, middle-class femininity and hegemonic masculinity. These long-standing anxieties have found their most direct expression in the crisis rhetorics of “the mancession” and “the end of men”.
While some contemporary films seem to pander to the myth of the “mancession” by showing women getting ahead in their careers while men fall behind, there is an increasing number of chick flicks that highlight sexism and gender inequality at the workplace, challenging postfeminist images of female success and empowerment.
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Frequently asked questions
It is about how recession-era chick flicks register social anxieties about women in the workforce and how it may disrupt customary status relations between white, middle-class femininity and hegemonic masculinity.
The term "mancession" was used to spread the false assumption that men were more affected by the recession than women.
Recession-era chick flicks showcase new femininities and reshape masculinity for a recessionary context. They adapt familiar generic conventions like the post-feminist romance and the office movie for a recessionary context.
Pre-2008 movies tend to have a more optimistic tone and they often downplay the importance of female labor by celebrating unambitious characters willing to sacrifice work for love. On the other hand, post-recessionary chick flicks often entail a revision of old certainties about gender, class, and coupledom and tend to display a gloomier view of relationships.
Some examples of recession-era chick flicks include *Hall Pass* (2011), *Date Night* (2010), and *Couples Retreat* (2009).
