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Budapest W8: Feminist Research - Post 9/11 Chick Flick


Negra, Diane: “Structural Integrity, Historical Reversion, and the Post-9/11 Chick Flick”, in Feminist Media Studies, Vol. 8, No 1, March 2008, pp. 51-68.


"the "postfeminism" chick flick's narrow codification of female identity generates a representational vacuum that is increasingly filled by topical social concerns." p.51

The post-9/11 chick flick takes the position "that because national boundaries have been so conspicuously breached through terrorism, the ideological boundaries of gender and family need to be shored up." p.52

In post-9/11 chick flicks, "enduring structural integrity performs new metaphorical operations." p.53

"the heroine comes to realise that her professional aspirations are misplaced... the rationale for such representations turns on the notion that by re-securing the home we will re-secure the homeland." p.53

"female characters may be seen marshaling their professional resources to pursue a romantic interest" p.54

Postfeminist romance: the heroine realises "that her efforts are best directed toward a private version of social change." p.55

Another aspect of the post-9/11 discourse - babies became a sign of hope and good fortune as opposed to a burden and thief of free-time.

"the post-9/11 cultural climate emphasised the re-essentialisation of gender as a panacea for the doubt, confusion, sadness, and anger that marked national life." p.57

"the heroine acts to soften and humanise inherited power" p.57

"many of the films I have discussed here appear to be trying to wrest intimacy out of the market and restore it to a more private realm. Problematically, however, the romance that must be resolved by the heroine's withdrawal from the marketplace." p.61



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