Better never means better for everyone”
White feminist necropolitics and Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9237288 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Meredith Neville-Shepard (0009-0007-6464-6352, Department of Communication, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 109 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 2-25 |
| Publication date | 2023-01-02 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Quarterly Journal of Speech (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-5630 • E-ISSN: 1479-5779 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00335630.2022.2136738 |
| OpenAlex | W4308968272 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
This article builds on those who have critiqued Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale along racial lines and calls into question the esteemed status the show holds as a rhetorical resource for contemporary feminist activism. By drawing attention to the parasitical relationship that the archetype of the vulnerable (but resilient) white woman has to Black pain and death, I argue that the series further calcifies the dominance of white feminism, enacting what I term “white feminist necropolitics.” To illuminate this theory, the essay presents a close analysis of The Handmaid's Tale. Specifically, I demonstrate how the show deploys post-racial logics to center a white feminist heroine whose story of saviorism relies on the cooptation of Black pain and the exploitation of Black death. Ultimately, this critical reading of the series points to the ways in which white feminism and necropolitics are intricately entangled
Art · Black feminism · Close reading · Feminism · Literature · Rhetorical question · Sociology · White (mutation) · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Media Influence and Health · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2026 (4) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 5 |