Whither Feminism? Fascist Aesthetics and Feminine Performance
Though getting it together may signal a practice of spontaneous collectivity, “get it together” is also a gendered command—one which affiliates a performance of femininity with certain aesthetic expectations and demands the unbounded work of love, care, and social reproduction. How do we understand the aesthetics of femininity in a moment where feminism has been defanged of its oppositionality, when it functions as an alibi for the tide of fascism in the form of TERFs and girlbosses? Everyday injunctions toward norms of femininity appear in the form of “Get Ready With Me” videos, Planned Parenthood’s decision to offer Botox, ceaseless trend cycles, and the normalization of weight loss medication, with Serena Williams as its icon.
