the Female Body GOVERNING

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joshua gunn & mary douglas vavrus
build on it. The Remifemin print ads found in various magazines feature
a blue-eyed, blond haired woman smiling broadly as she announces, “my
menopause symptoms faded 1, 2, 3. . . . You bet I’m a Remifemin-ist!”
On the GlaxoSmithKline Web site, the same woman tells readers, “I’m
a Remifemin-ist because I saw a dramatic reduction in my menopause
symptoms in just 12 weeks!”
These “Remifemin-ists” lay claim to a postfeminist ideology, the
particulars of which are these: postfeminism takes feminist gains for
granted, yet, while doing so, replaces feminist ideology with individualistic,
consumer-oriented practices intended only for very specifi c
women, specifi cally, those who have suffi cient income to support the
consumption habits of at least a middle-class life. Remifemin’s focus on
individual self care for the purpose of personal independence is revealed
in its ads’ repeated invocation of the term “feminist,” appended to the
rest of its trade name. By using “feminist” in its ads for Remifemin,
GlaxoSmithKline suggests that it desires some of the connotations of
feminism, but without implicating itself any further in the politics of
feminism. The term feminist most likely resonates with women beginning
to experience symptoms of menopause, as they are from the early baby
boomer generation and could well have been involved or simply interested
in second-wave feminist activism (undoubtedly, they have reaped
the rewards of feminist activism, whether or not they acknowledge this).
Also, Remifemin’s herbal active ingredient marks it as a treatment that
feminists might be more inclined to embrace as feminist critiques of
medicine have generated a large literature on, among other topics,
synthetic treatments for menopause. GlaxoSmithKline’s tactic here could
prove to be a successful hailing gesture to the second-wave feminist as
she wends her way through the labyrinth of menopause treatments, their
benefi ts, and side effects. 12
The advertising industry is no stranger to the use of feminism in the
texts it produces. From Virginia Slims cigarette ads featuring the “You’ve
come a long way, baby” slogan to Enjoli perfume ads that belt out, “I
can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan,” while reminding women
to “never let him forget he’s a man,” slivers of feminism are sliced and
doled out to media audiences. Some media critics argue that the ease
with which feminist politics can be packaged and commodifi ed suggests
that the movement has sold out and become “commodity feminism”
(Goldman, Heath, & Smith, 1991). Our argument suggests that something
more is at work than simply a trend to commodifying some of the
beliefs of feminism. We argue that postfeminist discourse indeed relies
on the commodifi cation of feminism, but goes beyond it to construct a
population of bourgeois women who can be regulated by an apparatus