Hi there! I think your website is amazing, keep up the good work. My name is Melody and I am at the University of Western Sydney Nepean, and I really need help on post feminism. I have been given an assignment and the question that I need to answer is as follows; "Discuss the notion of postfeminism in relation to the careers of Madonna"? It would be greatly appreciated if you can kindly help me! There are so many ideas going through my head I just don't know how I am going to write a 1000 word essay on the above question. Please help me!! Thank you so much, Melly

I'm happy to contribute my opinion to your paper - but I actually don't believe in the concept of postfeminism. For instance, if we were living in a post feminist era, why would we need an entire site called "feminist.com" that addresses issues like rape, incest, sexual harassment, job discrimination, sexist ads, etc....Once these issues are taken care of perhaps I'll consider post-feminism, but until then we need feminism - a consciously political movement - to create positive social change.

However, I will offer that what Madonna and others like her represent is some of feminism's possibilities. For instance, Madonna can choose to be single and a single mother and she can choose to be sexy - these are choices for her, but for previous generations they were looked down upon or they were assumed, therefore, feminism needed to expose that inequity. And remember that feminism isn't so much about what choice we make, but the freedom to make those choices. In Madonna's case they means that some people might not agree with choices she has made, but she had the freedom to make them and she didn't hurt anyone in the process of making them.

I also think that Madonna is a product of feminism - she like me, grew up with feminism. Whether you chose to embrace feminism or reject it - anyone born roughly after 1960 -- has lived a feminist informed life. So I think that we need to look at Madonna and all of her incarnations of what feminism can produce, but not overlook that many people aren't making a billion dollars like Madonna is, so those choices won't come as easily. And until they come to everyone - regardless of how much money we are making - then we can't even contemplate post-feminism. Happy writing.

—Amy