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A review by lattelibrarian
Confidence Culture by Rosalind Gill, Shani Orgad
4.0
"Despite its apparently warm and affirmative address to women to believe in themselves, to lean in, to love their bodies, to focus on what is most important to them, to embrace imperfection and vulnerability, and to be confident across all spheres of life, the confidence cult(ure) works by locating the blame and responsibility for all difficulties and challenges in women themselves."
Orgad's academic text acts successfully as a milestone in disseminating what confidence means--and how it affects us--in our culture. She argues that the confidence culture the past two decades have brought us are less of a culture and more of a cult--one that ignores the systemic problems which make existing as a woman so difficult (including racism, ableism, classism, and onward).
Orgad breaks down beauty culture, presenting various artifacts which argue that young girls learn confidence from their mothers (ergo, mothers need to be more confident!), despite the various billboards, advertisements, and magazines which put down women to better profit male CEOs. She breaks down Dove beauty campaigns and the ways they "miss the mark", not to mention the countless self help books that proffer confidence as an all-encompassing, all-healing personality trait.
Not paid enough at work? Be more confident and ask for a raise! Need to put your foot down with your kids? Be more confident! Afraid your husband isn't that into you anymore? Just pretend that you're a porn star and be confident! But confidence isn't a cure-all, not when there are larger things at work.
Even going so far as to look critically at Lizzo, someone whose body and black positivity has been long-standing even before such things were trendy, and how confidence and self-love are a continuous process even amid waves of anxiety. Certainly, this made for an interesting read, and definitely one worth looking into if you're tired of being inundated with corporate and trendy messages of self-worth.
Orgad's academic text acts successfully as a milestone in disseminating what confidence means--and how it affects us--in our culture. She argues that the confidence culture the past two decades have brought us are less of a culture and more of a cult--one that ignores the systemic problems which make existing as a woman so difficult (including racism, ableism, classism, and onward).
Orgad breaks down beauty culture, presenting various artifacts which argue that young girls learn confidence from their mothers (ergo, mothers need to be more confident!), despite the various billboards, advertisements, and magazines which put down women to better profit male CEOs. She breaks down Dove beauty campaigns and the ways they "miss the mark", not to mention the countless self help books that proffer confidence as an all-encompassing, all-healing personality trait.
Not paid enough at work? Be more confident and ask for a raise! Need to put your foot down with your kids? Be more confident! Afraid your husband isn't that into you anymore? Just pretend that you're a porn star and be confident! But confidence isn't a cure-all, not when there are larger things at work.
Even going so far as to look critically at Lizzo, someone whose body and black positivity has been long-standing even before such things were trendy, and how confidence and self-love are a continuous process even amid waves of anxiety. Certainly, this made for an interesting read, and definitely one worth looking into if you're tired of being inundated with corporate and trendy messages of self-worth.