Page 108 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

THE QUESTION OF CULTURAL GENDER

research tradition which re-evaluates traditional feminine genres and
forms, like the women’s picture, romantic fiction, the diary and the
magazine, and either by implication or directly, investigates audience
engagement. Soap opera, as a genre, including US prime-time shows as
well as much more localized national serials, has moved from being a
ridiculed object of study to a mainstay of many syllabuses.
(Brunsdon 1997: 190).

The Anglo-American research tradition introduced the term ‘female genre’.
On the one hand, the tradition wanted to make visible what had been sup-
pressed. On the other hand it also tried to identify the distinctive feminine
features of cultural products – links among women’s empirical choices, the
‘feminine essence’, ‘female space’, and the ‘feminine experience’, for example.
But something has happened since the days of the groundbreaking ethno-
graphic research and theorizing of the late 1970s and 1980s. Empirical work on
women’s cultural issues has receded into oblivion. As Angela McRobbie
writes:

While there has been an enormous output of feminist poststructuralist
writing of late, there has been some resistance to looking outside
‘theory’ and asking some practical questions about the world we live
in. At every point the spectre of ‘humanism’ haunts the practise of
those who align themselves with the ‘anti-Es’. Ethnography? That
truth-seeking activity reliant on the (often literary) narratives of exoti-
cism and difference? Can’t do it, except as a deconstructive exercise.
Empiricism? The ‘representation’ of results, the narrative of numbers?
Can’t do it either, except as part of a critical genealogy of sociology
and its role in the project of modernity and science. Experience? That
cornerstone of human authenticity, that essential core of individuality,
the spoken voice of evidence of being and the coincidence of con-
sciousness with identity? Can’t do it, other than as a psychoanalytic
venture.
(McRobbie 1997: 170)

This quotation neatly captures the feelings of many researchers interested in
gender issues, and in particular social scientists who do empirical research,
including me. Many scholars who started their academic careers with great
enthusiasm for women’s studies have moved on to less philosophically troubled
waters and more manageable research topics. Many scholars seem to feel now
that it is impossible to say anything specific or concrete about gender without
being labeled a hopelessly outdated essentialist. Even a young female university
student can refuse to answer a question concerning women, claiming that it is
impossible to answer because, after all, ‘women don’t exist’ (a claim made
recently by a University of Helsinki student). From this viewpoint, all empirical

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