‘Self-empowerment and lots of spending’: our frustrating slide into Stanley cup feminism | Arwa Mahdawi

On a Wednesday evening in late January, Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton sat down at the computer to express her outrage about one of the great injustices of our time.

“Greta & Margot, While it can sting to win the box office but not take home the gold, your millions of fans love you,” Clinton tweeted. “You’re both so much more than Kenough. #HillaryBarbie”.

Clinton was, of course, chiming into the “feminist” debate du jour: the fact that two of the prominent women behind Barbie, a critically acclaimed, record-breaking blockbuster that grossed $1.4bn globally, hadn’t been nominated for as many Oscars as people thought they deserved. Greta Gerwig wasn’t picked in the director category, and Margot Robbie didn’t get a nomination for best actress.

But amid all the pseudo-feminist hullaballoo about Barbie (which got eight Oscar nominations), Academy Award women’s history had been made: Lily Gladstone became the first Native American woman to be nominated for best actress. And yet this was seemingly overshadowed by a perceived slight to a successful white woman.

They say time travel isn’t real, but I’m not so sure. For quite a while now, it has felt a bit like mainstream feminism has been dialled back 10 years. It’s not just the over-the-top obsession with the Barbie movie – there seems to have been a more generalized dumbing-down in the media when it comes to women’s issues. In 2021 and 2022, it felt like intersectional feminism was everywhere and nuanced discussions about how gender intersects with other forms of oppression, such as classism and racism, had moved from academic circles into the mainstream. It felt like there was a huge push – to paraphrase Rafia Zakaria, the author of Against White Feminism – to “put the fangs back in feminism”. Now, however, mainstream feminism seems to have lost its fangs and put on some sparkly lipstick instead. It looks like we’re back to a place where doing-things-while-female is treated as an inherently empowering act. If a woman likes doing something? Then that’s feminism, baby.

The framing of Taylor Swift, a woman (and private jet enthusiast) who is very careful not to say anything overtly political, as some sort of feminist icon is one example of this. “I’ve no problem with Taylor Swift or her music, but I do have problem with white society clinging to this white blonde doll that still typifies who is iconic,” Zakaria tells me over the phone. “She mouths these sort of proto-feminist ideas because that’s what sells these days. There’s a whole giant media push behind the iconization of Taylor Swift, and that’s what feminism is up against. It’s the sort of factory-made model of feminism that is Taylor Swift and Barbie, these very plastic manufactured women that just say what’s comfortable for everyone. It’s feel-good feminism. And for that reason it’s a failed feminism, in my view.”

This isn’t by any means to say that feminism has failed – far from it. Zakaria takes a lot of optimism from gen Z, whom she calls “voracious” in their appetite to correct simplistic narratives about feminism and embrace intersectional activism. It’s just that we are overwhelmed with meaningless distractions. See, for example, the recent buzz about Stanley cups: the gigantic $45 water bottles with straws. Adult sippy cups, they’ve been called. When a limited edition version went on sale at Target, there were stampedes to get them. Despite the fact that they are reusable, a significant number of people have taken to collecting multiple versions and showing off their vast collections on TikTok. And when I say people, I mean “women”. Stanley cups are a largely female phenomenon. And not just female but aggressively feminine: they’ve been described as part of the “clean girl aesthetic” (another name for the no-makeup-makeup look).

Because Stanley cups are a female-led trend, some women seem to have decided that any criticism of them is misogynistic. “Stanley cups are fine, until women like them,” one Twitter post read. “Do I need to get on my soapbox again about how Stanley tumblers are only getting so much shit because it’s a female interest?” another tweet, which got thousands of likes, demanded. On newsletters and blogs and Reddit threads, people got worked up about the Stanley pushback as being yet another example of women’s interests being sneered at and demeaned.

It is true, of course, that women’s interests are often treated as silly and aren’t taken seriously. But, come on, obsessing over a water bottle is objectively silly. As the New Statesman remarked in a piece titled Stanley cups are not a feminist issue, these cries of water-bottle-based-misogyny felt a little bit like a throwback. “In the 2010s, at the peak of liberal feminism’s popularity, a sort of dogma became ubiquitous: if a woman did something of her own free will – and was happy doing it – criticising that woman or that particular behaviour was sexist,” the writer, Sarah Manavis, remarked. “Since then, this version of liberal feminism has fallen out of favour and this plainly flawed vision of empowerment has been shown to merely uphold the patriarchal, capitalist structures it claimed to combat.”

While liberal feminism (which is also often termed white feminism or corporate feminism or lean-in feminism) did fall out of favour for a bit, it feels like it’s trying very hard to make a comeback. It’s not just Barbie and Stanley cups; it shows up in the way multiple media outlets are currently waxing lyrical about Israeli women “pushing new boundaries” by serving on the frontlines in Gaza, as if women killing women is somehow feminism. And the way in which many white feminists have said nothing about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza – which has affected nearly 1 million Palestinian women and girls. It manifests in the celebration of the large number of female-focused products in Sunday night’s Super Bowl commercials, as if selling women more stuff is a step forward for equality. It shows up in Nikki Haley, whose politics are dangerously reactionary, wearing feminist-chic sweatshirts with slogans like “She who dares wins” on the campaign trail. It can be seen in the explosion of infantilizing “girl” trends last year, as everything from “girl dinners” to “girl math” went viral and were treated as somehow empowering.

Of course, buzzy stories in the media aren’t always an accurate indicator of what’s taking place on the ground. Beyond the trending headlines, substantive work is happening. Things are moving forward. “There are so many different types of feminism and gender-conscious activism that operate well outside mainstream media narratives … and social media trends,” Koa Beck, the author of White Feminism, told me over email. “I don’t advise looking to white feminism to articulate, support, or celebrate these stories in a substantive way. For example: the New Jersey domestic workers’ bill of rights [recently] passed, which will reportedly give over 50,000 cleaners, healthcare aids, and nannies basic labor protections. It’s a historic bill for that state, will impact many, many women. Similarly, public support for unions has been at a 50-year high with advances at really big corporations like Starbucks and Amazon.” And the overturning of Roe v Wade has spurred a massive reproductive justice movement in the US. “These are big cultural shifts and are in such contrast to the dominant language of white feminism from only a few years ago.”

One reason some of these big cultural shifts don’t seem to get as much coverage as culture-war arguments is because of the way the media ecosystem works: they’re simply not as click-worthy as online arguments about Barbie and water bottles. Social media spats are often sexier than the important grassroots feminist work being undertaken around the world. “I wish we would focus more on that than on the small stuff,” Angela Saini, author of the Patriarchs, tells me. “And I think it’s easier to focus on that more if you’re not on social media.”

Perhaps the ultimate takeaway from this is that, in the end, everything is cyclical. There is progress, then there is pushback. “White feminism is a concept, a story, a brand, and an ideology that many powerful entities have invested in, both literally and figuratively,” Beck says. “So there are going to be efforts by influential people, powerful companies, and profitable institutions to ‘get back’ to white feminist ideals of individualization, self-empowerment (in the trademark sense of the word), and lots and lots of spending. Like with all big change, there is cultural and political resistance. You can set your watch by it.”