The feminine bravery construct: the crisis of neoliberal feminine bravery in the #MeToo moment

There is an outpouring of sexual assault stories being told by women in the #MeToo moment. The moment feels celebratory because there have been serious consequences for high-profile abusers such as Harvey Weinstein. It is significant that the women allowed to visibly tell their stories present as brave, postfeminist woman-subjects. The expanded characterisation of feminine bravery in the contemporary context has contributed to a belief that the confessions we are witnessing are emblematic of a new porosity between the public and the private; Carol Hanisch’s “Personal is Political” in action. However, in celebrating the ideal brave behaviour of certain postfeminist-types, women continue to be subject to insidious forms of silencing. Utilising a feminist content and discourse analysis, this research explores the contemporary iteration of the Feminine Bravery Construct (FBC) through two (white) publicly confessing subjects: Saxon Mullins and Rose McGowan. The research reveals that these dramatized woman-types serve to reinforce contemporary standards of bravery for women in the neoliberal context.