Lights, Camera, Feminism?

Celebrities and Anti-trafficking Politics

Prof. Samantha Majic

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780520384880
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9780520384910
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Policy
• Index: Social Sciences

Celebrities in the United States have drawn significant attention and resources to the complex issue of human trafficking—a subject of feminist concern—and they are often criticized for promoting sensationalized and simplistic understandings of the issue. In this comprehensive analysis of celebrities' anti-trafficking activism, however, Samantha Majic finds that this phenomenon is more nuanced: even as some celebrities promote regressive issue narratives and carceral solutions, others use their platforms to elevate more diverse representations of human trafficking and feminist analyses of gender inequality. Lights, Camera, Feminism? thus argues that we should understand celebrities as multilevel political actors whose activism is shaped and mediated by a range of personal and contextual factors, with implications for feminist and democratic politics more broadly.

Table of contents

• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• List of Acronyms
• Introduction: Celebrities, Feminism, and Human Trafficking
• 1  •  Theory and Methods: Celebrity Feminism, Performance, and Political Representation
• 2  •  Performing Feminism: Celebrities’ Anti-trafficking Activism, 2000–2016
• 3  •  White Saviors and Activist Mothers: Ashley Judd, Jada Pinkett Smith, and the Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls
• 4  •  Latin Lovers and Tech Guys: Ricky Martin, Ashton Kutcher, and Variations of Male Celebrity Feminism
• 5  •  Anti-trafficking Ambassadors: Julia Ormond, Mira Sorvino, and the UNODC
• Conclusion: Celebrity, Power, and Political Accountability
• Notes
• References
• Index