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cover of episode Emma Casey, "The Return of the Housewife: Why Women Are Still Cleaning Up" (Manchester UP, 2025)

Emma Casey, "The Return of the Housewife: Why Women Are Still Cleaning Up" (Manchester UP, 2025)

2025/4/26
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New Books in Critical Theory
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Emma Casey
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我研究清洁网红现象的动机源于疫情期间的观察，当时女性大量分享清洁、整理和收纳内容。我认为这并非偶然，而是与历史上对家庭主妇形象的塑造有关，家庭主妇形象从未真正消失，只是以新的形式卷土重来。20世纪，甚至更早，都曾出现过对家庭主妇的保守形象的复兴，而清洁网红就是这一传统的一部分，她们常常在危机时期出现，例如疫情、英国脱欧、特朗普上任、紧缩政策和生活成本危机等。清洁网红之所以与以往不同，是因为她们利用数字平台，在社交媒体上创建和分享内容，并通过付费合作等方式获利。她们使家务劳动变得可见，这与历史上家务劳动被视为无价值、隐形的现象形成对比。然而，将家务劳动描绘成有益身心健康的行为，与大量女性主义研究和著作相悖，因为这些研究和著作都描述了家务劳动的枯燥、单调和痛苦。清洁网红将家务劳动重新定义为一种自我关怀的方式，但这缺乏科学依据，实际上家务劳动与抑郁和压抑感之间存在关联。清洁网红文化与流行的积极思维运动紧密相连，这是一种将责任归咎于个人的做法，它回避了社会结构性问题。清洁网红，例如Mrs. Hinch，她的成功体现了这种依靠个人努力就能成功的幻想，但实际上这是一种不切实际的期望。清洁网红现象的根本问题不在于个体网红，而在于社会结构，它仍然依赖于女性承担大部分无偿家务劳动的假设。我们需要批判这种将井井有条、干净整洁的家与女性价值和地位联系起来的观念，这需要从社会结构层面寻找解决方案，例如建立社区互助体系等。同时，我们也应该给予自己批判的权利，因为有时社交媒体账号的个人化和美好形象会让我们感到批判是不友好的。但我们需要认识到女性在现代资本主义社会中承受着巨大的压力和冲突，我们需要打破这种将家务劳动与女性价值和地位联系起来的观念。我的下一个研究方向是探究20世纪80年代有关女性日常生活的说法和论述，特别是“超级女性”的形象，以更好地理解当代文化。

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How has the rise of digital platforms changed domestic labour? In The Return of the Housewife: Why Women Are Still Cleaning Up)* (Manchester UP, 2025),* Emma Casey), a Reader in Sociology at the University of York), explores the rise of the ‘cleanfluencer’. Situating the way specific online discourses now valorise and glamourise housework, the book gets under the false promise of happiness that hides the reality of gendered labour inequalities. Linking housework, digital and platform society, self-help, and feminist theory, the book is a wide-ranging critical blueprint for a new domestic revolution. It is essential reading across the humanities and social sciences, as well as for anyone interested in understanding the gendered and racialised division of labour in contemporary society.

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