Since the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, American female rugby player Ilona Maher has received positive media attention regarding her social media content around self-confidence, self-empowerment, and body positivity (Doyle, 2025). Moreover, this media attention has provided her partnership opportunities from global brands, such as Maybelline makeup and Sports Illustrated (Najib, 2024).

This growth in popularity of certain feminist themes, especially through celebrities, has been described by Banet-Weiser (2018) as ‘popular feminism’. She argues this popular feminism, which is often individual and neoliberalist, manifests itself online through a digital ‘economy of visibility’, where feminist movements are made ‘popular’ if they support the capitalist and corporate objectives of media platforms, as visibility increasingly means economic value. Due to this, feminism that is made visible is often one used to sell products, seen with Maher’s ‘self-confidence’ mantra used to sell her partnered products as a ‘solution’ to low self-esteem [e.g. Maybelline lipstick or Sports Illustrated magazine issues]. Gill and Orgad (2021) elaborate on this growing focus on confidence, coining the term ‘confidence culture’ to describe how increasingly, women’s lack of confidence is being commodified by big brands.

As seen in this Instagram post collaboration between Ilona Maher and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, self-empowerment has become commodified for a capitalist digital economy (Banet-Weiser, 2018; Gill & Orgad, 2021). As argued by Banet-Weiser (2018), popular feminism’s ‘self-esteem’ theme often focuses on physical appearance [body positivity], as exemplified with Maher being the ‘centerpiece subject’ of the cover.

In this image, the title ‘Beast. Beauty. Brains’ references Maher’s motto to commodify Maher’s confidence. The italics and emphasis of ‘Beauty’ exemplifies this: through Maher’s confidence, beauty is the most important [and most evident] ‘proof’ of confidence. The post caption further focuses on appearance: “When we say #beastbeautybrains THIS is what we mean. 💋”. The captilalised ‘THIS’ refers to photo-ready Maher as the prime example of #beastbeautybrains. This image does not highlight the ‘beast’ or ‘brains’ aspect of her motto, emphasising only ‘beauty’. With beauty used synonymously with confidence and made visible through appearance, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit highlights how Maher is confident [beautiful] as she is wearing a swimsuit [their brand], highlighting how brands disguise appearance and beauty as ‘self-empowerment’ to sell their products.

In addition, the ‘collaboration’ between the Sports Illustrated brand and Maher [tagging Maher’s Instagram profile] highlights how Maher herself has become a commodity. With the digital media increasingly monetising views and followers, as well as brands partnering with ‘influencers’ with large followings [Maher], this highlights how people are now using popular feminism and confidence culture to commodity themselves.

As Banet-Weiser’s (2018) ‘funhouse mirror’ concept suggests, every popular feminist movement receives a misogynistic reaction distorting feminism as an attack on men. In terms of this photo, Maher received misogynistic backlash regarding her biological gender. One comment from the post highlights this:

@Cltowne “She’s a former male”

Furthermore, her Wikipedia page was changed, with her description as:

“Ilona Maher (born a man) […] She could line up for the local open’s men’s rugby side the she/he has picked as the easier option” (Reddit, 2024)

The Wikipedia page’s reductive transphobic and sexist remarks harm gendered identity by highlighting trans men as too powerful for women’s sport, and highlighting women’s sport as an ‘easier’ sport than men’s. Maher acknowledged the hate, stating the abuse was constant and never-ending (Kaur, 2025). Ultimately although popular feminism is made more visible than popular misogyny, popular misogyny is more impactful by manifesting itself into real-world situations (Banet-Weiser, 2018).

However, although Banet-Weiser (2018) and Gill and Orgad (2021) both argue the visibility of confidence does not create any systemic change, Maher’s popular feminist visibility has brought social change in terms of female sport promotion and normalisation [especially within the male domain of rugby], since her popular feminism [confidence] allowed less ‘popular’ forms of feminism to be visible [traditionally-male dominated sports, different body types]. Maher’s team the Bristol Bears posted statistics on Instagram highlighting how, since Maher’s signing, they’ve achieved a record attendance for a Premiership Women’s fixture [9,240 people], a 103% attendance increase in Bristol Bears’ women’s fixtures, and a social media following increasing by 300% (Bristol Bears Women, 2021). However, as argued by both, this increase in women’s sport visibility is still being commodified by capitalist and corporate ventures [increased ticket sales, more merch, etc.]

Ultimately, this image highlights the problematic nature of popular feminism and confidence culture. This post, although seemingly uplifting, reminds women that lack of confidence is an individual problem for women, without acknowledging the systems set in place that cause women to lose confidence. As highlighted by a student in class, women can never be confident in themselves as beauty standards for women are constantly changing, highlighting once more how confidence is only promoted online for commercial imperatives, and doesn’t solve why women lack confidence.

Bibliography

Banet-Weiser, S. (2018). Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11316rx

Bristol Bears Women on Instagram: “Changing the game! ❤️📈 An honour to have @ilonamaher in Bear Country 🐻.” (2021). Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/DHbh5l3s042/

Doyle, E. (2025, January 12). Ilona Maher: Bristol Bears rugby star on body positivity and TikTok. BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx278lde1nro

Gill, R., & Orgad, S. (2021). Confidence Culture [Review of Confidence Culture]. Duke University Press.

Kaur, R. (2025, March 21). “The abuse is constant” — Ilona Maher makes her feelings known on dealing with “hate” over social media. Sportskeeda.com; Sportskeeda. https://www.sportskeeda.com/us/olympics/news-the-abuse-constant-ilona-maher-makes-feelings-known-dealing-hate-social-media

Maher, Ilona. [@ilonamaher] (2024, August 12.) Sports Illustrated Cover Instagram

Najib, S. (2024, August 28). Rugby star Ilona Maher makes her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit debut. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Style/rugby-star-ilona-maher-makes-sports-illustrated-swimsuit/story?id=113224914

Reddit — The heart of the internet. (2024). Reddit.com. https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/1erbh5h/olympics_rugby_star_and_bronze_medal_winner_ilona/

On December 31st, 2024, American actor Blake Lively filed a lawsuit against her co-star Justin Baldoni during their successful 2024 blockbuster movie It Ends With Us campaign, a movie discussing complex issues of domestic violence (Aizin, 2025).

Lively’s lawsuit consisted of a sexual harassment claim and a claim that Baldoni orchestrated a public smear campaign against her to destroy her reputation. Since then, a series of lawsuits from both parties began, which generated lots of visibility and debate online. The debate largely focused on whether Lively’s claim was ‘believable’ or not, with the TikTok hashtag #justinbaldoni amassing over 900k videos supporting him and a subreddit feed called ‘teamjustinbaldoni’ with over 9.1k followers (Reddit, 2025).

As part of the backlash against Lively, many old videos of her resurfaced, reflecting her bad character, such as through Kjyersti Flaa’s (2024) YouTube video “The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job.” where Lively continuously belittles Flaa. The video received many negative comments, including:

@debiwharton “Blake Lively shows us exactly who she is here. I now have zero respect for her.”

As highlighted by Banet-Weiser and Higgins (2023) with a similar case [Amber Heard v Johnny Depp], Lively was shamed online and doubted due to her previous actions and past behaviours, with her performance of character being used as an indicator of her ‘believability’. In this case, her past rude actions were used to highlight doubt in her claims.

As noted by Banet-Weiser (2018), media platforms play a crucial role in making some feminist movements visible, while rendering others invisible. She highlights the role of ‘economics of visibility’ in shaping feminist discourses, especially with how feminist movements, such as the sexual violence awareness #MeToo movement, often focus on white, heterosexual women, overshadowing marginalised voices. Furthermore, she argues that the type of feminism or misogyny promoted online is often one that can be commodified, as it follows the capital and economic objectives of media platforms (Banet-Weiser, 2018). Many articles have come out debating the validity of Lively’s claims, and even TikTok users are profiting from this event, with TikToker @BeeBetterCompany commodifying the event with a 12 part mini-series on his TikTok called ‘The Downfall of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’, with over 1.9 million likes and 23.7 million views on his first ‘episode’ [where every like, view, and comment is monetized] (BeeBetterCompany, 2025). This highlights how popular misogynist or feminist discussions are made visible online if they can be monetised, often prioritising visibility and engagement over the truth and quality of content being circulated (Banet-Weiser, 2018).

Furthermore, this example highlights Banet-Weiser and Higgins (2023) claim that in an increasingly digitalised world of ‘post-truth’, where objective facts are becoming less relevant, an ‘economy of believability’ takes place, where truth is public negotiated through subjective resources and performances. As discussed by a student in class, when Justin Baldoni’s lawyer released text messages and emails between Baldoni and Blake, the digitisation of evidence online sparked lots of online debate, highlighting how sexual violence survivors’ claims are scrutinized and negotiated publicly online, with the public shaping their own perceptions of sexual assault narratives. The widespread discussion online, as well as the scrutinization of Lively’s resurfaced past actions, demonstrated how media often emphasises performance over objectivity [such as facts], and women are deemed doubtful, and therefore must perform believability, with technological means used to ‘prove’ or ‘disprove’ their claims.

This case also highlights the more serious concerns highlighted by Banet-Weiser (2018) where every popular feminist movement [e.g. supporting Blake’s sexual harassment claims], receives misogynist movements online that distort the movement as an injury on men, with Banet-Weiser (2018) using the term ‘funhouse mirror’ to highlight how feminism is distorted to fit misogynistic realities. This is seen with Blake Lively, where while her believability was discussed and negotiated, misogynists used this to promote the narrative that women always create false accusations about their accusers, discrediting the entire #MeToo movement. It further highlights another point by Banet-Weiser (2018): while both feminist and misogynistic movements are made popular online, misogynistic movements often cause more social change. With the popularity and backlash of Blake Lively’s claims, it can discourage people from reporting assaults out of the fear of not being believed or being scrutinised.

The Blake Lively case study highlights Banet-Weiser’s (2018) argument that ultimately, misogynistic reactions online undermine feminist movements, such as the #MeToo movement, distorting popular feminist discussions on sexual violence believability to promote a rise in false accusations towards men.

Ultimately, whether Blake Lively’s accusations are true or false, this case highlights how misogyny is made prevalent online, where in an increasingly digital society, sexual violence claims are no longer believed and are instead discussed and negotiated in a increasingly sceptic society.

Bibliography

Aizin, R. (2024). A Complete Timeline of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s Feud (Including the Latest in their Legal Battle). People.com. https://people.com/blake-lively-justin-baldoni-legal-drama-timeline-8785868

Banet-Weiser, S. (2018). Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11316rx

‌Banet-Weiser, S., & Higgins, K. C. (2023). Believability: Sexual Violence, Media, and the Politics of Doubt. Polity.

‌BeeBetterCompany. (2025). The Downfall of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds [Video The Downfall of Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds]. In TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@bee.better.company/video/7494537230254509367?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7505788868139795990

Flaa, K. (2024, August 10). The Blake Lively interview that made me want to quit my job. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2-2RBi1qzY

Reddit — The heart of the internet. (2025). Reddit.com. https://www.reddit.com/r/teamjustinbaldoni/

Stahl, J., & Avila, P. (2025). Blake Lively lawsuit revelations: Actress sues Justin Baldoni, cites “severe emotional distress.” USA TODAY. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/12/31/blake-lively-sues-justin-baldoni-sexual-harassment/77262111007/

‌

Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny (2018) is a book created by Sarah Banet-Weiser that discusses the impacts of ‘popular feminism’, and its reactionary ‘popular misogyny’, in the context of online media platforms. Her book highlights the importance [or lack thereof] of visibility online, where some feminist movements are made more popular if they can be commodified, illustrating how ‘popular’ feminism follows a neoliberal, capitalist narrative in an ‘economy of visibility’, where visibility itself is of monetary value. Banet-Weiser (2018) exposes the deeply intwined relationship between popular feminism and popular misogyny, using the term the ‘funhouse mirror’ to demonstrate how, with every popular feminist movement, popular misogynist movements find a way to distort feminist movements as personal ‘attacks’ on men. Furthermore, these contradictory movements and their visibilities do not hold the same impact on society: while popular misogyny is seen as a norm and shapes reality [e.g. increased violence towards women], the mere visibility of popular feminism is seen as the end ‘solution’ to gendered issues.

Banet-Weiser (2018) expands on work created by Gill and Orgad’s (2021) book Confidence Culture, in which Gill and Orgad argue there is the growing ‘popularity’ of a ‘confidence culture’ in which brands promote self-confidence in women, often with the larger goal to commodify a product which can ‘solve’ their low self-esteem. Gill and Orgad (2021) highlight the implications this has on women, claiming this ‘confidence culture’ portrays confidence as individual solutions to systemic inequalities, pressuring women psychologically to ‘just be confident’, ignoring systemic issues that cause women to lack confidence. Banet-Weiser (2018) contributes to this argument by discussing how popular feminism [including confidence culture], although seemingly impactful [especially to misogynists], holds no real power in creating systemic change.

Furthermore, while Gill and Orgad (2021) highlight how the popularity of ‘confidence culture’ online can create negative individual implications for women, Banet-Weiser (2018) highlights the darker implications of popular feminism: the misogynistic reactions to these popular feminism movements made visible online, and how popular misogyny manifests itself in the real world [e.g. death threats, doxxing, physical harm, or manipulation].

Although Banet-Weiser’s (2018) highlights the asymmetrical visibilities of feminism and misogyny made through media platforms, I argue this book’s discussions are slightly outdated due to fast-evolving social media, such as the rise of TikTok influencers and the growing reliance on social media from younger audiences (Eddy, 2022). For example, Banet-Weiser (2018) discusses the impact of celebrity feminism in creating media visibility, however, fails to mention the rise of the ‘influencer’ celebrity, and the rising growth of influential ‘everyday people’ and their potentially harmful opinions on young audiences. This criticism of outdatedness was supported by another student, who stated their book was outdated as it discusses the media’s impact on race but fails to acknowledge the racial impact of AI, since the book was published a couple years ago.

Furthermore, the book itself [and Gill and Orgad’s Confidence Culture] is outdated as it fails to expand on current narratives of feminism today. For example, this book fails to mention the rise of the ‘femosphere’ which, similar to the ‘mansophere’ discussed in her book, discusses strategies on how to manipulate the other gender for own personal gains. In modern society, women are increasingly rejecting the popular feminism discussed in Banet-Weiser’s (2018) book due to being disillusioned by these previous mainstream feminist movements (Cooksey, 2021). This has opened space for new discussion online, where women are now giving up on the idea of fighting for equality and instead discuss how to manipulate the privilege men have for their own gains [e.g. how to look attractive to get a man’s financial stability], as some women are fearing gender equality will never be achieved (Kay, 2024). Therefore, although it is true that popular misogynist movements still exist, Banet-Weiser (2018) discusses a popular feminism that no longer exists today as mainstream. Popular feminist discourses online are no longer about ‘inclusivity’ or achieving gender equality. Rather, it is a regressive ‘feminism’ that promotes the use of hyperfemininity to manipulate the other gender. Since current politics [for example in America] are regressing feminist achievements, and seemingly are continuing to regress, this makes anxious women more vulnerable to regressive movements such as the digital ‘femosphere’.

Ultimately Banet-Weiser’s (2018) book is an essential contribution to the field of feminism in a digital context by highlighting how social media makes feminism popular but also has darker implications by also creating spaces for popular misogyny to flourish. However, due to the increasing advancements of social media platforms as well as the rising rejection of popular feminism due to modern anxieties, it would be beneficial to have an updated book applying her theoretical frameworks on current discussions of the ‘femosphere’ and its misogynistic reactions, as well as it’s growing impact on younger audiences.

Bibliography

Banet-Weiser, S. (2018). Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11316rx

Cooksey, M. (2021, July 29). Why Are Gen Z Girls Attracted to the Tradwife Lifestyle? Political Research Associates. https://politicalresearch.org/2021/07/29/why-are-gen-z-girls-attracted-tradwife-lifestyle

Eddy, K. (2022, June 15). The changing news habits and attitudes of younger audiences. Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2022/young-audiences-news-media

Gill, R., & Orgad, S. (2021). Confidence Culture [Review of Confidence Culture]. Duke University Press.

‌Kay, J. B. (2024). The reactionary turn in popular feminism. Feminist Media Studies, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2024.2393187