[Commlist] New book: Gender, Media and Voice

New book:
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/*Gender, Media and Voice: Communicative Injustice and Public Speech* 
<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.palgrave.com%2Fgp%2Fbook%2F9783030472863%23reviews&data=02%7C01%7Cjilly.kay%40leicester.ac.uk%7C9411a8e0d6134e6226e108d8344f51d9%7Caebecd6a31d44b0195ce8274afe853d9%7C0%7C0%7C637316862569288423&sdata=kgRbA%2FkaXrFUf3Vvev%2F8jZFPE4SjoArQF5TcSdSOfD8%3D&reserved=0>/
by Jilly Boyce Kay

*Book description*
This book explores the increasing imperatives to speak up, to speak out, 
and to ‘find one’s voice’ in contemporary media culture. For women in 
particular, this seems to constitute a radical break with the historical 
idealization of their silence and demureness. However, Kay argues that 
there is a growing and pernicious gap between the seductive promise of 
voice, and voice as it actually exists. While brutal instruments such as 
the ducking stool and scold’s bridle are no longer in use to punish 
'deviant' speech, this book proposes that /communicative injustice/ now 
operates in much more insidious ways.

It critiques the optimistic claims about the ‘unleashing’ of women’s 
voices post-#MeToo and examines the ways that women’s speech continues 
to be trivialized and devalued. Communicative justice, the author 
argues, is not about empowering individuals to ‘find their voice’, but 
about collectively transforming the whole communicative terrain.
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*Reviews *

“This timely and wide-ranging discussion of gender, media and voice 
demands a new approach to feminist media studies, one which centres 
intersectional communicative justice and asks urgent questions about 
representation, responsibility and access. Kay weaves a fascinating and 
historically-nuanced account which takes us from the ducking stool to 
Hannah Gadbsy’s /Nanette/, from the racist and misogynist abuse directed 
against British MP Diane Abbott, to the commercial and political 
exploitation of gendered inappropriateness by the alt-right. This is 
interdisciplinary scholarship at its finest: rigorous, thoughtful, 
provocative.” *Karen Boyle*


“What does it mean to have a voice? In this brilliant analysis Jilly Kay 
explores the contradictions of a culture which increasingly impels women 
to speak out, yet simultaneously punishes them for doing so. Exploring 
examples from talk shows to #MeToo activism, this important book sets 
out a nuanced and incisive understanding of the communicative injustices 
at the heart of neoliberal societies. Beautifully written, important and 
engaging.” *Rosalind Gill*


“/Gender, Media and Voice/ is a wonderful exploration of ‘communicative 
injustice’ and its amplification and contestation in contemporary media. 
Powerful, thoughtful and wide-ranging in scope, it offers nuanced 
readings of the gendered power imbalances manifest across a range of 
media forms, arguing persuasively and forcefully that we need to 
collectively take back the means of communicative production.” *Jo Littler*


“With insight, erudition, and sparkling prose, this book offers a 
much-needed feminist analysis of the myriad ways in which the violence 
of exclusion and erasure—of women, LGBTQ people, people of colour, 
working-class people, disabled people and other ‘others’—has taken place 
through normative conceptions of voice and good communication. Kay 
brilliantly demonstrates how the contemporary exhortation to “speak out” 
buttresses patriarchy and neoliberal capitalism by focusing on 
particular and individual voices, while provocatively--and 
rightly--insisting on the need for a cacophonous and collective voice 
that seeks to transform the entire communicative terrain.  A key 
contribution to feminist theory, this book highlights that any struggle 
for social justice must entail the struggle for communicative justice.” 
*Catherine Rottenberg*

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“What happens when women (try to) speak publicly? This important and 
thought-provoking work encourages us to think about the ways in which 
women have been denied voice.  Jilly Boyce Kay traces this phenomenon 
historically, offering a sophisticated discussion as to the ways in 
which women have been policed, silenced, derided and demeaned when 
publicly expressing their interests and views. At the same time, she 
carefully articulates how women are able to reclaim their voice.  Her 
conceptualisation of /communicative injustice/ neatly encapsulates not 
only what the problem is, but also entails the conditions needed for 
change.  Through developing the notion of ‘re(s)pair’ Kay articulates a 
powerful political call to action.  Her beautifully written and eloquent 
analysis also reminds us that silencing women is an issue of social 
justice - an issue, she argues persuasively, that can be addressed 
through rethinking not just what counts as legitimate or valuable 
speech, but the context in which we communicate, and the gendered nature 
of this terrain.” *Heather Savigny*



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