Available From UC Press

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.

Samantha Majic is Associate Professor of Political Science at John Jay College—CUNY. She is coauthor of Youth Who Trade Sex in the US: Intersectionality, Agency, and Vulnerability, coeditor of Negotiating Sex Work: Unintended Consequences of Policy and Activism, and author of Sex Work Politics: From Protest to Service Provision.

"A highly engaging and subtle account of anti-trafficking activism by celebrities. Samantha Majic's clear-minded depiction of the strengths and limitations of celebrity feminism is both illuminating and compelling. Lights, Camera, Feminism? greatly advances our understanding of the politics of performance, representation, and celebrity."—Michael Saward, author of Making Representations: Claim, Counterclaim and the Politics of Acting for Others

"Centered around anti-trafficking activism since the 1980s, this book is a clear, vivid, and important contribution to our understandings of feminist mobilization, the political uses of celebrity, issue-oriented activism, and the politics of performance."—Renée Cramer, author of Birthing a Movement: Midwives, Law, and the Politics of Reproductive Care

"Lights, Camera, Feminism? illuminates an increasingly important yet undertheorized set of political actors: celebrities. A fascinating read that pushes us to think about contemporary politics, and feminist politics in particular, in new and complex ways."—Elizabeth Bernstein, author of Brokered Subjects: Sex, Trafficking, and the Politics of Freedom

"Interdisciplinary, accessible, and thoughtful, this book will be of interest to analysts of human trafficking as well as those wanting to understand the power of performance in political life more generally."—Shirin M. Rai, coauthor of Performing Representation: Women Members in the Indian Parliament

"Samantha Majic’s timely, nuanced, and engaging book makes a significant feminist intervention into ongoing debates about celebrities’ political activism. Astutely focused on both the limitations and the possibilities of celebrity anti-trafficking activism, Lights, Camera, Feminism? is essential reading for all those interested in the increasingly complex relationship between celebrity and modern politics."—Anthea Taylor, author of Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster