Why is feminism so often considered a dirty word? I rather proudly attest to being a feminist. Nebulous as the term can be, I believe anyone can call themselves a feminist if they feel women deserve more than being treated like a doormat. It's that simple. And this perspective is certainly not limited to women. There are many male feminists who will shout it loud and proud.
Images of perfection get in the way, though. We are all socialized to think of women first in how they look. Prescribing how a "perfect" woman looks makes women become a commodity, like their worth is ascribed to their appearance. It is as if females are something to be owned, praised or berated, owned, "less than."
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| credit hollywood.com |
So why is it that in the year 2012 we are still seeing the objection of females so prevalent in entertainment and advertising? To this day, women are looked upon and treated as property. They are portrayed as products, not people. Not individuals with brains, goals, individual personalities, and earning potential.
Most television shows, popular movies, and waaaay too many advertisements feature women's bodies or stereotypes of them as their fodder. (i.e. google Bedchel test) They get the slutty part, the stupid part, the victim, the character who never speaks, or they aren't there at all. Looking totally perfect seems to be the most important thing about them. It's everywhere! I am most disgusted to see these impossible images directed at young girls. The pressure has reached such epidemic proportions it even delves into the cartoon world. This article about Minnie proves the point.
What the hell, people?! It's not bad enough to see size-2 to size-6 women are the supposed norm in real life. Now it's freakin' Minnie Mouse? I knew Olive Oyl must have been anorexic, but I thought that was somehow attributed to how she was carried around by Popeye and Bluto, and they couldn't have really been that strong (even in a cartoonish way). I've ranted before about Disney princesses, but Walt's little rodents have gone to the dark side as well. Sickening.
If calling myself a feminist can be attributed to one thing, it may be these stereotypes. And don't even get me started on the misogynists who hate feminists and send out their internet trolls to patrol them.
Young girls and boys need someone to tell them these images are messed up .. they're not right, they're not real, and that's not the way it should be. For them to grow up and be treated equally, as they deserve, they are the ones to grow their perspectives, evolve, take up for each other instead of break each other down, and fight to change their own futures.
Merida, the first lead female role in an animated film, is fighting back against gender stereotypes beginning this weekend. Brenda Chapman is to be commended for creating this young heroine! Let's hope she's created a fairy tale heroine who is also good box office.
It's about time someone took the initiative to let a girl play "first string" (bow & arrow pun intended). How refreshing to see a strong female heading up the cast, albeit an animated one, and showing no frills are necessary to do so. No perfectly quaffed hair, and no stinkin' tiaras necessary in the movie Brave! Just courage.
Pixar photo via article
I was, however, very disappointed to recently hear my five-year old son say he didn't want to see Brave because it's a "girl" movie. This may just be one flick I force him to see with me. We're going to overcome his already preconceived notion if I have to drag him kicking and screaming to adopt my point of view.
It's great to finally see some press addressing the subject, too. There is a great article in The New York Times and it, of course, is being covered by MissRepresentation spreading the news via their FB page. Here's to them and especially to Chapman ~ well done!
I just love Zooey Daschanel's New Girl on Fox, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. It's like going back to the days of Friends, without Monica's whining and all the marriage obsession. This new set of friends is hilarious, dishing out some of the funniest scenes I've seen on television since I don't know when. And I don't even like cute. Jess's version of cute is excusable in my opinion. It's more of a doe-eyed innocent way of looking at the world in an "aw shucks" way that I typically abhore.
The show is smart, funny and doesn't make fun of females in general, only Jess specifically for her goofiness. And the fun poked at her is done in a laughing-with-you type of manner. I wish I had the glass-half-full attitude where I could sing a solution to every sticky situation! While at first it seemed like she was socially awkward the guys had to save her, I think the show has moved on to show her saving them from their own (mostly drunken) idiocy. Hence the douchebag jar. It is, to me, a very human portrayal of a group of friends who embody characteristics ... good and bad ... of modern young adults for whom you can cheer as good people who help each other.
New Girl
An early but great feminist critique is at Broad Recognition.
It's so discouraging to see so many modern sit-coms go the way of covert misogyny. Even my favorite, Big Bang Theory, teeters on the edge of too many anti-women jokes. Especially via Howard. He's just smarmy enough to get away with it, though, through his obvious enrapture of Bernadette. I just wish they didn't have to "dumb down" the intelligence of Bernadette and Amy Farrah-Fowler by drawing them as flighty and a stoic, horny quasi-lesbian, respectively. It's almost as if they can't just be smart versus Penny's supposed lack of smarts without flawing them some other way. Not that either personification is actually flawed, just fixed as less than desirable by males. It just pisses me off, because Big Bang otherwise makes me lol every time I watch. No matter how many times I've already seen each episode. I counted during a recent TBS re-run (lol'ed 10 times).
Most of my viewing habits have gone the way of Modern Family, which was so progressive and wonderful in its infancy. The female characters are all dependent on male "bread-winners" and fall into stereotypical roles of either the dingy sex-pot, demanding shrew, slutty girl or smart girl. The males are pigeon-holed into either the blundering dad, his doofus son, an overbearing caregiver patriarch, or patent gay stereotypes for the male same-sex couple. Manny is the zinger-lined saving grace for the show.
I've said it before, and I'll spew it again ... it's because of women-hating writers like Lee Ahronson. I honestly believe, in my own conspiratorial paranoia, that he sits around with other Two & a Half Men creative team a$$h@le members who come up with this crap and try to hide it within the dialogue. "Let's make Claire Dunfy just as cloying as Debra Barone but still cute enough to be lovable." I didn't want to stop watching Modern Family but made myself boycott it. Once again, it's one of my little personal protests that nobody notices except me. I need to feel a sense of doing something to refuse being complicit.
What we see is what we accept as okay and ignore if we don't make ourselves discrimination what we're watching. I hate to see so many women who write, "Get over it, you uptight feminists" about things like this and the stupid fascination with utter shite like Shades of Grey. That's another rant for another day, but it helps make my point. Women thinking objectification, submission to male dominance, and misogyny's subterfuge of prime time sit-coms are okay is part of the patriarchal system that keep us back in the days before suffrage and the first wave. We sit idly by and slam each other for what we consider the "other" to be doing wrong. And there's no easy answer. Unfortunately, I'm not here to offer miracles.
I choose personal action and turn the channel, turn off the television, or not buy the book when I see it happening. And I don't do that when I watch New Girl. So thanks, Liz Meriwether!
It's not just men who act like misogynist idiots:
Vanity Fair reinforces sexist stereotypes
Why must these women be posed as lily-white angels? It must be that whole sexist whore/virgin thing. Is this really where we are stuck in 2012?
And the lower article being captioned, "Play it as girls' night in?" Come on, these are women! Mind you, they act like idiotic twits who are willing to trade their dignity for a corset and some fleeting fame. I can't stand to post the picture here.
All of them are naked, nearly naked, and are literally in positions to be looked down upon. Stuck in the pajama party obsession. Playing right into the part. You'd think women had just taken their first roles on television. I shake my head in wonder at why these actors willingly allow themselves to be characterized as fetish objects, objectifying themselves in the process, and being reduced to only bed-ridden objects of lust.
It just makes me sick. My effort in writing about it here is futile except to allow me to vent my anger and disgust. I guess I just expected more out of some of these actors, i.e. Claire Danes.
Fame and fortune rules the day.
One blogger is at least making some sense:
Women in TV Vanity Fair and Lee Aronsohn comments
Last Friday was Purple Day at five-year-old's preschool. They do fun themes like that from time to time where they talk about things that are a certain color and where you find them in the world. I have to admit, it's hard to find something for a little boy to wear on Polka dot Day. Purple, not so much.
My cynical little one professed that purple is a "girl color," and he didn't want to participate in the festivities. I am always taken aback when I find out how predisposed he already is to such a gender-specific way of thinking and work to thwart the budding sexism of public school exposure. When I told him that purple is not a "girl color" but more a color of royalty, he was nonplussed when I gave examples of Kings, Queens, Princes, et al who wear their regal violet robes. Hello ... how about Guppy Goe Bee from Bubble Guppies?
Call me a bad mom, but I harangued him so much about being a Purple Party Pooper that he put a purple-headed monster tattoo on his arm instead. He wanted to participate at the risk of my reverse teasing. I'll openly admit to that bit of shamed-based parenting. :)
I'm trying to ease him into being a mini-feminist. He has some sexist uncles and classmates already, and their influence is counter-productive to my own. The incredible stereotyping happens too early and so often! My initial reaction was that purple is NOT a girl color, and there's nothing the matter with it if it was or with anything else associated to being a girl for that matter.
Even if it is a part of kids' maturation to go through this sort of phase based on what other kids say, I never want my son to sound like his uncles. His dad knows it's forbidden in our house to say anything derogatory about throwing, sounding or acting like a girl. There is no such thing in our home, and I used to be a girl myself. Those statements are so negative and destructive, and the only place I can control this language is under my own roof. Plus, they otherwise get to hear me break into my rendition of:
"Anything you can do, I can do better. I can do anything better than you. No, you can't ... yes, I can. No, you can't ... yes, I can. Yes, I can! Yes, I can. Yes, I ca-a-a-a-a-a-n!"
My big finish is awesome. The best part of it all was when I picked up his artistic interpretation of Things that are purple from his hook at school today. The pictures are all cut from magazines, and it has a very regal rice-krispie treat spider, a little cell from a health ad about diabetes, a violet-colored wicker basket, and a pail with purple paint being dumped from it. The final item is a line of text from a magazine advertisement set on a lavender background that reads, "A better understanding of better intimate care." I assume it's from a tampon ad. How very apropos. My curiosity getting the better of me, I went straight to good ol' google. It is the registered trademark for "Cosmetics For Feminine Use, Namely, Foams, Lotions * , * and Powders Pharmaceuticals For Feminine Use, Namely, Creams [, ] For the Relief of Feminine Itching and Irritation, and * of * Other Skin Discomforts" by Combe Incorporated.
His purple poster had hung there all the weekend ... or maybe his dad was embarrassed and left it there on purpose. I chalked it up to serendipity but very ironic indeed.
