When one closes their eyes and hears the word feminist, one can imagine seeing a mob full of women marching down the street burning their brassieres while chanting anti-male chants, while holding signs that sheds light on the unfair treatment women were exposed to for several decades. On the other hand, if one closes their eyes, and hears the word feminine, one can imagine seeing either a dainty female looking sweet and innocent, something like a princess, or a lady with “tasteful” sex appeal. These images along with other images associated with femininity and feminist comes from how the media, new papers, and stories portray them. Looking on the surface, they seem quite the opposite in nature. In Claire Miye Stanford’s essay “You’ve Got the Wrong Song: Nashville and Country Music Feminism” Stanford poses a question, “Can a show that is so ostensibly interested in the ‘feminine’…also be feminist?” (Stanford 277). At first glance, one would disagree, but more TV shows are portraying their leading women as a feminine feminist. Shows like Nashville, Insecure, and Orange is the New Black are breaking the boundaries and changing the views on what the new feminine feminist looks like. On the TV show Nashville, the main characters, Rayna and Juliette, have their differences, but both stand firm in the power of the woman. Rayna the singer, is older and has experienced success in the music industry. This provides Rayna a different set of struggles; to remain relevant in an industry
In the recent history, feminism and pop culture have become more closely entwined than ever before. This can be partially because of the growing interest in culture studies as an academic discipline, but it can also be explained by the fact that, there’s a whole lot more popular culture to watch. Pop culture has become our common language, a universal way of uniting the world. Pop culture is also a key route to making the concept of feminism both resonant and relatable. In this paper, I am interested in the relationship and connections between pop culture’s representations of women and girls and the depiction of feminism through the lens of pop culture. There’s a
Early feminism was typically focused only on white women, likely because racism was still extremely prominent at the time feminism began emerging. It was not until Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the term “intersectionality” in 1989 that feminism started to look at oppressed group’s needs (Nash, 2008, 2). Intersectionality is a way of thinking that acknowledges that when a person has identities that belong to more than one oppressed group, it impacts their quality of life more negatively. In this paper, I will argue that intersectionality is important in the discussion of feminist theories and activism because it ensures that feminism is for all women, not just a select group of them. Intersectionality has changed the way the feminist movement handles the overlapping of different identities, which has helped feminist theorists understand the experiences of women of colour much more clearly. While intersectionality has a very important role in the conversation and practice of feminism, there are certainly critiques of the concept that should be brought up. These critiques, however, can offer a way to improve the study of intersectionality.
This book’s major argument is how women are shown by contemporary media and popular culture in mixed messages. Douglas focuses on the ways women are portrayed in popular music, such as dancers wearing barely any clothes and doing inappropriate things in rap videos; to the empowered women warriors in television, such as Xena: Warrior Princess, Dark Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer; to the female players, such as Sarah Palin and Hilary Clinton. Her arguments and points are very valid, I personally think. “Since the 1990s the mass media has increasingly reported that women have “made it,” that they achieved gender equality. On television women occupy important jobs like doctors,
In light of this year’s monumental and thought provoking presidential election between business magnate, Donald Trump, and New York senator, Hillary Clinton, the misogynistic rhetoric drew controversial division amongst the country. The value and significance of a woman have advanced from the cult of domesticity to a politically intricate executive, but that graduation exhibits seldom progress for women in media such as television, film, and theater. The depiction of females deters the accuracy and complexity of African American and latino women and limits their characteristics as peripheral, unoriginal, and one-dimensional objects of a man’s pleasure. Absurdity conveys in continuously seeing women setting the tables, giving a kiss on the cheek
Throughout history women have been depicted and treated as an inferior to the male all aspects of life. It is without debate, that to this day, like many other countries, the United States of America is a patriarchal society, valuing men over women and using various tactics to oppress women by constructing gender roles. These gender roles are thrust upon people before birth and are reinforced through society within the media. This object here is to provide an overview of the portrayal of women in magazines from the late 1800’s to present day. As the years progress, so do the number of women’s rights. While women are still fighting for equality, the birth of feminism has done much to close the gender gap. Mass media, magazines in particular, facilitated in fostering a stereotype which became the standard, and continues to be, used by society. A society that continues to oppress and suppress its women. However, as the mass media has the capability to demystify, or to bring down and/or destroy a particular group or person, they also have the ability of mystification, or emulating a person or group into society’s graces. I plan to review how women were portrayed since this country’s inception with an analysis of how gender equality might be possible today.
The paramount of social adversities facing the modern society is the divide between definitions of gender. Gender represents an abstract interpretation of sex and this notion is simply a societal construct. The establishment of gender has evolved into a tradition of humanity, however this tradition evolved into a social divide between masculinity and femininity. The pressure to conform to societal constructs of masculinity and femininity poisons society and branches off to toxic masculinity; such were nurtured from these figurative beliefs. Gender roles further stigmatize the victims who refuse to conform. However, gender roles has witnessed a revolution in modern times. The purpose of this collateral involves analyzing the evolution of gender roles present in media from mid 19th century to modern times. The period of time, or 1960’s, was chosen because of post World War II’s effects on stereotypes in society around the world. Post war not only challenged stereotypes but further kindled women’s role in the workforce and women began to fill in roles previously belonging to men. In later years, a radicalization of the feminist movement has spurred and our modern times is a witness to its ascension to the paramount of feminism. The media, since the 1960’s, has allowed society to be the primary witness. With the evolution of gender roles, the media must also adapt to the changes in societal views of gender roles and the entire feminist movement at large. This collateral seeks to
15). By foregrounding the complexity of gender in a postfeminist culture increasingly opposed to gender-specific analysis, Levine reminds us that these projects of feminist media analysis are as important in the twenty-first century as they were during the early days of feminist studies.
The 1970s was a decade of flashy outfits, progressive movements, Barbies™, Farrah Fawcett, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Television shows were popular at this time in the 21st century, as was the oversexualization of female sex symbols in the shows. At a time of progressivism in America, and at a height in the feminist and women’s liberalism movements, the presence of female lead characters in the show was important, but their portrayal as TV sex symbol women ultimately made their presence harmful to the movements. The TV’s sex symbols attracted viewers, but the dynamics of the television show ultimately strengthened the belief that men and women aren’t equal. This was actually harmful in the feminist development of those that viewed these
Anna Rogers, a graduate student at the University of South Carolina, analyzed sexist themes present within popular country music songs and found that “many sexist themes exist, including depicting women in traditional gender roles, describing relationships with women in unrealistic ways, and attributing a woman’s worth strictly on the basis of her physical appearance” (Rogers). Unsurprisingly, male artists sang almost every song Rogers found to analyze for lyrical content, but this was not intentional. She simply used the Billboard Hot 100 chart to determine which songs were considered the most popular. This further illustrates that the genre is not only dominated by men, but it is also dominated by men who tend to express sexist views lyrically, which can then influence their listener’s opinions on gender roles and gender
For our activism project, my sister, Maggie, and I went to the Ziibiwing Center in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. We live in the near-by village of Shepherd, so we decided to visit the Center while we were home for Easter break. I had been interested in visiting the Center for a number of years and saw this project as the necessary push to finally act on the desire. Mt. Pleasant is located right next to the reservation of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. At times is hard to tell where the reservation ends and the city begins. The Ziibiwing Center was opened in 2004 to help preserve the Anishinabe culture, honor their ancestors, and to educate people on the culture as well. The Anishinabe are the Ojibwe (Chippewa), the Odawa (Ottawa), and the Potawatomi.
I argue that the introduction of feminism into mainstream pop culture has been deliberately controlled, manipulated and harmfully misrepresented in an attempt to thwart the movement’s natural evolution and progression. This essay will explore the various aspects to such an argument in a number of steps. Firstly, I will begin with a necessary and brief history of both First and second wave feminism as well as a general evaluation of the current gendered system. I will go on to then discuss new age pop culture and mass media, as well as its involvement with the erroneous, sexulisated and popularized version of feminism that has been specifically highlighted within the new millennium. Consequently, I will also discuss how this is tied in to both the objectification, and subjectification of women and the recent shift between the
My favourite constellation is Orion (the hunter). I chose this constellation because I am very interested in Greek mythology (which is where the story of this constellation comes from), and I often see this constellation in the night sky. Orion can be found throughout the world and is on the celestial equator. It is one of the most well-known constellations in the sky. Orion is most clearly visible from February to November. This constellation is comprised mainly of 7 stars - three make up Orion's belt, two make up his feet, and two make up his shoulders. Alnilam, Mintaka and Alnitak are the three stars in Orion's belt, Betelgeuse is his right shoulder, Bellatrix is his left shoulder, Rigel is his left foot and Saiph is his right foot.
Within Western culture, mass media contributes to the social construction of gender roles and has a direct effect on the social structure of society. The media uses advertising, television, and film to help facilitate these changes. This idea will be explored using theories rooting from intersectional feminism when comparing gender stereotypes, discrimination against transgender people, racial stereotypes, rape culture and reasons for these portrayals in popular culture.
Scandinavians attach their ideals and perspectives to their fictional narratives. As literature also entails, Scandinavians value egalitarianism in their society. In order to achieve an equal society, Scandinavians attempt to first instill equality amongst genders. Through Scandinavian literature and films, it has been evident that society has made successful progress towards removing traditional views. However, instead of reaching equality for both sexes the Scandinavians have evolved more towards the other side of the spectrum – feminism. So through what mechanisms does Scandinavian fiction portray the rise of feminism as the step away from masculinity?
FEMINISM Introduction to Sociology Feminism Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. The movement organized around this belief. Feminism Feminist Theory is an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide.