Archive for Feminism
How Television Has Changed Feminism
Feminism as a movement originally started to ensure women were given the right to vote. From here on, the movement continued to fight for equal rights between men and women, both in the work place (equal opportunities and pay) and in the home. Feminism still exists today, and certain waves become stronger when new research is published for example around women still earning less for the same job.
The Role of Television in Feminism
Certain groups of feminism, in particular radical feminism, strongly disagree with allowing children to watch uncensored television, in particular advertisements, as these still portray a patriarchal society. We need to think only of advertisements for washing power or dishwashing liquids. Most of the time, these are delivered by women and when they are delivered by men, it is usually done in such a way that makes it feel very unrealistic. Although most feminists won’t go so far as to ban all television from their children’s lives, many do agree that television programs and advertisements still leave a lot to be desired as far as promoting equality between men and women.
Negative Female Role Models on Television
Two main issues truly show negative role models on television. These are role models only in the form of equality between men and women, as the list of negative role models in relation to self image would be endless.
The first issue is music videos, in which women are dressed in very little clothing and dance in very sexual ways around men who sing about what they would like to do to these women.
The second issue is once again advertisements. It was best explained by Mel Gibson in the movie “What Women Want”: advertisements, even those for female products, are directed at males. This is a two-fold gender inequality issue. Firstly, it objectifies women in relation to a product (think for example of an R&B singer promoting her latest perfume by walking seductively through a corridor) and secondly works from the preconception that the male is the breadwinner and makes spending decisions.
Positive Female Role Models on Television
Some of the most positive female role models on television were The Spice Girls. Like them or not, they reignited the wave of girl power and reached a worldwide audience. The idea of girl power is that women should be able to find happiness amongst their friends rather than requiring marriage to give them fulfillment. Criticism of the Spice Girls and their girl power ideology is that they were really glorified sex objects who paraded in front of men.
Another good example of a positive female role model on television is the Power Puff Girls. These are four little girls that have super powers and are out to save the world. In ordinary superhero movies or cartoons, girls tend to be sidekicks or at least accompanied by a man. In the Power Puff Girls, however, they act alone, although they are being raised by an elderly male professor. This, however, is felt by many feminists to be strength, because it points to another role reversal, portraying a male as a care-giver.
Mainly, the feministic movements of today try to ensure that more positive role models are present on our television screens and are vocally and visibly against the depiction of women as sex objects.
Sarah Palin and her Take on Feminism
Sarah Palin was the Republican’s vice-president nominee in the 2008 presidential elections in the United States. She could possibly be a presidential candidate in the 2012 presidential elections. She was also the youngest person and the first woman to be elected as Governor of Alaska.
Sarah Palin as a Feminist
One would consider that since feminism initially started as a movement to allow women the right to vote and the opportunity to be active at the highest levels of government, Sarah Palin is a true feminist. Sarah Palin and feminism, however, has been a widely discussed subject, many women feeling that Sarah Palin has no right to call herself a feminist, mainly due to her stance on abortion laws and gun control.
Sarah Palin and her Take on Feminism
Sarah Palin has said that you can be a feminist and still be against abortion, against gay marriages and pro gun. She has compared feminism to a grizzly bear, stating “the mama grizzlies, they rise up” and further adding that women should be able to have both a home life and a career and even suggesting that liberal feminists feel women cannot do both.
How Others Feel about Sarah Palin and her Take on Feminism
The statements made by Sarah Palin have been received by many with shock and anger. Some have gone so far as to suggest that Sarah Palin is a bigger woman hater than McCain and Bush put together and that there are only two reasons why she was chosen for the vice-presidential nomination:
- Sarah Palin is a woman, which would gain the Republicans some female votes
- Sarah Palin is nothing more than a woman trapped in a man’s body
Some Interesting Facts about Sarah Palin
There are some interesting facts that could totally invalidate Sarah Palin and her take on feminism:
- Sarah Palin is fully against abortion laws, including abortions in cases of rape or incest
- She does not believe in birth control, believing instead in abstinence
- Before being the Governor of Alaska for a very short period of time, she was mayor of a very small city. Before this, she was a beauty queen
- Sarah Palin refuses to form an opinion around equal pay for equal work
- Sarah Palin is unsure about whether people are born gay or whether they “turn” that way and has openly declared she would support a ballot question that would deny benefits to homosexual couples, stating that she felt honoring the family structure is that important
Although Sarah Palin has declared to be “a feminist and proud” and has even coined the phrase “conservative feminism” for her beliefs, most agree that she is a lot, but not a feminist. Her general policies and beliefs completely oppose feministic beliefs. She is anti abortion, anti gay rights and pro gun, which cannot in any way fit in with feministic ideologies. Many feel that she is trying to get women to vote for her by saying she is a feminist, when in reality she is just a woman who happens to be in a position of power, but wouldn’t really feel it is appropriate for other women to hold such a position.
Beauty Contests and Feminism
Beauty pageants or beauty contests are competitions that focus mainly on the physical appearance of their contestants. They do generally include a talent and personality part as well, but even these generally look at how beautiful the contestants look whilst performing their talent or answering questions.
Purpose of Beauty Contests and Pageants
Officially, the purpose of beauty contests is to celebrate specific cultures and races, such as Miss Black America. Pageants are also trying to demonstrate that there is more to life than beauty and expect their contestants to have a certain level of intelligence, particularly in the Miss World Competition.
Furthermore, it is claimed that pageants promote the self-esteem of those who take part, teaching them how to speak in public and giving them a sense of belonging in the pageant community. Lastly, some pageants encourage their participants to support a certain platform (a charity), and through this raise money for this chosen charity.
Beauty Contests and Feminism – The Attack
In 1968, a very famous demonstration took place at the Miss America pageant in Atlantic City. Unfortunately, this demonstration only fuelled the myth around feminists being nothing but bra burning psychos.
Feminist still wonder, though, why after all the demonstrations and struggles for equal rights, so many women still choose to play dress up for money. Feminists feel that it is fine, as a woman, to enjoy dressing up and doing your make-up and hair. However, being attractive is still far more important for women than for men and beauty pageants only reinforce this. Feminists have argued for over 40 years that pageants are a small part in the system of oppression of women that objectifies women’s bodies as being there solely to serve the pleasure of others (men).
Many feminists feel that pageants represent all that is wrong is society today: they openly discuss the importance of equal rights and women’s liberation, whilst at the same time making young girls walk around in bikinis to decide which one is the “prettiest”.
Beauty Contests and Feminism – The Defense
One of the main defenses is that pageants are almost fully female worlds. Naturally, the contestants are female, but evidently, so are the majority of the judges. There is usually a female co-host and evidently 40% of ticket sales go to women. It is also felt that celebrating female beauty is not a sexist notion, particularly since the women who take part choose to do so.
Beauty Contests and Feminism – The Counter Argument
The defense for beauty contests has been accepted with a sneer. The majority of judges being female does mean that not all of the judges are female. It is also felt that having a female co-host is a sexist notion: why is there not a female host? And 40% of ticket sales going to women still means that the majority of ticket sales go to men. On the argument of choice, many of the contestants are very young children who do not have any choice in the matter at all. Last but not least, there is never any mention of who provided the prize money and it is widely believed that this is provided by corporations ran by men.
Beauty contests and feminism do not, nor will they ever, go hand in hand.
Feminism and the Evolution of Women’s Rights
To the uninformed, feminism is about women gaining equal rights with men. This is a simplistic way of looking at it but feminism is more complex and profound than just a matter of equality with men. The philosophy of the feminist movement encapsulated the hidden and unexpressed desires of all peoples everywhere for human equality. Yes, feminism is a movement that stands for women’s rights but it does not end at simply claiming equal rights with men. It is a movement which knows that every human being was created equal and pushes for the expression of that certainty in every sphere of life from professional to public life and also in personal life.
A Brief History of Feminism
Although it was not until the late 19th Century that the terms ‘feminism’ and ‘feminists’ were used, it was a concept that had existed for a very long time. Wherever women’s rights were at the forefront of a struggle, that term could be ascribed to those who were leading the struggle. However, in feminist studies, the term Protofeminism is what is given to these movements that took place before the modern feminist movements.
The modern movements are usually classified into three waves: The first wave feminism; second wave feminism and the third wave feminist movement. For the first wave movement, there had been women who were at the forefront of the argument against the inequalities suffered by women and these women were quite vocal. Women like Mary Wollstonecraft who was an author and thought leader in early 19th Century Britain.
But it was much later that an organized movement was formed by a group of middle class women. This movement had as its major focus, issues touching on the education and employment of women. They also focused on the marriage laws of the time. Their struggle was personal and the movement was formed in protest to the lack of women’s rights experienced by all. Although they are now referred to as feminist, they did not give themselves that name and it is highly doubtful that they even saw themselves as such. But thanks to their struggle, the rights of women to own property was finally recognized and the Married Women’s Property Act of 1870 was the direct result.
The second wave of feminism refers to the feminist movements that seemed to take place almost, but not quite simultaneously, around the world. During this wave, several feminist movements were taking place in New Zealand, India, the United States and Britain. All around, the call for the protection of women’s rights was being made. It was during this period that feminism got its negative association mostly because there were different divergent thoughts guiding the different movements and even in the US, there was no unity. Lesbian and racial issues were at the forefront of this wave along with issues such as contraceptive health and abortion.
The second wave left a sour taste for a lot of people and to address the inadequacies of that movement, the third wave was born. This was in the 20th Century and it looked for means of changing the perception of feminism associated with the second wave; that it was a movement of a group of upper middle class, white women. As a result, this wave focused a lot on racial prejudices and work place inequality. It is what is now known as modern feminism and what is popularly practiced by most feminists.
Feminism today is a mixture of all the different waves. It is not a separate movement but an extension of what has gone before. The main focus was, and still is, the protection and propagation of women’s rights wherever they are being trampled upon.