Lady Gaga’s Meat Dress – A Feminist Statement?

Lady Gaga’s famous meat dress raised many question as to what its meaning was. She wore it for the MTV Music Awards, just days after appearing in Japanese Vogue wearing a meat bikini. Some felt the dress spoke out against the treatment of women in the music industry. Others felt it was a just one more of Lady Gaga’s death references. Others again felt it was a statement on mutability. In an interview with Ellen DeGeneres after the show, Lady Gaga explained that it was a statement against the horribly discriminatory policy in the US military, who accept homosexuals into the army, so long as they are not outspoken about it. She stated that it also meant that she wanted to be seen as more than a piece of meat.

Is Lady Gaga a Contemporary Feminist Icon?

Many Lady Gaga followers feel that she is a true contemporary feminist icon. She speaks out against discrimination by drawing our attention to it. Women are still seen as a piece of meat, hence she dresses as one. Women are only good for sex, hence she sings about sex. Those opposed to Lady Gaga feel that it is quite the opposite: she is nothing but an offbeat sex object. They also feel that Lady Gaga represents the true end of the sexual revolution. She has tried to copy the styles of Madonna and Marlene Dietrich, who were truly pansexual feminist icons; but Lady Gaga has been described as an asexual fake.

The main criticism of this argument, however, is that it appears to be necessary to be sexually attractive in order to be a female icon. This is completely opposing to feminist ideologies. In as such, Lady Gaga being as asexual as she is once again becomes a contemporary feminist icon.

Lady Gaga as a Contemporary Feminist Icon

Like her or not, there is only one way we can answer the question “is Lady Gaga a contemporary feminist icon”. The answer is “yes”.

Lady Gaga is a feminist in her name: Lady representing what is expected of women (lady-like behavior) and Gaga representing the insanity of these oppressive ideas. In her clothing style, Lady Gaga has often been compared to a woman trying to be a drag queen. Drag queens exaggerate female qualities by trying to demonstrate that what is expected of women is not natural. This is, in effect, what Lady Gaga does in her clothing. Lady Gaga is everything that the misogynistic ideology of a woman is not. She is barely feminine, she is not meek and subservient, she is highly opinionated and she has her own life, with the same, if not higher, level of successes than male artists have.

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 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.

The Four Characters in Sex and the City

Carrie Bradhsaw is a columnist and the main character of the show. Her column discusses the different aspects of her relationships, both with men and with her friends. She is also well known for her dress style.

Samantha Jones is the highly sexual older friend. She has a variety of lovers and constantly discusses her bizarre sex life in very amusing ways.

Charlotte York works in an art gallery and has been brought up conservatively. She believes in romantic love and is forever looking for her knight in shining armor.

Miranda Hobbes is a career minded lawyer who is very cynical about men and love. In early seasons, she is portrayed as having quite masculine tendencies but this is softened up as the series progresses.

A Feminist Look at Sex and the City – Carrie

So, is Carrie a feminist? She lives alone and has her own job. She often does what she feels like and has an outspoken dress style. But is she a feminist? The series mainly focuses on her relationship with Mr. Big. Their relationship is on/off and Carrie alternates between enjoying the single life and feeling desperately lonely. In essence, her goal is to be with Mr. Big, which she achieves in the subsequent movie. Mr. Big is a high flying business man, exactly the type of man an archetypal woman wants to be with to feel secure. So no, Carrie is not a feminist.

A Feminist Look at Sex and the City – Samantha

Samantha could be seen as a feminist. One could say she uses men to her liking. However, she seems to need a variety of men in her life in order to feel happy. Again, not the most feministic outlook on life.

A Feminist Look at Sex and the City – Charlotte

Charlotte is probably the least feministic character of the group, in a very obvious way. She wants her knight in shining armor to settle down with and have children. A large part of the series focuses on her inability to have children and her adoption of a Chinese girl. Charlotte fully fits in with the misogynistic picture of women wanting nothing but to be carers and home makers.

A Feminist Look at Sex and the City – Miranda

Miranda is probably the most feministic of the group. She is a high flying lawyer in a male dominated world. However, as a woman, she always has to prove herself and really struggles with her career in the subsequent Sex and the City movies.

Sex and the City was supposed to look at the lives of women in a world where women and men are supposed to have equal opportunities and chances in life. If we look slightly deeper under the surface, though, the four main characters in the series and subsequent movies are anything but feministic, other perhaps than having a job.

Engels and Gender Oppression

Engels wrote the Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State, in which he analyzes gender oppression as being not a biological predisposition but of the complex system of family institutions in which men are the leaders and women are the subordinates.

Marxist Feminism and the Class System

Marxism is based on oppression of the working class by the upper class. The Marxist Feminism movement sees women as a whole as a class that is oppressed by the dominant male class. Their belief is that the enslavement of women was the building block of the economic system that is based on private property (capitalism).

Marxist Feminism and Prostitution

Using Marxism as the basis of their beliefs, Marxist feminists feel that any work that includes being paid a wage is equal to enslavement and a form of oppression. Prostitution is, in essence, labor and hence falls under the corruption of wage labor following Marxist feminism ideologies. In fact, prostitution is seen as the symbol of everything that is wrong with society. Not only is it oppressive and enslavement due to it being paid labor, but it is a complete domination of women by men.

However, some Marxist feminists disagree with this notion and see prostitutes not as wage slaves but as independent contractors. A prostitute can choose to see her body and sex as a commodity rather than a part of herself. Following the beliefs of philosopher Robert Nozick, a person’s rights predominate over anything else. Hence, a person has the right to choose to sell themselves into slavery or prostitution, so long as this decision is made by themselves with a clear mind.

How Marxist Feminism Has Been Criticized

One of the main criticisms of Marxist feminism is that the original Marxist theory did not explore gender inequalities. Although its political ideologies may be correct, these should not be applied to men and women as classes. Marxist feminism was also criticized by radical feminism, who felt that the issue lies in society being of a patriarchal nature and that capitalism is an institution created by men, which is the root of the problem, rather than capitalism in its own right being the issue. It is also felt by some that feminism is in essence a bourgeois movement, and the bourgeois class is exactly what Marxism tries to overthrow.

In conclusion, Marxist feminism basically coins the doctrines of Karl Marx by describing men and women as classes comparable to the bourgeois and proletariat as described in Marx’ teachings. However, many question whether this is applicable as Marx’ teaching never analyzed gender differences either on their own or as part of the bourgeois versus proletariat debate. Furthermore, the validity of the movement is questioned by many as the feminist movement is largely seen as a bourgeois concept.

The Black Women Feminist Movement

Black women often experience far higher levels of oppression than white women in the middle class of society. They argue that they have to deal with sexism, racism and class oppression. The black women feminist movement is better known as Womanism.

Womanism

Womanism was started by Alice Walker and in 1974 felt that if black women were liberated, this would mean there would be an end to all forms of oppression. Black women have struggled to be recognized not only by men, but also by other western feminists. The three issues that they were facing are:

• Proving to black women feminism is not purely for white women
• Convincing white women to share power with black women
• Fighting the misogynistic inclinations of Black Nationalism

Famous Black Women Feminist Movement Organizations

• The National Black Feminist Organization who fought against the many injustices that black women face, including racism, sexism, homophobia and classicism
• The Combahee River Collective was a primarily black lesbian organization. Many criticized them as being brain washed by man hating feminist organizations (particularly the liberal feminist movement). They worked very hard in creating battered women shelters and in supporting the reproductive rights movement

Famous Black Feminists

Some famous black feminists are:

• Mary Ann Weathers, who authored An Argument for Black Women’s Liberation as a Revolutionary Force
• Florynce Kennedy, author and civil rights lawyer and co-author of Abortion’s Rap
• Cellestine Ware, member of New York’s Stanton-Anthony Brigade
• Patricia Robinson
• Angela Davis, who demonstrated many black women were subjected to compulsory sterilization programs whilst white women who did not want children were not allowed to use birth control
• Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple
• Oprah Winfrey, journalist, TV host and producer

In short, the black women feminist movement is a movement that became necessary to ensure that existing feminist movements were complimented by being forced to look at women across all of society, not just white middle class. Black women have had to struggle with far more than sexism, including racism and classicism. Life for a black women would be made even more difficult if she was also a lesbian. The black women feminist movement has really achieved many important steps for women across the world, not just those of black origin.

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

Feminism is the struggle of women to gain equality between men and women. The movement initially started in the late 19th century when women started demanding the right to vote. The movement then developed further in women fighting for full equality, both in the home and in the workplace. Nowadays, these struggles are still current, particularly in relation to equal pay. Another issue that is very current within feminism is images in the media about women.

Femininity

Femininity, according to the Oxford dictionary, is “the quality of being female; womanliness”. It then uses an example by saying “she celebrates her femininity by wearing make-up and high heels”. This is exactly what fits into the current feminist debate: the first part of the definition talks about celebrating being a woman. Feminists thoroughly believe in this in as such that they are proud to be women. Some forms of feminism, in particular radical feminism, would already have an issue with this definition, because being proud of being a woman already makes a segregation between men and women.

The example provided, however, is specifically what feminists have an issue with. They feel that you can be a woman without wearing make-up and wearing high heels. This is an image imposed on women by a male dominated society.

Feminism vs. Femininity – Can They Go Hand in Hand?

Feminists are proud of being a woman and they are proud of the major progress they have achieved for women. There is nothing wrong with being feminine. Many feminists these days celebrate the differences that do exist between men and women. The issue is in what femininity means. If this definition is placed upon women through an image that is construed by men, then femininity and feminism can never go hand in hand.

Femininity should mean being a woman, but following the image that women want to portray on it. This does not necessarily mean wearing a specific type of clothing, having hair in a specific kind of way, wearing make-up or anything like that.

Clearly, feminism and femininity can go hand in hand. However, this will only be possible once the general consensus is around femininity meaning being a woman, not the definition that is given to the word “femininity” by male dominated images in the media, the social world and the professional world. A woman is feminine regardless of her body shape, hair style or clothing style. Every woman is feminine simply because they are a woman.

Can Women Join the Military?

Well, the simple answer is “yes”. And that would be the truth. The whole truth, however, would be “yes, but only in certain roles”. In general, most countries will allow women to serve in the army, but many active infantry roles are not open to them. In the United States, for example, women are allowed to serve in some combat arms positions.

Why are there Restrictions on Women Joining the Army?

One argument is that the female skeleton is not as dense as that of a male, hence it is not able to withstand as much G-force as males. This means that they are potentially unable to fly fighter jets as well as men can. However, scientific research demonstrated that due to women having shorter blood vessels in the neck, they were actually less likely to black out than men. The military provided a counter argument in saying that women have less endurance and less aerobic capacity, which are necessary for endurance. The debate continues.

A second argument is that many male soldiers have said they feel they would not be able to trust a woman in combat as much as they could trust a man. This would be disruptive, as soldiers need to have complete faith in each other. There is also a concern that romantic relationships could develop, which is particularly common in situations of extreme psychological stress.

It is also felt that an occupational risk of being a soldier is the possibility of capture, torture and possibly sexual assault. It is felt that women should not be in a position of being potentially subject to this. In many armed forces across the world, women are not allowed to serve on submarines. This is due to it being impossible to segregate men and women sufficiently. In the United States, there are a few exceptions at present, which include one day training or family visits.

Feminist Arguments

More and more military and non-military people (including men) feel that the current policies are creating armies that see women as second-class citizens. They agree that women have exceptional skills that could be of very good use in the army. With regards to submarines, many army officials argue that submarines are now much bigger and would be able to have a much better level of segregation, for example having dorms for men and dorms for women.