Responding to Jason's Post

In Enlightened Sexism by Susan Douglass, Douglass highlights the media’s portrayal of women. Douglass argues that the media’s portrayal of women as equal to men is a fantasy. I myself am guilty of living in this fantasy. References of the glass ceiling and inequality seemed more myth than reality. I grew up being told, “The sky’s the limit” and recently I have watched strong females like Hillary Clinton run for Presidency. However, I did not take into consideration the difference in salary between men and women or the negative press surrounding Hillary Clinton’s campaign because of her sex; or I chose to ignore it. Through this fantasy of equality the need for feminism becomes non-existent to many.

What I find very interesting, that Douglass points out, is that while the media portrays women with strong personalities and prestigious careers, they also objectify women in other cases. And this objectification is accepted by society because “it’s silly to be sexist; therefore, it’s funny to be sexist”(Page). And it’s okay to flaunt your sexuality in the media like the Spice Girls and Brittney Spears did in their music videos.

I grew up belting out lyrics to hit songs such as Wannabe by the Spice Girls, Hit Me Baby One More Time by Brittney Spears and watching shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, without quiet comprehending their roles in the feminist movement:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4 - Baby One More Time by Brittney Spears

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJLIiF15wjQ - Wannabe by the Spice Girls

In “Claiming and Education” by Adrienne Rich some thing that I have found especially interesting is that “when you read or hear about ‘great issues,’ ‘major texts,’ ‘the mainstream of western thought,’ you are hearing about what men, above all white men, in their male subjectivity, have decided is important.” It seems that men have written most of the books that I have read for both my modernity and western traditions classes. It was striking to me how little women were included in our history. Because of this I agree that there is a desperate need for women who will “no longer be wasted, raveled-away, paralyzed, or denied.”