Lead Post for 2/3

Enlightened Sexism - Chapter 4

Susan Douglas begins chapter 4 with a look at the movie Clueless.  This film gained a female and, surprisingly, a male audience.  It was one of the first to utilize a female voice-over.  This revolutionary tool gave viewers a glimpse into the female psych; but was it genuine?  This voice-over articulated the same themes women were already feeling pressured to regard: shopping, romance, and motherhood.  

Douglas then reexamines the “Girl Power” movement previously discussed.  She looks to the band the Spice Girls as representatives of this phenomenon.  A complementary movement was occurring among males.  The boy band identity discouraged males from hyper-masculinity.  This alludes to a point Douglas later makes clearer.  The media reconstructs masculinity in such a way as to negate the need for the feminist movement.  Boys are displayed as sensitive caring individuals.

Douglas denounces the book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus by John Gray as implementing the damaging idea that men and women are inherently different.  Society casts men as immutable; therefore, women must change.  To do this, the 1995 guidebook for ensnaring men The Rules is available to women.  This horrific volume instructs women that, “He picks most of the movies, the restaurants, and the concerts the two of you go to.”  This deftly constructs the male’s pleasures and preference as being superior.  His partner becomes his partner no longer and simply his subordinate.  The Rules encourages women to deny themselves and instead perform stereotypes, “Don’t act like a man…don’t tell sarcastic jokes.” (page 105).

Douglas argues that the extremely popular Ally McBeal show was both feminist and anti-feminist.  On a feminist level, the show represents different women’s navigation of their success in a world that is hostile to that success.  These characters are competent lawyers who fight against sexual harassment. But it also paints the lead, Ally, as an over-emotional, petty, woman who allows those traits to impede her professionalism and who bemoans her lack of romantic love. 

Tying back to the Clueless thread, Douglas introduces Ally McBeal, What Women Want, and Bridget Jones’ Diary as other media products that claim provide the women’s true voice.  But as Douglas states, “This hailing of the pitiable, hapless, self-absorbed, marriage-obsessed Bridget Jones as the epitome of millennial womanhood pissed off a lot of females.”

None of the women in these portrayals gave much attention to anything of real value: morality, her work, politics, finances, etc..  Douglas acknowledges that these shows and movies were intended to be comedies.  But at some point, the comic value cannot trump the harmful stereotypes a joke perpetuates or creates.  This theme was echoed in Douglas’ look at Miss Congeniality and Legally Blond.

Towards the end, Douglas affirms what I believe to be one of her most important points.  With her critique of Down with Love, Douglas shows how women are told that feminism is out of date, that women truly do want love, and that men will be converted by their love into nice, caring people; this renders the feminist movement unnecessary.

Chapter 5

Douglas begins this chapter with what can best be described as a Wanda Sykes worship session.  At first, Douglas’ lament that black women have access to extreme verbal power that white women do not was deeply disturbing to me. This introduction is later tempered as Douglas explores the contradiction in media depictions and the actual conditions of black women’s lives.  For black women, embedded feminism paints them as matriarchal tyrants who do not need feminism, and enlightened sexism paints them as music video girls.

Douglas then explores the rise of images of black women in the media.  It began with rap.  Male dominated, this venue used to focus more on social commentary and political critique.  It has become increasingly focused on sex and its videos on objectifying women

The female rappers on the scene, such as Queen Latifah and Salt-N-Pepa, attempted to engage male rappers in a dialogue about gender issues.  They sought to assert their own independence, strength, and sexuality.  This caused others to paint them as sluts to diminish their power. 

This increasing interest in hip-hop culture led networks to try to reach the black audience.  Though this demographic watched significantly more TV than the white audience, they were traditionally disregarded.  Fox sought to reach them implementing sitcoms with all black casts.  However, once Fox attainted status, these shows were dropped.

Living Single was an all black cast show with a different angle then those indicated above.  This show embraced feminist themes.  It showed how navigating between Black Speak and mainstream vernacular allowed individuals, black women, to move between both worlds.

Martin provided a contradictory viewing opportunity.  This show perpetuated unflattering stereotypes associated with black individuals in general but particularly black women.  The character Sheneneh was played by the male mastermind in drag to distorted extremes.

Douglas then delves into the wonderful realm of Oprah. Oprah creates a world where black and white woman can come together in unity.  Black Speak reminds viewers that Oprah has an outsider’s look at white culture, but Oprah doesn’t exclude her white views but rather gives them access to this in-crowd because they understand her Black Speak.  She represents embedded feminism because she has such power.  But, she encourages a personal move towards enlightenment not one of collective action to promote positive change.

Douglas acknowledges the pervasive contradiction by saying that, “The gulf between Oprah’s insistence that women, especially black women, can achieve anything, and Nelly’s reduction of black women to eager, rutting pornographic strippers in “tip drill” is as big as the Andromeda Galaxy and just as tough to cross” (page 151).

Douglas finishes the chapter with a critique Grey’s Anatomy’s Dr. Bailey.  She is one of the only females of the show that isn’t sexy and pursued.  Her career has disastrous affects on her marriage and her child.

Douglas finishes by pointing out how the sassy persona can trivialize the weight of what black women are trying to accomplish through their ire.  This final point relieved me; she completely ignored it in her initial introduction of the chapter, intentionally I am sure.  She does not give this concept much explicit attention, but it is an important one nevertheless.