Thanks largely to the gains made by feminist movements throughout the 20th century, contemporary media images provide a new reimagining of femininity and feminism. This new interpretation of femininity offers a narrative where choice aspects of the previous feminine ideal, such as beauty, are retained while the negative characteristics of gender roles, such as weakness, are eschewed. In other words, this “girl power” discourse suggests that girls can be as powerful as men, but they can do it all while wearing a skirt. In Feminism Inc., Emilie Zaslow examines the influence the media’s promotion of girl power discourse has on the processes through which teenage girls construct their gender identities.
Zaslow introduces the voices of a diverse group of teenage girls from New York City. The girls vary by race and socioeconomic status, a methodological choice that helps to demonstrate how the process of understanding femininity is not individual to certain groups, but rather a collective experience shared by all who grow up surrounded by girl power media. Through focus groups and interviews, the girls discuss how they make sense of their gender identity through a number of different topics, including images of sexuality in the media, clothing and style, their ideas about the future and motherhood, and how they conceptualize feminism.
Through these conversations Zaslow situates girl power discourse in a neoliberal framework, one that highlights achievements by the individual and is less concerned about collective social change. Ultimately girl power can be seen as a “commodification of opposition to traditional femininity” (pg. 159), Zaslow argues. The girls are internalizing watered down feminist ideas that have been repackaged i...
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...ut their gender identity. Because many of these girls came to Zaslow with succinct understandings about how they see women portrayed in the media, a focus on girls who have yet to achieve that level of understanding would start to demonstrate the processes by which girls understand girl power media.
Feminism Inc. does a fine job of examining the intersection of media and real life on the part of these teenage girls. While Zaslow could have gotten caught up in a discussion of media texts, as the amount of media aimed at teenage girls is almost endless, she maintains a clear focus on how the girls understand and interact with this media. The struggle that these girls face as they try to reconcile media conceptions of girl power with the realities of their everyday life is an important issue, especially as an examination of how a new generation understands feminism.
Female beauty ideals are an overwhelming force in teen media. Approximately 37% of articles in leading magazines for teen girls emphasize a focus on physical appearance. This is none to surprising considering two of the top contenders in this media genre are Seventeen and Teen Vogue. CosmoGIRL and Elle Girl were among the ranks of popular teen magazines, but in recent years have become exclusively online publications. Add in a dash of publications Tiger Beat and Bop, and it becomes glaringly obvious that girls are charged with the prime directive of looking good to get the guy. The story becomes more disturbing when the actual audience, which includes girls at least as young as eleven years old, is considered. In a stage when girls are trying for the first time to establish their identities, top selling publications are telling them that their exteriors should be their primary concern of focus. Of course, this trend doesn’t stop with magazines. A study conducted in 1996 found a direct correlation between the “amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos” a...
In this book therapist Mary Pipher writes about her experiences at work with adolescent girls. It is intended to make the reader aware of the perils of being a teenager in today's sexualized and media-saturated culture. She talks about how this new and more hostile environment affects adolescent girls' emotional growth and development, and how hard it is to stay true to yourself while trying to fit in with peers. For the most part this book is Dr. Pipher's attempt to reach out to adolescents, as well as their parents and teachers, and tell them that this "problem without a name" is not a death sentence but rather a journey to adulthood, and tells adults how to help these impressionable young girls through what might be the most trying period of their lives.
Orenstein explores the rise of Girl Power in the 1990s and the differences that are in today’s society. The rise and fast spreading message that girls receive from the Disney Princesses is one of her biggest issues. Not only does she disagree, but other mothers from Daisy’s preschool do as well. In the second chapter Orenstein invites all the mothers with daughters that are obsessed with Princesses to discuss the subject, one mother states that she sees no problem with encouraging being feminine and then states, “On the other hand, I a...
Men do not have the benefits of equality either, they are also limited by societal expectations and having to fulfill the requirements of what it means to “be a man”. Gender roles shape the fabric of our society. In the documentary Tough Guise, Katz chronicles the socialization of boys from the moment they are born and as they grow up. Tough guise explains how the entertainment industry feeds messages about masculinity which exclude basic human qualities such as compassion, and vulnerability. These are portrayed as feminine with a negative connotation implied (Earp, Katz, Young and Rabinovitz 2013). In American modern culture children of both sexes are consuming large amounts of media on a daily basis. The documentary MissRepresentation explores the media’s role in the shaping of our society; specifically the media’s treatment of women. When it comes to girls and women, marketers have made substantial profits from objectifying women and setting an unattainable standard of what it means to be beautiful. Hyper-feminized women are all over the covers of magazines, hypersexualized in advertisements, and in movies. Women have to walk a very thin tightrope and the expectations for a good woman are contradicting (Newsom, Scully, Dreyfous, Redlich, Congdon, and Holland
Over the last twenty years the Guerrilla Girls have established a strong following due to the fact that they challenged and consistently exhibited a strong supportive subject matter that defies societal expectations. In an interview “We reclaimed the word girl because it was so often used to belittle grown women. We also wanted to make older feminists sit up and n...
I chose these four journal writings because I believe they are the strongest pieces I have written from the second half of the semester. The main focus of these journals was based on readings under the women as objects topic. The oppression of women has led to females being objectified and used as gratification for men. A woman’s body and appearance have become a commodity, especially in the media. Films, television shows, music and advertisements use women’s bodies to attract their audience and sell products. The movie watched in class “Killing Us Softly 4,” highlights this fact while presenting how women are represented throughout the media. The media has set and perpetuated a particular standard of beauty that is restrictive, but for some many women completely unattainable. The women represented in the media are young, thin and have western or European characteristics. Where does that leave the majority of women that do not fall under this category? This leads to women developing eating disorders to achieve an ideal body image that is manufactured through Photoshop and other picture editing systems. Women of color, women with disabilities or any woman that does not follow this standard is not represented within the media. When a few women do break this mold and become famous, they are set at a different standard. These women’s differences become the highlighted feature of their fame. However, the one constant in the media when it comes to women is the objectification and sexualization of women. This sexualization can lead to aggression or violence against women and the perpetuation of rape culture. The images viewed in the media directly impact how women view themselves and how others view women. By examining the issues women f...
Miss Representation, a documentary film produced by Jennifer Siebel Newsom released in 2011, presents a contemporary issue which is the misrepresentation of women’s portrayal in mass media. The media is powerful in shaping audience’s belief in how to be feminine. Women are expected to be beautiful, attractive, and even sexual on the media to attract audience’s attention. Also, the film points out the existence of social system in which men are considered more powerful and dominant than women. Finally, the film tries to increase the awareness of female real value including capability, educational achievement, and leadership. Consuming the media wisely to eliminate gendered stereotypes can help young women build their confidence and be successful.
...locaust Girlhood Remembered. New York: Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2001. Print.
Feminism is a common topic in the media nowadays, especially because of how many breakthroughs women are making. In 2016, a woman is nominated for President of the United States by a major political party and many science fields are becoming dominated by women. But it appears that many people are not aware of what exactly feminism is. With such a powerful movement, it is no wonder that feminism includes controversies over the exact definition. According to Shaw and Lee, feminism includes two core principles: inclusive and affirming of women and femininity; and equality and justice (p. 13). By being inclusive and affirming, feminism celebrates the achievements of women and strives to continuously provide a positive stance towards women and feminine
In “Little Girls or Little Women? The Disney Princess Effect,” Stephanie Hanes covers the sexualization of young girls and women in every aspect of the media that influences children and teens. She explains that girls see media figures, movies, and sports being sexualized, and how this is causing children to associate looking and acting a certain way to being ‘the perfect women’. Hanes believes the hypersexualized media is causing girls to obtain a negative body image and it’s killing their self-esteem. The author proposes what she believes society should do about overcoming this obstacle, and how people can crush the stereotypes about women; to her everyone is responsible and should aid in fixing these problems. She explains that the media
In "Where the girls are: Growing Up Female With the Mass Media," Susan Douglas analyses the effects of mass media on women of the nineteen fifties, and more importantly on the teenage girls of the baby boom era. Douglas explains why women have been torn in conflicting directions and are still struggling today to identify themselves and their roles. Douglas recounts and dissects the ambiguous messages imprinted on the feminine psyche via the media. Douglas maintains that feminism is a direct result of the realization that mass media is a deliberate and calculated aggression against women. While the media seemingly begins to acknowledge the power of women, it purposely sets out to redefine women and the qualities by which they should define themselves. The contradictory messages received by women leave women not only in a love/hate relationship with the media, but also in a love/hate relationship with themselves.
The title Miss Representation emphasizes that the way we portray women in the media is a
The “Bad Girls Club” display groups of women who are obsess with drinking and violent behavior to handle their situations, shining the light on negative stereotypes, defining a “bad girls” and the influencing young girls in today’s society. The way these girls act on TV is the way the media portray women as vulnerable and in need of male attention. By depicting women solely as physical objects, we rarely see them as powerful. Women have often seen each other as competition in many realms of their lives and so have become adept at quickly sizing up their female competition as to what makes a women’s woman (Kramer 210).The show 's has a foundation of seven women with personal, social and psychological problems, who consider their self to be
In just a few decades The Women’s Liberation Movement has changed typical gender roles that once were never challenged or questioned. As women, those of us who identified as feminist have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at...
The collaboration between Walt Disney Productions and International Cellucotton Products Company Inc.(Kotex) may have been a result of financial trouble, but nonetheless purports rather unrealistic expectations for adolescent girls. I came to discover The Story of Menstruation as part of a desire to understand the various complexities of girl culture in American society. In doing so, I noticed that the dichotomous media texts marketed toward girls during the mid-century were as difficult a terrain to navigate as much of the media presentations are today. Such materials perpetuate Judith Butler’s theory of gendered performance which underline society’s construction of femininity in order to define what it means to be a “girl.” The primary sources throughout this study often created conflicting messages for adolescent female viewers. For example, Kotex attempted to market a modern woman and was influential in the beginning of a menstrual hygiene education curricula, yet the company simultaneously was also perpetuating quintessential American ideals. Similarly, sex education curricula of the 1940s point to the importance of educating female students about their bodies, yet sexual desire, masturbation, and infidelity were only typically discussed regarding the male