It may be about feminism, but it's rarely from the feminist's mouth.
Before taking this class, I hadn’t really heard much of anything on feminism. Sure, I had acquired some news about their strength in fighting for our right to vote, but other than suffragists, I had no idea who they were, much less if I was even one of them. I had always wondered what it would have been like back then, but I never thought to myself that what they were fighting for years ago is still being fought for today. Not until entering this class had I received any information on their issues.
I mean, you hear all these stories about parades, protests, banners, and flags, but did that really show me what feminism was all about? The truth is, you don’t get much information on feminists and the issues they are fighting for from your average information resources. And the few articles and TV shows that do share feminisms from popular sources aren’t even hosted or presented by feminists. It may be about feminism, but it’s rarely from the feminist’s mouth.
Why aren’t we hearing more about the contributions the feminist movement has given to this country? Why are we not being educated in the classroom, not just in relation to the 19th Amendment being accepted in 1920, but also to this movement helping to win “class-action lawsuits against sexual harassment…[and] improved labor conditions?� (Jennifer Pozner Pg. 36). I certainly never knew that in 1993 (when I was 5 years old) Newsweek wrote a column about the anti-rape activists entitled “Stop Whining!� I was shocked when I read that in The “Big Lie� chapter of Pozner’s book.
Mass media is by definition our major source of information, and if we can’t trust that they will write objectively about current events, whom can we trust? One thing that really hit me was the quote that Pozner picked up from a Fox station manager who said, “We paid $3 billion for these television stations. We will decide what the news is. The news is what we tell you it is.� (Pozner Pg. 47) I had to sit in my chair and mull this over in my head I was so dumbstruck. It reminds me of those great movies like Equilibrium and V for Vendetta. The only difference with these movies and the reality of the nation is that the power source doesn’t lie with a single man in reality. In this world, big corporations are the people in control, and “We are the Product� (Pozner Pg. 45) that these corporations buy from the media. No matter what the textbooks tell us about us living in a free country, we are in submitting to censorship that occurs within our stream of information. All sources seem to be censored, whether it’s in textbooks, magazines, cable TV, or even a silly poster on a restaurant wall.
This is the major reason for why I never found out about all the progressive steps the feminist movement helped us take. My only question is, why? Why do the big corporations fear us to the point of slandering our theories? Why do they think they would lose business, lose profit, because it seems that at the heart of it all everyone wants peace and stability. Everyone wants to be seen as a human being, as an equal. No one wants to be abused or violated or subjected to indecent stereotypes. We are really no different, at the heart of it all, so why is it so hard to see this? Why do the big corporations not see this, and work towards building a better more stable future?
Yes, there are underlying reasons that I simply do not see. Maybe it’s just the fear of the unknown result from opening their eyes. It could be the fear of bringing to light the reality of the world instead of making a mockery of it (as sitcoms, commercials, and movies often do). I watched the Colbert Report a long time ago (in October), and as much as I love the man’s comedy, I felt like he took it a bit too far when he interviewed two feminists (their names escape me) while having them all make an apple pie. It was so demeaning because they were talking about important issues while their bodies were showing the stereotype of the female cooking show that all women watch while their husbands are at the office. I knew it was satire, but I couldn’t help feeling hurt by Colbert’s depiction of women’s issues. I’m sure the majority of the people in the audience weren’t even paying attention to the words that were being said because they were so focused on the humor of the whole scene, and the physical movements of the two women. I admit that I was one of the many who stopped listening and started simply watching the action happening on stage.
As much as I’d like to believe that this world is free and supports equality for all, the proof against that theory is too great to be so naïve.