Conclusions and Final Thoughts
Media is a big part of everyones lives. It is a great way for people to get their thoughts and opinions out there for everyone to see and hear. The media is a good way for feminists to show people what they believe and try and persuade them to see things their way. I don't think that you need to declare yourself as a feminist to count, I just think that you need to belive in the feminist ways and try and push or convince others into that way of thinking. I don't think that just believing in the things feminist say really means your a feminist I think you need to get out in the world and show others what feminists believe by getting involved and participating/following those beliefs. What I think makes media feminist is when it looks at the lives and experiences of women and notes the inequality between men and women socially, politically and economically. When the media looks at issues or situations that make men and women unequal and then tries to find a solution for it. I would say that Kimberly Peirce's film Boys Don't Cry is an example of a feminist film. It looks at the life of a teenage girl who wants to be a male. Throughout the movie you see how she reacts with other males when she is a male, she is one of the boys, but then when they find out that she is really female they abuse and rape her. I understand that it is a bit of a shock but she didn't need to be beat up and raped. It was amazing to see how the boys thoughts of Teena Brandon changed when they found out she was a girl, even though they knew her, hung out with her and enjoyed doing stuff together. It seems as though people think that a change in sex changes your whole personality, but there is nothing wrong, or at least I don't think, with women acting like men and men acting like women. Here is a link to Teenas mom's responses to the film about her daughter: http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/boysdontcry.php. I do think that there is a lot of media out there that could be classified as feminist. I would say media is feminist if it deals with the lives of women or an issue of inequality between men and women.