Soc. 3251W Race, Class, and Gender

I agree with your perception that the media both gives and takes away from the Women’s Movement. However, I disagree with the statement that claims that the media is the only source of stereotypes against women or feminist theory and initiative. I like the way that Richard Butsch said it, “Overtime, stereotypes are merged into character types that recur time and again and have a special importance in the culture as stock images…�. I believe the negative attitudes towards the working class, servants, “minorities�, and women existed long before the printing press, the radio, or the television. The stereotype of women being lesser then men is reality in practice. What I mean by that statement is, how many female presidents have there been in the U.S.? Why do women still make less then men do? The list goes on and on. The images of women presented on television for the last five decades only present the “stock images� that perhaps our culture relates to most comfortably. I think the biggest issue for Feminists in the media is that when fighting unfair treatment and perceptions of women and men in our American culture; we feminists are entering into a territory that has predetermined ideas about sex/gender that have prevailed for so long already. Going up against these constantly reinforced generalized images the Feminist movement already has a great deal of work cut out for them. Then there is the anti-feminist image that appears time and time again in the media. Debra Baker Beck cites many of the typical negative slurs, radicals/bra-burners/hairy/dyke/man-bashers/ect. Which leads me to want to ask, how does one fight against a negative image-pumping machine (the media) with a evil face painted on them (feminists/equality fighters), when they are just getting started (the Movement)? Is feminism significantly helped or setback by the media? Both, both, and both…that is my response. Negative stereotypes in the media only generalize and hurt the individual, and the equal rights movements. The Women’s movement deserves more press in areas outside of what Marilyn Crafton Smith called the, “field of allowable images�. Young women that see equality in the future but the movement as man-hating or specifically gay are going to avoid this movement on large-scale. This negative imagery presented by the media slows the women’s movement. However, it is better to know an idea is out there then to never see it at all.

I feel that although media does succeed with negative stereotypes, it could exist without. Life is full of detail and excitement that doesn't have to focus on negative images. Media has the opportunity to break the mold of common society, yet it conforms to traditional idea. Society is highly influenced by media, and I feel that if media were to portray "out of the box" roles, there would be a faster acceptance of unfamiliar roles. These shows are meant to be fictional situations, but yet society categorizes them as how things are meant to be. It will be up to the media to push society toward change.

In the book, “Backlash� by Susan Faludi the author chronicles media coverage of feminists and shows in what ways the media managed to frame the movement as negative and excessive in the 1980s yet she also discusses the positive impact the media had on the women’s movement during the 1970s. The class reading though seemed to portray more of the negative impact of media. Nonetheless clearly the media can swing in multiple directions whether supportive or oppressive, the media has done both setback and propelled the feminist movement throughout various decades. Yet given the long history of viewing women as inferior I’d say that often times the media does more to oppress the movement than propel it such as labeling feminists as “bra-burners� though such protests were actually rare. Even today too often advertisements aimed at women for house cleaning products and quick fix meals focus on the mother role of women with some commercials focusing on the busy business women, yet it seems that few commercials tackle the fact that many women today both work and have families.

I have been working towards writing my research paper on modern feminism with media and popular culture, and question this institution as a help or a hindrance to the modern feminist movement. I think one interesting aspect, in which I agree with the former post, is the typical connotations placed on the modern feminist movement. These are such things as "all feminists don't shave their armpits, or all feminists are bisexual, all feminists are liberal" etc. It is easy to put modern feminists into these categories because there is no easy category for the third wave feminists and therefore, it oppresses all feminists that don't fall into these stereotypical roles, because they don't feel like "die-heart" feminists. I think this can definitely be an affect of the media portraying this on TV in cartoons, in satirical commentary in movies or literature and it perpetuates this blurry definition that the third wave feminists have of themselves. The strength of the media is powerful yet invisible and so it has the ability to confuse and manipulate and it may not be the best thing in terms of peope being able to identify a movement with popular trends, etc.

I agree with the above comments. I think in particular the idea of a "blurry definition" of feminism perpetuated by the media is right on. Davis (1991), cited in the text, put it well when she described the "watered-down" ideas of institutionalized feminism. The media is always reporting on feel-good stories about celebrities, athletes, and others working towards noble goals, such as the feminism movement. However, the actual acts they perform are usually watered down, blur the movement, and confuse the issues.

I agree with most of what it said in the above comments. I know that feminists have a bad name but I think that is only if we define ourselves by that word. Who cares if you get called a feminist. If you want to call yourself a feminist do it, if you don't don't. Either way, women can still stand up for women's rights and equality, we can have different sexualities, we can wax our legs and dye our hair, and we can stop shaving our armpits if thats what we want to do. I just think that so many progressive minded people get so stuck on such specific words, language, or what "your issue" is that we lose the general idea. The general idea is to be proud of being a women regardless of how you express it. Be strong, and expect nothing besides equality. I think that women need to stand up and say who cares if I am a feminist, and if that means I am super liberal, and have hairy legs, cool! We need to stand up and say that women need to stop judging each other and start thinking for ourselves. The media in this country is run by what, 3 white men? Reach out, look to different resources other than CNN and Fox News and inform ourselves so that we stop empowering those who already have all the power. I do classify myself as a die-hard feminist but I shave my legs and my armpits, haha so I guess maybe I don't classify as one; right?