Blog Prompt: The Media, Real Women and Gender Oppression
I think Douglas runs into the easy fallacy of saying "real women," what constitutes as a real woman? It's easier to give you examples of what you're looking for if you specify a type of woman. I think there's a variety of portrayals of women in the media. I think aspirational characters are a great starting point for positively affecting "real women" because young girls can watch them and regardless of their socioeconomic status, have a media representation to aspire to that wasn't represented before.
I'm pretty out of the loop on current television shows and films, but I think there's been plenty of depictions of working women and inequality in the past. It may not be the central theme but it is depicted. Right now what comes to mind, and I'm fixated on, is the film Erin Brokevich. I think there have been plenty of films that have pinned women as the underdogs who rise to the occasion- even if not explicitly about gender inequality- I feel these women are already read as underdogs because the inequality is implicit.
I don't know too much about the Mary Tyler Moore show, but I know it's made famous for being one of the first shows about a working woman. I've also heard the Good Wife covered topics about sexism and deals with a working woman. There's also the show 2 broke girls, which I haven't watched (grad school, I'm so out of the loop). I can only say I think my examples are problematic because they're white women, but if we're talking about solely gender inequality these might suffice.
Hi Patrick! I really liked how you pointed out about what really is a real woman. At this point, Douglas is already setting an expectation of "real women." I feel that we cannot describe typical or normal women because every woman has different trait, life and environment that they live with. It is sad to know that being a successful rich working women is not easy, but if there is no expectation of being a man or woman, I believe we can work this out better.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with your point of aspirational character being a great starting point for girls to dream bigger and believe in their potential. We cannot never tell man/woman to be better than one another.
Lastly, I'm on the same boat...sinking from keeping up with new shows in grad school!
I totally agree that it's impossible to define what a real woman is. Every woman is different so it makes sense for tv shows and movies to show a variety of types of females. Some women are powerful while others are more timid. I think most shows that I've seen recently have done a pretty good job decreasing the amount of sexism in the media. Some shows, especially reality tv, still need a lot of work though. Scream Queens (a show that I love) is definitely sexist, but at least one of the main characters is African American and has a sexy older female character.
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