Feminism and the Portrayal of Postmodernist Woman - Literature review Example

 FEMINISM AND THE POTRAYAL OF THE POSTFEMINIST WOMAN   In recent years the idea that feminism is over and that the goals of feminism have all been achieved has become increasingly popular in mainstream culture. During the early years of electronic media, portrayals of traditional gender roles were considered the only appropriate fare for wide audiences, while women who held non-traditional roles were usually relegated to obscure underground media. As the Women’s Lib movement of the 1960s and 1970s gained traction in popular culture, portrayals of women in the media began slowly to turn towards feminist ideals, culminating in the 1990s. In the twenty-first century, the backlash against feminism has largely supplanted feminist views in the media, often disguised as postmodern “edginess.” Women are portrayed in pop culture through the postfeminist lens with increasing frequency. While postfeminist portrayals of women in the media can work to undermine feminism, they also serve to reignite a feminist movement that had in some respects begun to rest on its laurels. Almost since the term “feminism” first began to be widely used, the term “postfeminism” has followed closely along. Both of these terms can be somewhat problematic to define, although “postfeminism” is even more difficult to give a precise meaning to. For the purposes of this paper, I will define “feminism” as a cultural movement that seeks equal rights, privileges, and protections for all people regardless of sex, as well as the desire for less restrictive gender roles and expectations in society that is an outgrowth of this movement. I will define “postfeminism” as the idea that feminism has achieved its goals and is now redundant or obsolete. This is by no means the only definition of the term. Ann Braithwaite (2002) defines postfeminism, alongside of third wave feminism, this way: ‘Third wave’ and ‘postfeminism’ are both expressions currently widely used to talk about the contemporary moment in self-identified feminist thinking and practice […] and to distinguish this moment and its emphasis from an assumed earlier period of second wave feminism. (p.335) For the second half of the twentieth century, and to a lesser extent in the beginning of the twenty-first, television has been the medium through which mainstream ideas about culture, morality, and societal roles have been transmitted. When people refer to “the media” as a monolithic force, they are usually referring mostly to television. On TV there are many examples of the postfeminist woman. Characters embodying postfeminist ideals take on several archetypal forms. The first of these is the Obsolete Feminist. This character is typically found on sitcoms, as she is an object of comedy and the butt of the joke. Examples include Diane Chambers of Cheers, Maya Gallo of Just Shoot Me, Betty Suarez of Ugly Betty, Liz Lemon of 30 Rock, and Britta Perry of Community. This type of character is usually created by writers with a liberal and feminist sensibility, and represents a means for the writers to poke fun at themselves. This woman takes herself too seriously and is often ridiculed by other characters for having no sense of humor, a stereotype that is often applied to feminists. On Community, Britta is often called a “buzzkill.” With the exception of the insufferably smug Diane, the Obsolete Feminist is a loveable character who is deeply earnest and always means well, but she is frequently portrayed as being too rigid and uptight in her expectations that others should share her feminist beliefs. She comes across not so much as a political activist espousing rebellious politics as she does a Miss Manners type, insisting that others conform to her outdated moral code. What this character actually says about feminism is that it is a quaint system of niceties, and that a self-identified feminist is someone to be humored like an elderly auntie as the “cool” people roll their eyes behind her back. This characterization serves to undermine feminism, regardless of the intent of the writer. However, the archetype also works to refute the image of feminists as angry women who hate men. The HBO comedy Sex and the City was both lauded and criticized for its portrayal of women. The show embodies the confusion of postfeminist thought. The women are empowered by their careers and control over their sex lives, but they are also somewhat empty-headed, materialistic, and unhappy with the lives their freedom has given them. The show provides a rare portrayal of women in charge of their sexuality, but also critiques how the characters choose to use their control (Arthurs, J, 2003). Reality TV provides a stunning array of postfeminist archetypes. There is the Desperate Woman of shows like The Bachelor, who will do anything to defeat other women in competition for a man; the Bridezilla of shows like Bridezillas and Bridalplasty, who will debase herself and hurt family and friends for the sake of having a perfect wedding; the Party Girl of shows like The Real World and Big Brother, who, if she thinks about feminism at all, believes she is empowered by her own sexual exploitation; the Traditional Mom of shows like Wife Swap, who strongly voices her distaste for feminism and proclaims her traditional role as a sign of patriotism and Godliness; and the Scheming Woman of the Real Housewives franchise, who is cruel, manipulative and materialistic. These archetypes are really more pre-feminist than postfeminist, but the postfeminist notion that it is admirable and edgy to be “politically incorrect” allows these archetypes to thrive and networks to ignore any feminist criticism. Reality TV ostensibly portrays real people reacting in real situations, but it has become formulaic to the point that producers deliberately seek out people who fit a certain personality type to appear on the shows, isolate them, goad them into outrageous and exaggerated behavior, and then edit the footage in order to present highly stylized fictional characters (Pozner 2010). These shows are created with the intention of gleefully setting feminism back decades for the sake of controversy to generate ratings. However, by reinstating sexist, pre-feminist images of women as the status quo in pop culture, they are bound to have the effect of making feminism feel like the minority viewpoint rather than the establishment viewpoint, therefore setting it on the path to popularity again. Commercials make up a large portion of the popular culture that people are exposed to each day. For the most part commercials still depict women as primarily caregivers, wives and mothers whose primary concerns in life are cooking, cleaning, taking care of their families, and perfecting their appearance. These pre-feminist images don’t seem to have been affected much by feminism at all. In products that are marketed towards men, however, there is a noticeable shift towards postfeminist portrayals of women. One noteworthy example of this is the ad campaign for the internet domain company GoDaddy.com. The name of the company alone speaks to a postfeminist notion of sexuality, hinting at the sexual dominance of a man over a woman. The commercials feature spokeswomen including well-known race-car driver Danika Patrick in tight T-shirts and jean shorts writhing and tossing their hair in slow motion as strip-club music blares behind them and speaking lines that are thinly veiled sexual innuendos in seductive voices to men or too one another. The commercial comes across almost as a deliberate slap in the face to feminists as it attempts to be edgy. The fact that Danika Patrick is featured as the primary spokeswoman is especially telling. Her success in the male-dominated field of auto racing makes her seem too feminist, and that’s somehow unacceptable. By taking on the role of the Party Girl and seeming to take pride in her own sexual exploitation she gains the approval of men that she might have lost by competing with them on the race track. According to McRobbie (2007): The new female subject is, despite her freedom, called upon to remain silent, to withhold her critique in order to count as a modern, sophisticated girl. […] There is quietude and complicity in […] an uncritical relation to dominant, commercially produced, sexual representations that actively invoke hostility to assumed feminist positions from the past in order to endorse a new regime of sexual meanings… Much like reality TV, these commercials undermine feminism while they simultaneously stimulate potential backlash and renewed vigor among feminists. Commercials for children’s toys paint a vivid picture of postfeminist gender roles. There is a sharp distinction between toys intended for boys and those intended for girls. Girls are entirely left out of most commercials for toys that foster active play; those are for boys. Toys for girls are pastel shades, especially pink, and toys meant for boys come in black and dark shades of red, blue, and green. This signifies what toys are for which gender at a glance, and stigmatizes any child who is caught on the playground with a toy or an item of clothing in the wrong colors. A common sight on the toy store shelves is a “regular” version of a traditionally gender-neutral toy such as legos or a karaoke set that comes in dark or primary colors, and a smaller, less complex, or less powerful version in pink. The message here is that the “real” version is for boys, and the inferior pink version is for girls. University of Minnesota Scientist P. Z. Myers (2009) posted a toy store flyer on his blog that advertized microscopes and telescopes for kids, with black and gray versions being used by boys pictured next to less powerful pink versions. Myers notes: There is a message being sent here. Being feminine, being girly, means you belong in a separate category in the science world, and it's a category that needs less utility and more concern about appearances. In the era before second wave feminism, toys marketed to girls reaffirmed their assumed future status as wives and mothers with few interests outside the home. In modern commercials, toys and their advertisements entice girls to be obsessive consumers whose primary interest is in acquiring pretty things and impressing others with their wardrobes, makeup, and hairstyles. There was a brief time when toy companies seemed to have at least a slight interest in fostering gender equality. In the 1980s, the Mattel Company produced Barbie Dolls that were portrayed as having a variety of careers from executive to astronaut, and were advertized with a jingle that stated “We girls can do anything, right Barbie?” (1985). By contrast, a modern Barbie commercial portrays Barbie in one of the few roles she’s permitted to have now, a movie star (some of the others being animal caretaker, stylist, bride, ballerina, pop star, fairy, princess, and fairy-princess). The movie star Barbie is revealed to have a secret: She can turn into a fairy, and has several outfits (2011). Postfeminist girls are not encouraged to look to accomplished women as examples of womanhood, but rather to emulate fairy-tale characters and celebrities. They are empowered by their culture not to seek equality, but to buy things (McRobbie 2009). This obsessive consumerism may foster generations of girls who will grow up not only not thinking about feminism, but not thinking about anything at all other than buying things. Music is another medium that delivers messages about women and their role in society. Pop culture tends to be ambivalent about how pop musicians should be viewed. They are seen either as the arbiters of style who should be imitated, or as immoral, overexposed figures who should, at best, be ignored by thinking people. Female pop stars tend to take the brunt of the hostility, in part because they tend to be the objects of the most interest by society. Two currently popular pop stars, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, can be seen as portraying two different types of postfeminist women. Katy Perry styles herself almost as the living embodiment of the toys marketed to little girls. She is careful to keep her image as perfectly traditionally feminine as possible. When making a public appearance as her onstage persona, Perry is nearly always dressed in outfits that closely resemble those designed for Barbie Dolls. She favors short skirts and dresses in sparkly material, often covered in hearts or bows. At the 2011 Grammy Awards, she wore a pair of angel wings with her silver midriff-baring gown that cultivated an even stronger resemblance to one of the fairy princess dolls marketed to girls. When not dressed in clothes that appear to have been designed to appeal to little girls, she is usually seen in 1950s “pin-up” style clothes. Her songs include “UR So Gay,” in which she attempts to insult an ex-boyfriend by calling him gay and feminizing him, and “I Kissed a Girl,” in which she confesses having enjoyed kissing a girl and hopes her boyfriend “doesn’t mind it.” Katy Perry’s pop star persona portrays a character that claims feminist empowerment, yet displays infantilization and hyper-sexualization in order to be appealing to men. There is a great deal of debate about whether “I Kissed a Girl” portrays a powerful woman exploring bisexuality for her own enjoyment, or whether it displays exhibitionism and pseudo-lesbianism in order to attract the male gaze, but the bulk of the criticism falls on the side of the song being a faux lesbian anthem designed to titillate a male audience. While Perry’s stardom is too recent and too far outside the usual sphere of academia for there to be much scholarly analysis of her persona, most popular feminist bloggers see Perry as an anti-feminist phenomenon. Lady Gaga is another pop star with a carefully-crafted public persona. She is contemporary to Perry and enjoys equal or even greater popularity. Both are considered somewhat outrageous and avant garde, both use sexuality as part of their performances, and both can be viewed as postfeminist women. In contrast to Perry, however, Lady Gaga does not attempt to cultivate an image of traditional beauty and femininity. Instead, her public persona is designed to be bizarre and disconcerting. She mixes skimpy, sexually enticing costumes with strange apparatuses or facial and body prosthesis that make her appear to be some kind of creature out of science fiction. While many of her songs and videos use the same kind of sexual exhibitionist themes as Perry’s work, Lady Gaga comes across as more aggressive. The subject of sexual empowerment has long been hotly debated in feminist scholarship, and it’s unclear whether Lady Gaga is truly empowered or simply appears to be more assertive during her own exploitation. When asked in a Norwegian TV interview about whether her sexually provocative image detracts from her work she states: You see, if I was a guy, and I was sitting here with a cigarette in my hand, grabbing my crotch and talking about how I make music 'cause I love fast cars and [having sex with] girls, you'd call me a rock star. But when I do it in my music and in my videos, because I'm a female, because I make pop music, you're judgmental, and you say that it is distracting. I'm just a rock star. […] I'm not a feminist—I hail men, I love men. I celebrate American male culture, and beer, and bars and muscle cars. (2007) Her confusion about the definition of feminism and the fact that she recognizes sexism in the music industry, wants to be treated equally to male artists, yet distances herself from feminism all illustrate postfeminist attitudes about women. She has absorbed the concepts of feminism as it pertains to her daily life and asks for feminist (i. e. equal) treatment, but associates the word “feminist” with hating men. What this shows is that feminist ideas have made their way into the consciousness of young women who still strive to attain feminist goals despite having a negative view of the label. In her book Reading the Romance, Janice A. Radway (1984) describes a similar phenomenon. In extensive interviews with readers of romance novels, she finds not the stereotypical empty-headed romance fans who have no idea of feminist views, but women who have developed views about women and their place in society, and can defend their choices about what they read to those who dismiss it (p. 54). In mass media, postfeminist portrayals of women can convey many different meanings to audiences. One message is that feminism is over, that it has served its purpose, but is now an antiquated point of view. Another is that feminism is now an establishment viewpoint, and it is cool to rebel against it. A more pervasive notion is the misconception that it is an anti-male stance. The popularity of these ideas does serve to derail the goals of feminism because it makes young women who want to be accepted afraid to fight for the equal rights that women have not yet attained. Yet as postfeminist ideas take over mainstream culture, it is highly likely that a backlash will take place as people begin to rebel against the status quo. References Arthurs, J. (2003) ‘Sex and the City and Consumer Culture: Remediating Postfeminist Drama.’ Feminist Media Studies 3:1 pp 83-98 Braithwaite A. (2002) ‘The Personal, The political, Third Wave and Post Feminisms’ Feminist Theory 3:3 pp335-344 Lady Gaga (2007) “Lady Gaga feels pre-judged by Norwegian journalist.” Post on blog “bitchmedia” http://bitchmagazine.org/post/lady-gaga-im-not-a-feminist-i-hail-men-i-love-men accessed March 2011. McRobbie, A. (2009) The Aftermath of Feminism. Sage, London McRobbie, A. (2004) “Post Feminism and Popular Culture.” Feminist Media Studies 4:3 pp 255-264 McRobbie, A. 2007 “Postfeminism in popular culture: Bridget Jones and the new gender regime.” Interrogating postfeminism: gender and the politics of popular culture. Ed. Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra. Duke University Press. Myers, P. Z, “The powerlessness of pink” December 29, 2009 post on blog “Pharyngula” http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/12/the_powerlessness_of_pink.php accessed March 2011. Mattel Company. “Barbie has a fairy secret.” Television advertisement. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3HvNwm4ns accessed March 2011. Mattel Company. “We Girls Can Do Anything.” Television advertisement. 1985. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmfJ5Kq3OgY accessed March 2011. Radway, J. (1984).Reading the Romance. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Negra, D. (2008) What a Girl Wants?: Fantasizing the Reclamation of Self in Postfeminism. London: Routledge.   Pozner, J. (2010) Reality bites back: The troubling truth about guilty pleasure TV. New York, NY: Avalon. Thornham, S. (2000) Feminist Theory and Cultural Studies. London; Arnold. Read More