Susan Douglas empowers women with lecture “The Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us From Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild”
By Jennifer Wendel Staff Writer
Last Thursday the prize-winning author and columnist Susan Douglas spoke to a packed Olmstead Room. Her lecture, titled “The Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us from Girl Power to Girls Gone Wild,” tackled the problem of where feminism stands in today.
Since the 1990s the mass media has increasingly reported that women have “made it,” that they achieved gender equality, said Douglas. On TV women occupy important jobs like doctors, CEOs, and lawyers. But at the same time, shows like Jersey Shore, Girls Gone Wild, and Toddlers in Tiaras display scantily clad women seemingly choosing to be objectified because they have the power to do so.
What the media has left women with today is a choice between embedded feminism, and enlightened sexism. Embedded feminism can be found in shows like Grey’s Anatomy, she said, where women are depicted as completely integrated into important jobs. Enlightened sexism, however, assumes that feminist ideals have already been achieved, and now it can be fun and amusing to revive sexist stereotypes of women. Enlightened sexism says that women achieve power through their looks, bodies, and femininity.
Together embedded feminism and enlightened sexism display “fantasies of power” that leave feminism outdated, and women torn between conflicting views of themselves. Girls can have power, but in exchange they must buy into unrealistic body images and cater to men.
But women have not “made it,” said Douglas. One year after college girls will make 80% of what their male counterparts are making. The top four occupations for women today are secretary, nurse, elementary or middle school teacher, and salesperson, not the high power jobs depicted on TV. Feminism has not been rendered obsolete today, but turned into a taboo concept. Douglas spoke of the gap between her generation and her daughter’s where feminism has become a dirty word that stands for higher divorce rates and Birkenstocks instead of girl-power.
But it is not dead. Feminists today need to become more indignant about sexist imagery, Douglas said. They must talk more about the way the media portrays women, and volunteer for or donate to feminist organizations. Don’t let the media sidetrack the fact that women still do not have equal status to men.
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