Though the feminist movement took a strong hold and the ideas of gender equality are promoted within the educational system, women still have limited opportunities for self-realization outside the family (Cho, 2002; Janelli & Yim, 2002). This situation naturally results in tension between the ambition of women who were educated to believe in gender equality and the realities of a male-dominated society. One possible reaction is to rebel and challenge the rules of the game; the other way is to accept the rules, master them and twist them to women’s advantage. The main female character, known as “the Girl,” chooses to do just that—and succeeds spectacularly. Not only she gets away with extreme sassiness and abusive behaviour, in the end, she gets rewarded with a caring guy who is willing to accommodate her crazy whims and temper tantrums.
Magazines, advertisements and television create and promote stereotypical images of females. Females are represented as sex objects with nurturing, motherly instincts, only focused on beauty, house hold chores, politically and professionally inferior. Males are depicted as the bread winners, career orientated, professional, political and important. This is in stark contrast to the truths of reality, where women in both Australia and America are professionals, and do infact hold numerous powerful positions in the workforce. This shows the immense influence the media has over western cultures, and how this can influence popular understandings of females.
Women being inferior to males, having their mouths covered, or being mistreated within an add is something that should be stopped or at least being acknowledged that it is a negative message toward women. The message be objectified within these advertisements doesn’t represent the women of present day. Women now a day have more freedom, rights, responsibilities, and are more independent and should be viewed that way instead of how they are actually viewed through advertisements. Third wave feminism is allowing objectification of women to break apart and in the follow years to disappear completely but until then it’s giving the
A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ is an early example of a feminist outlook; Wollstonecraft aims to define, establish and defend equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. In this extract, Wollstonecraft “speaks of passion”; she believes that women were not given the right choices; they were not educated to the full. This affects their choices and they don’t have the full knowledge that they should have been provided with. Jill tweedy was also a feminist writer, who had a balanced view of the relationships between men and women. She believed that women should be equal to men in relationships.
While the female athlete receives some positives through their participation in sport, their abilities are constantly being downplayed in order to emphasize their femininity. With this in mind, the American sport culture takes away from the female athlete’s ability by accentuating their female characteristics in an attempt to satisfy the gender norms. Female athletes struggle to balance the many facets of their identity while maintaining their stereotypical gender role, which commonly takes away from their athletic identity and performance. The female athlete must embrace and portray many masculine characteristics such as power, aggression, and strength in order to be successful. One reason to explain this is pointed out by the noted author and professor of sociology Judith Halberstam as she states, “Gender is a social construct” (119).
These two images advertisers try to paint normalize the stereotypes of different gender roles. Different companies use different strategies to sell products and encourage consumers to part with their hard earned money. Advertising reinforces particular gender norms. Through an analysis of a case study of anti-aging cream aimed towards women, this paper will argue that all advertising fundamentally plays on dominant ideologies to make people believe that in order to be “normal” or “successful”, they must buy product X. In particular, it will focus on how dominant norms surrounding masculinity and femininity are encouraged.
In Betty Friedan’s excerpt from The Feminine Mystique she identifies the true inhibitor of progress for gender equality: its discourse, the ways humans talk, think and in turn act about it. Friedan uses and expands the concept of discourse in relation to gender by attributing it to the conformity of femininity, acknowledging that the absence of speech and thought is a significant part of discourse, and envisioning a way of using it to change the social construction that it has created in order to both reveal and solve the problem with no name. (Cranny-Francis 93). Friedan introduces the notion of discourse using its most common interpretation: the way a subject is talked about, the subject being the condition of women. It is easy for women to conform to an idea when it is supposed to be a dream come true—everything they could ever want.
With the rise of feminism, a new voice came who spoke for women’s liberation from the common “housewife” role, to an individual being of sexuality and free choice. Betty Friedan, the author of “The Feminine Mystique,” pushed for women to explore their sexuality and become more than just a household decoration. She believed women were bound to social norms which prevented them from exploring their full sexuality. She stated women lived in a society where “instead of fulfilling the promise of infinite orgasmic bliss, sex in the America of the feminine mystique is becoming a strangely joyless national compulsion, if not a contemptuous mockery.” (Friedan, 1963) As an encouraging voice for sexuality and independence, Friedan pushed the limits and helped spark women’s participation in the sexual
They are raped, simply because they are believed to be “Easy” because of these “Positive stereotypes” you’re so quick to buy into. It’s damaging to the culture when you treat it as a costume. Do you know the meaning behind the long skirts, or the “head scarves” that you’re so fond of donning? Do you know why the Roma wear these?
Some of the pictures appeared to be quite shocking to me in terms of how woman are being degraded from human beings down to objects. The presentation was in line with the study of feminism. The purpose of this presentation was to draw attention to the treatment and public image that is being created by popular culture. One could argue that this presentation perfectly reflected feminist values, not because the presentation called for an end of humiliating treatment of woman in media, which it did not, but because it simply portrayed the image of woman in our culture and therefore was meant to spark a critical thinking process in the audience. Since the feminist movement has only little influence to change societal view by itself it has to draw public attention, cause people to question certain behaviors and images and change society through a critical mindset.