That’s right, the dreaded F word, the controversial term
that splits the world into “USE IT!”, “DON’T USE IT!” and the perhaps more
worrying, “Meh.” Today when I woke up, I decided I wanted to talk about feminism.
As an English student, I’ve done plenty of analysing things
from a feminist perspective. If I’m in student-mode I can look at a film, read
a book or watch an advertisement and pick it apart in terms of its portrayal of
gender roles and stereotypes. However it takes a pause for thought in the rest
of my life to notice the way the scales are shifted, which is of course how
these stereotypes are reinforced. It’s simply because we forget to notice them.
I have held off talking about this on my blog for a couple
of reasons, one of which being the general perception of feminists around
nowadays. But as this is something I actually feel quite strongly about I
decided it was time I said so. Many people seem to think feminism is an
outdated concept, and can we just stop banging on about it now please? Feminism
is from back in the days when women couldn’t vote or work or god forbid have an
opinion or an idea.
Aren’t kittens just the cutest?
Whilst things are obviously now a lot more equal than they used to be (the above sketch being funny
because nowadays it seems absurd), there are still these myths about females
and femininity supported by the media that can seep into our brains and, unless
someone sticks up their hand to question it, can be accepted as the truth.
It annoys me (rant, rave) when females in the media perpetuate
myths about female sexuality being an inherently bad thing. There are obviously
songs out there that completely objectify women and may seem worse than the one
I am about to discuss, but these types of songs are so obviously sexist you will only accept the message they’re sending
consciously, if at all. It’s the subtler ones that are guiltier of enforcing
these myths about women because you accept them as normal without thinking too
much on it. I was listening to a Taylor Swift song the other day, once which I
had previously decided that I quite liked and that some of the lyrics were
quite clever… then I really thought
about it. One line in the song goes;
“She’s not a saint
and she’s not what you think, she’s an actress
She’s better known
for the things that she does on the mattress…”
“Better known for the things that she does on the mattress”.
A sharp comment designed to bring down this other girl’s worth by implying she
is infamous for her bedroom antics, and your immediate response is to agree
with this. What a whore! Now swap that “she” for a “he”. Is it still an insult?
Or by changing the gender of this person has it magically turned into a compliment?
Check out that guy, he’s well known
for the things he does on the mattress… I actually like Taylor Swift’s music,
but the messages in her lyrics are completely skewed. Listen to ‘You Belong with Me’ and the above song ‘Better than Revenge’ back to back, and
one could be a direct response to the other if they weren’t written by the same
girl.
Make up your mind, Taylor
There’s also the way it’s much more acceptable for a women
to be seen having/doing/using things that are assigned “masculine”, but less
acceptable for men to be seen having/doing/using more “feminine” things (for
more on this, see Laci Green’s video ‘Men & Femininity’). There is
currently an advert on TV for hair dye, a product that could and would be used
by both men and women. The closing line of the ad went something like, “Now
your hair can sparkle and dance, just like you!” Think about it… how many men
do you know that would be happy buying a product that promises that they will
“sparkle and dance”? I don’t think I would
want to pick up a product promising this. Can’t it just dye my hair and have
done with it? As a female, do I have to have hair that can sparkle and dance?
That’s a pretty big ask for hair…
And then there is of course the problem that in the
instances when equality does occur, it’s seen as being in favour of women. For
example? The other day I read an article by a woman who had decided, upon
marriage, to keep her last name. A perfectly equal situation; she kept her
name, her husband kept his. Except everyone then assumed that she was obviously
the one ‘in charge’, the one ‘wearing the trousers’ in the relationship. Aside
from the inherent sexist implications of the phrase ‘wearing the trousers’
(trousers = male, male = power. Obviously) this is a completely unfair
judgement.
So it might be uncool or even ‘old fashioned’ to be a
feminist these days. And of course, things are a lot more equal than they used
to be. But just because we’re some of the way there, doesn’t mean we’re all of
the way there.
