The highly interesting and humorous introduction to Susan Douglas’s Enlightened Sexism begins with a brief overview of how women are currently portrayed in the mass media. Douglas first discusses the idea of the Spice Girl, or “girl-power,” generation, and she questions whether this pop -group had a positive or negative influence over women in our patriarchal society. The cultural phenomenon of the Spice Girls is important since it greatly affected the lives of many young girls around the globe, including myself. On one hand, these five women can be viewed as heightened sex symbols for young teens, dressed in, “Wonderbras, bare thighs, pouty lips, and top-of–the-head-ponytails,” thus allowing for female sexual objectification. However, this heightened sexuality is juxtaposed by the group’s song lyrics, which call for male respect toward women.
This contrast of ideals exemplifies a major problem for modern feminists. Douglas states that the Spice Girls serve as a powerful image of new-age feminism, in which it is thought that sex or sexual objectification is freeing/ empowering, and that it is therefore a way to reach full equality with men. At the same time, however, Douglas states that women such as the Spice Girls can be viewed as fantasies of power, in that through their lyrics, women are falsely portrayed as having total male admiration in today’s society: “Now the media illusion is that equality for girls and women is an accomplished fact when it isn’t.”
Thus, women have come to live in a dreamworld of equality, or an extreme fantasy that they are on the same level as men within society. In fact, Douglas exemplifies that women still only make 75 cents to a man’s dollar, and that as of 2007 the most common jobs for females are secretaries, nurses, teachers, and retail salespersons (as opposed to common male positions in finance, medicine, or law). Therefore, in the age of (as Douglas so aptly labels it) “enlightened sexism,” the media may be acting to reverse many of the accomplishments achieved by past feminists by presenting strong and powerful women in male positions.
The truth of the matter is that we live in a world led and run by men (and white men, at that). As Adrienne Rich explains in a convocation speech for Douglass College (an all-female college), the material that is taught in prestigious institutions is essentially male-based, and that even the sciences are patriarchal in nature. Being a neuroscience major myself, I have often been one of the only females in my classes, since it is considered unusual for women to participate in the sciences in today’s world. Rich further states that because of such bias in society, all women have the responsibility to “claim” an education, thus demanding to be taken seriously as an intellectual force.
Personally as a pre-medical student, I take both Douglas’s and Rich’s feminist voices extremely seriously. I am going into a field that is relatively devoid of female power, and I definitely have concerns that some of my goals may not be met due to my gender. As Douglas explains, there is a façade of female equality in the medical realm that is portrayed in the media (e.g. through shows such as Grey’s Anatomy or ER), thus taking away from the reality that much remains to be accomplished for women in this field. Therefore, the “enlightened sexism” of the media can be seen as extremely dangerous since it can disable apt individuals from pursuing a profession that is purely meant to help those in need.
Overall, both Douglas and Rich discuss the importance of feminine strength and male/ self- respect in today’s world. Douglas explains that we cannot let the media trick us into believing that all is said and done in the world of feminism. Rich explains that women are required to take responsibility in society in order to allow for much needed change. Both of these feminists demonstrate that whether we like it or not, men hold the reigns in society, and thus it is up to our generation to take what is presented in media with a grain of salt, and to allow for full gender equality for future generations.
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