The Problem with Calling Michelle Obama a 'Feminist Nightmare'

In a recent Politico magazine piece, Michelle Cottle refers to Michelle Obama as a “feminist nightmare”. I have had conflicting thoughts about this article and thought it would be interesting to address them. Criticism against Michelle Obama include that she is too traditional, that she has not made enough of a difference, and that she is to busy playing the role of mother. I think it is important to recognize Obama’s crucial placement at the intersection of race and gender issues. Cottle’s article contains the implication that Obama is trying to avoid the ‘Angry Black Woman’ stereotype and criticizes her for stating that her most important role is “mom-in-chief”. What Cottle seems to ignore is that feminism for white women is not precisely what feminism means to black women. Melissa Harris-Perry hits the nail on the head in her article “Michelle Obama a ‘feminist nightmare’? Please” when she states. “But when she calls herself mom-in-chief, she is rejecting a different stereotype- the role of Mammy... Instead of agreeing that the public sphere is more important than Sasha and Malia, she buried Mammy and embraces being a mom on her own terms”. She further states that while this may be Cottle’s feminist nightmare, it is her “black motherhood dream”. What Cottle fails to realize is that for many black women, having the ability to stay home and care for their own children is a privilege. Furthermore, Obama has a Harvard Law degree and was her family’s breadwinner before her husband’s political career took off. Cottle uses the fact that she is Ivy-league educated to emphasize how disappointing Obama has been in terms of speaking out on important issues. Cottle’s article suggests that to be a feminist, you can’t care about children’s issues (such as childhood obesity), you can’t care about being a mom, and you can’t dress well. To me, this is counter productive to the feminist cause. Rather than painting a picture of what being a feminist looks like, we should acknowledge that different people (and different races) can take up the feminist cause in different ways and embrace that rather than shame them for it.

Representation of Women in Media

While searching the internet I came across this video which shows negative representation of women in the media. While I just saw someone has already posted this video on the blog, i still think it's important to discuss as it directly relates to our class and my term paper. While so much progress has been made in society and in media including characters like Olivia Pope and Carrie Mathison, females are continuing to be sexualized in the media. In my paper I discuss how women are able to be more sexual on screen than the were able to in the past, however in recent media females are taking it to the next level as demonstrated in this video. Also, this video briefly touches on when a woman voices her opinion and defeats a man in an argument, the woman is told she is hysterical and needs to calm down. This reminded me of the "Mad Woman" presentation in which all powerful woman in television shows are represented as crazy, mad and hysterical.

https://www.thisispersonal.org/how-media-failed-women-2013?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=link&utm_term=fb_20131206_how-the-media-failed-women-in-2013&utm_content=womens-interest&utm_campaign=this-is-personal&s_src=ThisIsPersonal&s_subsrc=fb_20131206_how-the-media-failed-women-in-2013

What we CAN learn from Disney Princesses

http://www.babble.com/disney/11-lessons-we-can-learn-from-the-disney-princesses/11-things-we-can-learn-from-the-disney-princesses/

I found this article recently and found it to be a fun and interesting read, especially after the Disney Princesses class session.  Although it is true that some of the portrayals of Disney princesses is frustrating in the sense that Disney can really play up stereotypes, there are important lessons that girls and women can take away from Disney films. As long as the viewer can see past some of the character flaws, the overall message in Disney films can teach great lessons. Especially in the film Aladdin, in which Jasmine stands up for her rights as a woman. She says, "How dare you? All of you!  Standing around deciding my future. I am not a prize to be won!" The article explains the great message that the movie preaches: "Women are more than a prize to be won, and Princess Jasmine was not afraid to speak her mind about it. She refuses to be tied down to the old traditions that she feels are barbaric and no longer applicable to her. She wants to marry only for love. Princess Jasmine is free-spirited, confident, and ready to discover the wonders outside the confines of her palace walls."

Social Media creating negative perspective of beauty

I found very interesting the topics of visibility that we discussed in class later in the semester. As i will be talking about in my essay, l plan to show how media outlets, such as Facebook, twitter, instagram have created a misleading image and message of beauty and body image. Within our society, today almost everyone has a Facebook, twitter or is on some form of social media. Our world today is greatly adapting and evolving towards a social media world. These media outlets and progressiveness are very beneficial to society but they do bring very noticeable harm to young women today. When we take a picture, we assume that it will be visible to everyone because we know it will be uploaded online. Many young girls, including myself focus more on looking good in the picture and posing the correct way to look the skinniest and prettiest than actually being in the moment of the picture. Such public media, that these young girls are growing up in today is helping stimulate this wave of superficialness and negative awareness on the body. This stimulates a negative perspective of beauty that these young girls carry. Also with Instagram for example, because it is public and anyone can choose to follow you, girls feel that they have to upload only pretty pictures of themselves in order to get the most likes and followers. This evolving image n=of beauty needs a quick makeover before young girls get too far obsessed with their appearance on social media

women in 2013

I found an interesting clip about women in 2013 in the media so i thought i'd share! Enjoy!

 http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/05/how-far-we-havent-come-all-of-the-terrible-ways-the-media-treated-women-in-2013-in-one-video/?utm_content=bufferc4c0d&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

If A Man Asks What Women Have Been Asking For Centuries, Will Men Finally Listen?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlb4Pu23kqw

I've provided a link to a video in which a man recites a poem calling action to other men. The issue at hand is the rape and mens participation in it. The poem touches on a couple key issues: 1) that women are so often blamed for being the victims of rape, "what was she wearing? Was she walking alone?" 2) that gender violence is not only a woman's issue, it is also a mans issue 3) that when rape is mentioned it is so often received with a response of silence 4) our silence can in turn perpetrate rape culture, as we are not doing anything to stop it 5) men can do something to stop it.

What was disappointing to me was reading the YouTube comments under the video in which some comments read "this is a feminist issue" or "rape is not my issue" or even hinting that the man reciting the poem must be gay since he is tackling a "woman's issue." So can a man urging other men to take action really be a catalyst for change? Will men really listen? It seems like on an issue like rape, it's so hard to get men to take action. Many people have made the argument that we shouldn't teach our daughters not to get raped, we should teach our sons not to rape. I think this video speaks on the issue well, but the problem will always be that as long as men think rape is a "woman's issue" that it will be hard to get them to take any action on it.

Disney Princess Readings Response

What is it with our culture's fascination with princesses? Is it the idea that the ideal living situation is to marry rich and live life free of care (and purpose)? Culturally speaking, yes, I understand where and why the princess image was so popular in the past considering dated female gender roles and clearly there is still a very high interest in the princess image when one observes the societal obsession with Prince Harry and his commoner wife, Kate. Is it time that we retire the word "princess" or would it be more beneficial to redefine the word? A princess is next in line to become queen, a ruler and woman of power, yet we don't see it that way. 

Disney princesses have always been a hot, controversial topic for feminist. Many women grow up with these films and fall in love with the beauty, glitz, and glam that comes with royalty, however, there are many different factors that question whether or not these are ideal role models for women. There is always the over sexualization of princesses as well as feminization. Mulan, who spends a majority of the movie disguised as a man fighting to save China, ends the movie subservient to her husband (her general during war, hegemonic masculinity propaganda at its finest) and back in her feminizing wardrobe. Pocahontas, who is real life was 12 years old and had no romantic interest in John Smith, is also turned into a mature sexual temptress whom John Smith finds the need to westernize and dominate (although I do love her for turning him down in the end to stay with her family). In the history of Disney Princesses, there has only been one who has not been sexualized nor invest in a romantic relationship. However, this princess, Merida from Brave, was the most criticized for being too outspoken and angst. She has even been called out to the the "bitchiest" of all the princesses, despite singlehandedly saving her family and clan from danger. 

My biggest issue with Disney princesses is that they are completely over sexualized and independent. They don't celebrate the individual but instead groom the masses for the male gaze while "attempting" to sprinkle in "feminist" ideals and when they do finally create a character worth praising, she is demonized and subjected to criticism for not being like the rest.