I left class last Monday feeling uneasy after having watched Sex and the City, but really unaware why I was experiencing the emotion. Having taken Julia Himburg's television course, I was already aware of the post-feminist sensibilities within the program, but after having read McRobbie's Young Women and Consumer Culture I realized the extent to which this post-feminist and commodity feminism have both contributed in a personal way to myself and most young women I know.
Slightly personally, I find my youngest sister (currently 16 years-old) a good example of an individual who has really grown up in this age of pre-teens as the target demographic of television and other medias based on their consumer worth. Starting with Nickelodeon shows like Hannah Montana at an early age and now through shows such as Keeping up with the Kardashians or The Bachelorette, she has been taught this notion that McRobbie mentions called "girl power" or really the popularization of feminism. The only way of attaining this power, though, has been through material means with the ultimate goal of male acceptance. My sister shops a lot, under the assumption that her need to individualize is her own sort of confirmation of power, and she tends to buy clothes that sexualize herself, which is the male appeasement part. She even once told me, to my utter despair, "but I'm reclaiming my sexuality, just like you always talk about". The popular band One Direction may sing songs about female empowerment (note What Makes You Beautiful or Little Things), but in the end isn't that power based fully on their (the young men in the band) own acceptance of the women. You should love those fat thighs, but only if I tell you to love them first.
Sex and the City perfectly sums up my personal reflections above about the commodification of feminism and its ultimate unraveling of the true meaning of the term. Carrie may take up this battle of the sexes cry by having sex "as men do" (problematic in and of itself), but her strategy is completely based on the affirmation of men, as so many of her decisions throughout the show are. This affirmation is achieved by material means. Sure she's a successful writer living on her own in Manhattan (really?), but she is really only successful if all her money finally lands her a man-- the problem all 4 women face in literally every single episode. She isn't buying the Manolos for herself is she? The clincher is when Mr. Big pulls up and tells her what's what at the end of the episode-- instructing the poor girl that her attempt at personal and sexual empowerment is all for naught because that won't satisfy him. Progressive tools for the sake of re-estabishing a normalized status quo (patriarchy) is still regressive. Just much more deceitful.
I believe that this trend towards popular feminism in the most powerful of medias could potentially be progressive, but as long as the ultimate goal is not self-worth, but satisfaction based on male approval, that will be utterly impossible.
-Victoria Hallebo
No comments:
Post a Comment