Course Description

At the core of the course is the question how feminism has become a demonized and ridiculed “F-word” in an age when issues of gender and sexuality are at the center of constant, often explosive political debates. These debates often connect media representation and political representation but tend to do so in simplistic ways that bypass or distort decades of sophisticated feminist theory and practice. We will trace back such representations through the decades around case studies that encompass film, video, television and new media practices. The case studies come from the United States and beyond, taking into full account the global interconnectedness of media production and consumption as well as the transnational travel of feminist ideas. The main goal of the course is to evaluate how useful feminist thinking is to understanding the relays between media and political representation; and to develop a lasting critical apparatus to analyzing the politics of gender and sexuality in the media.


Thursday, December 5, 2013

Age Old Question: Can Women Have It All?

I have been thinking a lot recently about the age-old question "Can Women Have It All?" and I have come to the conclusion that this is a silly question. Define "all". I think a more important question is "Can all women have what makes them happy?". My reasons for disliking the original question "Can Women Have It All?" are these:
A) It groups women into one category under the assumption that they all want the same thing. Instead, "Can all women have what makes them happy?" infers that there are hundreds of thousands of types of women, rather than just "women", as there are clearly many different people in the world, and more importantly many different women.
B) There is no real definition for what "all" is. Many would read it as a stable job, a full wallet, a loving husband, and the perfect children. Though my issue with this is many women don't want this. There are women who I know personally that would rather travel the world solo and meet hundreds of new people than be stuck at home with the same man, likewise there are women who would like nothing more than to stay in and be a mom. In asking the question but replacing "all" with "what makes them happy", you open up a whole world of options. Although "all" could technically be anything, society has made us think that this word has come to mean wealth, work, and a family.
C) My final issue is that I find the concept of this question sexist. This is a question that we have quoted numerous times this semester, but why have we never asked "can men have it all?". The fact that this is such a commonly used question that it rolls off our tongues without us thinking about it first it clearly problematic. Why, after so much progress in the world of feminism are we still differentiating men and women in a way that hinders the idea that women have to "not have something".
Although I am sure I am reading into this single phrase too much, I think it is important that we consider the words we use very carefully, so as not to present the idea that either we as women all want the same thing, or that we as women are striving for the impossible, because we don't want it all, we just want everything that makes us as individuals happy. The future of feminism lies in viewing females as individuals, rather than "women", and I think this phrase is one thing holding us back.
Ultimately, we are all superwomen and can have whatever we want.
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