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. 

sorry i'm not sorry - do women apologize too much?

Below is an article describing anti feminist thoughts. In some, she apologizes for thinking/saying them. This sparked something in me. First, I thought the list was very interesting. Some I disagree with, others I have thought and then thought, oh should I not think that? Clearly feminism can be a complicated matter (although I don’t believe it has to or should be). So this led me to thinking, should we apologize for our behavior? In this article is says women dress for guys sometimes. I think that’s true. Should we shame ourselves for it? People have often said things like “sorry to sound like a femninist buuuut or not sound like a crazy pms girl” – does this perpuate the idea that we need to apologize and should feel bad for the way we think or feel? Someone is always telling us we are wrong. Either people hate us for not being an active feminist and supporting the fight outwardly or we identify as a feminist and get a bad reputation because of it’s negative connotation. We are identified as being man haters (which isn’t true of all feminists). Either way, we seem to lose? Another thing is that I’ve often heard people apologize for wanting to be stay at home mom. As though it’s a total regression for women and that it’s wrong. Personally, I want to have a career but eventually be a stay a home mom and raise my kids. Is that wrong? A large part about being a feminist to me is about choice. The choice to be a stay at home mom or not. The choice to marry or not marry. Women didn’t have the choice to work or not, we do. So instead of apologize for chosing, shouldn’t we rejoice that we can now chose? It’s at least a step in the right direction in my opinion. Overall, I feel like women in general apologize way to much for things we don’t need to be sorry for. We can live whatever way we want, and that should be ok.

http://thoughtcatalog.com/chelsea-fagan/2013/12/21-anti-feminist-thoughts-every-woman-has-had-at-least-once/

Progressive but also regressive tv shows

Earlier in class, we spent some time analyzing current so called progressive tv shows in which I saw an attempted progessive approach but with many setbacks in shows such as Sex and the City, Weeds, Girls, and even Orange is the New Black.  The major problem I noticed was tv and media's continued use of unrealistic women. Tv and Media still feels the need even within forward story lines to show women as white, tall and without any imperfections. Although the storylines are obviously progressive and a huge improvement to womens right and freedom from women portrayed in early tv, these characters are actually regressive to society with its superficial message that beauty is needed for success. In addition, within the show Orange is the new Black clearly showing a women single or in complicated relationships a reflection of the diversity within today's society, they use a very attractive lead character that most of us dont look like. Although this may be harsh, I can see this as its ok to be complicated or be a bisexual as long as your pretty. Tv and other media create and represent women as lead characters but this does not always mean it is progressive towards feminism. The show girls for example, shows very modern and addresses situations and conflicts that attract young people who understand and watch for enjoyment. Other than its humor with its shocking explicitly, the show however portrays women as nothing admirable as they continue to be unhappy and continue to make choices over and over again that keeps them unhappy such as their constant return to men they don't even want to be with or enjoy sexually.

Film Bodies Reaction

Williams makes a very interesting argument regarding the interchangeability of horror films and porn. In horror films, there is the inevitable sexualized female lead that, depending on how sexual she presents herself, either lives or dies. Typically, when the female is sexual yet submissive and passive, she lives, where as when the female character acts upon her sexuality and is sexually progressive, she is killed and the virginal character is glorified. In porn, there are two types of women as well, the virgin and the whore. Typically, both the virgin and the whore are dominated by the man, yet the whore is done so in a more demeaning manor with the idea that she deserves it because she is a whore. This is similar to horror films in that during the killing of the female whore character, it is very similar to the pornographic undertones of dominance over her because of her sexuality. The same kind of physical rush, a sense of ecstasy, is experienced when achieving orgasm and when watching a horror film and therefor, psychologically, one can subconsciously make a connection of the two without even realizing it. Porn has never been the only media in which is intended to be viewed through the male gaze. 

Nancy Fraser "Mapping the Feminist Imagination"

Through Fraser's article "Mapping the Feminist Imagination" in which he describes the growth throughout time and locations of women, it greatly made me question the future of women. He goes to say that "feminists throughout the world are linking struggles against local patriarchal practices to campaigns to reform international law". The result is a new phase of feminist politics in which gender justice is being reframed. This phase seeks to challenge injustices of maldistribution and injustices. Feminists he also states are targeting a newly visible meta-injustice which he categorizes as misframing. Misframing is a form of injustice that denies the poor and leaves them without the power to press transnational claims. This however has been emerging as a central target of feminist politics in its transnational stage. Fraser stresses its importance that by confronting misframing "this phase of feminist politics is making visible a third dimension of gender justice beyond redistribution and recognition. He calls  this third dimension, Representation, which is not only a matter of ensuring equal political vice for women in already constituted political communities. It also requires reframing disputes that can not be properly contained within established polities. Fraser's article taught me just how important contesting misframing within now and the future is in that it reconfigures gender justice as a three-dimensional problem in which redistribution, recognition, and representation must be integrated in a balanced way.

Pornification According to Actress Rashida Jones

http://www.glamour.com/entertainment/2013/12/rashida-jones-major-dont-the-pornification-of-everything

Actress Rashida Jones wrote an interesting little article for Glamour about how "pornification" has become the norm, and why she's not okay with it.

What struck me as particularly interesting, is Rashida, the daughter of music mogul Quincy Jones is blunt with her opinion that it's no longer sexy or even exciting to see these women bare (almost) all. With such a prominent father in the industry, Jones could have had a career in music if she so desired but clearly her head is on straight and she sees the pitfalls of pop stardom. Her observations about what was considered sexy and provocative in music when she was growing up are also interesting points to compare to today's mega stars like Miley, Rihanna and Gaga.

Hope you guys find it as interesting as I did!


-Natalie Qasabian

Feminism and Pornography (A Response to Gaines)

Since studying gender and feminism, I've developed very conflicting thoughts about pornography. On a suffice level, I'm a huge supporter. I believe sexuality should be explored and widely practiced based on each individual's preference. In a sense, pornography is a healthy expression of sex and sexuality, however, a predominate amount of pornography is filmed through the male-gaze and can be demoralizing towards women, which can clearly be very problematic. First, porn, a fabrication and exaggeration of sex, has become a major tool for teenagers and young adults to learn about sex and sexuality, which becomes problematic when people develop unrealistic expectations of sex. Second, there is the issue regarding female arousal. What happens when women become attracted to and aroused by this median specifically designed by male satisfaction? A very strong reoccurring theme in porn is male-dominance over women, which can pose many issues when these aggressive sexual acts are transmitted from the film to the consumer's bedroom. Is porn in its current state detrimental to feminism? Why is there a significant amount of pornography with strict male viewers only intentions yet a incredibly small amount of porn made for a female audience? Essentially, the porn industry doesn't believe in female sexuality, other than her sole existence is to please her male counterpart. The biggest issue with porn is that it eliminates female sexuality and therefor allows men to create and develop one for her, making her a tool for his sexuality. 

Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling as Feminists

I have to admit that after the week's teaching presentations I still am quite confused as to what characteristics contribute to being a feminist, according to popular opinion. As demonstrated by the presentations on Tina Fey/Mindy Kaling and popular music, it seemed that the general consensus was that many of the women mentioned were indeed, feminist. Case in point: Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling. Yes, issues pertaining to women (including those pertaining to their interests and their dating woes) are subjects of interest in both 30 Rock and The Mindy Project. However I am still grasping for a concept of why both of these women can be considered resolute feminists by simply being professionals who have positioned themselves in the industry and within the context of their television shows as the female minority. It seems to be that over the semester, many of us have defined a woman's right to call themselves a feminist based on her individualized commitments to strengthening female equality. However, based on what was presented to me in the presentation I don't necessarily get that impression from the efforts of Tina Fey and Mindy Kaling. Yes, these women have been extremely successful in the area of comedy - which has been notoriously difficult for women in the past. Also, they present themselves in their television series as having powerful occupations that are less likely for women (TV exec and lawyer). However, I feel that these are just constructs of the characters they have tried to portray as opposed to evidence of their conscious contributions to feminism. It would be interesting to read a detailed paper that analyzes their qualifications as feminists, because honestly this is unclear to me.

- Marisa Okano

Moving Past the Princess

I really enjoyed this week's presentation on the Disney princesses and how their representation has shifted over the decades. I've been interested in the topic in the past, and think it is relevant to discuss because the changing princesses certainly reflect changing social paradigms. However, I wonder to what extent these changes should be seen as a step towards the empowerment of young girls. Tiana and Merida, brave and groundbreaking as they are, are still princesses. The message appears to be that "even a ___________ can be a beautiful, successful princess."

Might it be a better idea to create female characters for girls to idealize who are everyday girls and women that become extraordinary through their own merit? The idea of birthright and magic seems fairly out of touch, especially for girls today who shape so much of their identity through readily available information. I think one really awesome approach is the one taken by a mother who encourages her five year old daughter to dress up as historic women instead of Disney characters.

     

http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/10/26/240899948/mother-and-daughter-play-a-remarkable-game-of-dress-up

"Women Don't Have To Be Fucked And Say Thank You"

Evan Rachel Wood is one of those fuck-yeah feminists and fuck-yeah people in general that I just don't really understand, but can't help but admire.  She is so determined and bad ass- I took a class with her private acting coach once. We were in a group, playing a tossing game to improve concentration and trust.  The teacher stopped us at one point after several drops of the ball and insisted that if Evan were playing she would've knocked us down and punched people to catch that ball and we had better get on it.

In her twitter feed Evan talks about how frustrated she is that a scene from her movie "Charlie Countryman" had to be cut because the MPAA was threatening to rate the film "X" with it in.  The scene supposedly involves oral sex on a female which Evan rightly points out would unlikely be an issue if the genders were swapped.  She goes on to say that juxtaposed with the violence of the piece, the shootings and murders heavily outstrip the sexuality in terms of being objectionable and, furthermore, if the male were also being pleasured it is unlikely the scene would have been as much of an issue.

I myself can only think of one instance of female pleasuring in a recent film I've seen: when Nick fingers Nora in Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist.  I remember thinking it was a bit brave and startling to have that in a rather tame film, though if I recall correctly they show no nudity and only allude to the act with sounds and innuendoes.  When I really think about it, how is that shocking at all? Because we just don't often see cinematic females being presented as sexual beings, as Evan mentions in her tweets.

However, I can think of several instances of male pleasuring or flat out intercourse that were rather involved (Basic Instinct for example?) and yet remained R. I think Evan has a good point, though I would reserve judgement after actually seeing the scene in question.  Nevertheless, it made me think about the lack of female pleasuring (not in conjunction with male pleasuring or mutual sex) seen onscreen.

Evan's Comments:
http://junkee.com/evan-rachel-wood-slams-censorship-accept-that-women-dont-have-to-be-fucked-and-say-thank-you/24424

Girl Scout Cookies: Food of the Devil (according to Right Wing extremists)

As a Girl Scout for over ten years, I have heard the slew of comments about it being a club for lesbians, a respite for the awkward and ugly, yada yada. I've heard about the rumored Planned Parenthood donation connections (but let me tell you, we learned nothing about birth control in our first aid units and the only rubber I ever saw as a Girl Scout was the band that held together my goals folder.)

Nevertheless, I was clearly part of a satanist, lesbian-agenda, communist, etc. group that aimed to *gasp* allow women to rise up in the marketplace?  Ok that last part might actually be true. Girl Scouts did encourage us to break through the glass ceiling, go into untraditional jobs (engineering and math being "untraditional" at age eight), and to stand up for ourselves in front of any gender.  But clearly, my years of selling cookies have just been a ploy to try to "put a Communist in the White House."  Sorry neighbors, those thin mints you bought are tainted with the sin of an unholy agenda.  But fear not! Read the end of the article to find out what the two talk show hosts suggest you do if you can't resist these delightful cookies.

Take a look at this article and see why Girl Scouts are just so darn evil:  http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/23/girl-scout-cookies-plot/

Here is the transcript of the radio show if you'd like to learn more:  http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/kevin-swanson-begs-you-not-buy-communist-lesbian-girl-scout-cookies

Women in Armenia

Mondays presentation “F Word à F World” struck me as particularly interesting and educational because we never had the chance to address Asian countries in class. It was particularly interesting to see the way women are viewed in China and compare that to my own Armenian culture. Although I have not been to Armenia, I attended an Armenian school till eighth grade and am surrounded by Armenian friends on a daily basis. The  “F Word à F World” caused me to reflect on all the cultural norms encompassed in being an Armenian woman.

First of all, in Armenia especially but also amongst the Diaspora, the home is still largely considered the woman’s territory. Even if a woman works, Armenian women have to cook like her husbands mother (if not better) look great and not speak back too often. Although this sounds like a lot many of the expectations for women in general, Armenian women are supposed to be virgins when they get married as well. The culture still looks down upon women who are in touch with their sexuality and explore it before marriage. Even more horrific is the treatment many Armenian receive at the hands of boyfriends and husbands. In Armenia there is a huge abuse problem. Although the World Health Organization estimates between 10%-60%, the large spanning percentage is because most abuse incidents to unreported because of the repercussions a woman would face if she reported the injustice.

So in case any of you were wondering at the end of this course if studying feminism is worthwhile or has a place in the world, remember a huge population of the world still remains in the dark about feminist concerns and the fundamental idea that men and women are created equal.  

-Natalie Qasabian 

A New Generation of Princesses?

We have spent a lot of time talking about the princess topic particularly the representations of princess. Typically, the myths of princess like pretty, gentle and obedient have been widely promoted for a long time and become the social and cultural norms. Recently, several mothers have tried to challenge the traditional norms. They have set up a different “princess culture” for their daughter.

One of the efforts that I have known is the project of “guardian princess” basically built on the principles of power, diversity and equity. 

Recognizing the power of media in shaping her daughter’s perception of the norm of princess, Setsu Shigematsu created the Guardian Princesses project. The members of this project try to collect money to publish a series of short stories about Guardian Princesses.  Each story is about a Guardian Princess who protects her people and a different part of nature. By focusing on the intellect over the external beauty, Setsu wants to introduce new types of princess for young girls. Although I highly respect Setsu and other mothers’ efforts, honestly, I am still skeptical about its success in the context that the commercial media has dominate in the society and there is no radical change in terms of policy. 

Here is the link of the video introducing the project

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-guardian-princesses

Here is the link of its facebook

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-guardian-princesses

Taking Our Female Leaders Seriously

A video recently going around Facebook on www.upworthy.com called “A Glimpse at How the Media Treated Women This Year is a Look At Way Too Many Cringe-Worthy Moments” got me thinking about the representation of females with government positions. The video starts with this year’s positive representations and included films like Gravity and The Hunger Games, TV shows like Orange is The New Black, and GoDaddy’s commitment to avoid sexual imagery and focus on humor in their two new Super Bowl commercials. The video then changes gears to the “cringe-worthy moments” such as axe body spray commercials, Miley Cyrus’s VMA performance and Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” music video. What was even more unsettling to me then the negative choices made by entertainers and advertisers was the representation of our female leaders. We are all aware of the alarmingly low number of our country’s female representatives (women make up 51% of the population in the United States but only make up 17% of Congress). Because of this reality, it seems to me that those female representatives should be admired by the media and respected. They, despite the odds of being a female leader in our predominantly white-male run society, have had to successfully prove their abilities, perhaps more than most men in government have had to. Despite all of this, our female leaders are continuously bashed. The video includes photos of articles such as “Fringe Factor: Wendy Davis Is Too Stupid to Be Governor”, “Fox News Commentator Calls Wendy Davis An ‘Abortion Barbie’” and “Somebody Spot Janet Yellen Some New Threads”. When Ashley Judd was considering running for Senate against Mitch McConell, the McConell aid who led a meeting said, “She’s clearly, this sounds extreme, but she is emotionally unbalanced. I mean it’s been documented”. A newspaper cover featuring a giant photo of Hilary Clinton in the middle of a passionate debate was headlined “No Wonder Bill’s Afraid; Hilary explodes with rage at Benghazi hearing”. Talk radio host Bryan Fischer said about Hilary “I just do not think the American public is ready to elect and old women to the oval office”. A female Fox News report described Hilary as looking “haggard” and “what, ninety-two years old?” on the air. In a Fox News interview with Sarah Palin, Palin was asked if she has gotten breast implants. These are just a number of examples of the ways in which people and the media assess women differently than men, pointing to “PMS” and “mood swings” as reasons why they can not be taken seriously. These examples have an overwhelming amount of name calling, focus on appearance, focus on their relationships with men, and perpetuate the idea that women are emotionally unstable. What makes this so alarming is that the media is so derogatory even toward the most powerful women in the country. If the media and society treat the country’s most powerful women this way, what does it say for how seriously any women can be taken?