Main Post January 20th

Susan Douglas’s introduction to Enlightened Sexism, titled “Fantasies of Power,” aims to clarify the problems that face the genuine advancement of women in contemporary America. In particular, she focuses on the media and its spectrum of projected ideals and images as both the representation of progress and the main obstacle for future progress. Douglas observes how the media has distorted the reality of women’s status in American society in different ways over time, dealing differently with contemporary feminism than it did with the feminism of the fifties and sixties. Essentially, she argues that the media has created illusions that distort, and most often suppress, genuine recognition of how far women have come and how much farther there is to go. For example, in the fifties, when women were inarguably active and making progress, the media represented them in their ideal domestic spaces, and they were shown as happy to be there. In contrast, today’s media often represents the “new age” woman that is in a high-power job, not afraid to stand up to “the man.” Our media gives an image of achieved equality, when, in reality, there is much left to be accomplished.

Douglas begins to break down these issues by introducing the terms “enlightened sexism” and “embedded feminism.” These two concepts work with one another, according to Douglas, to create today’s very complex social climate. Enlightened sexism poses the problem of appearing to be feminist, and therefore, it does not garner attention as something needing to be critiqued or questioned. But Douglas tries to show that much of what appears to be progressive in our media actually disarms feminism by overstating women’s gains and rendering the feminist movement obsolete.

Douglas tactfully explains the complexities of this opinion by providing media examples and navigating how they are meant to be received by the general public. The most interesting example is her break down of what can be summarized as “trash TV.” She explains that the success of such shows is based on appealing to the audience’s ego by making TV that is so shallow that the spectators congratulate themselves for knowing not to take it at face value. She says, “The pleasure comes from feeling that you are reading against the grain, seeing through and deconstructing this media sludge.” The unfortunate result, though, is popular television shows like “My Super Sweet Sixteen” which pumps out images of stereotypical feminine hysteria and consumerism, no matter how tongue-in-cheek. “The Man Show,” as another example, gets by on appearing to be aware of how pathetic sexism is. By embracing their pathetic sexism, it becomes comedy; laughing becomes “okay” because the men of “The Man Show” can argue that they are laughing at themselves and the knowledge of their own base immaturity. It is this new layer of irony (#50 on the list at StuffWhitePeopleLike.com) that complicates the progress of contemporary women.

Overall, Douglas’s message in “Fantasies of Power” is to delve deeper and to question how far women have really come, and how much farther there is left to go. She does not want the media to continue to encourage complacency or to keep taking one step forward and two steps back. Throughout the rest of the book she will unravel these problems more fully and offer her own suggestions for overcoming them.

Adrienne Rich’s convocation speech at Douglass College is very similar to Susan Douglas’s message in many ways. Rich, however, is encouraging women to fight against the complacency felt in the academic realm rather than in the media. Although, Rich preaches about the same principles of questioning and challenging. She uses similar statistics and facts that show how under-represented women are at “the top,” regardless of the common message that “women have won.” Rich differs in that her speech puts much more emphasis on personal responsibility. Her purpose seems to be to inspire action through a fundamental change in women’s self-image; she believes that women who see themselves as worthy, intelligent, and opinionated will be the women that demand such respect from the rest of the world and induce the most change.