“What you can learn here is how men have perceived and organized their experience, their history, their ideas of social relationships, good and evil, sickness and health, etc. When you read or hear about “great issues”, “major texts”, “the mainstream of Western thought”, you are hearing about what men, above all white men, in their male subjectivity, have decided is important. (Adrienne Rich)”
This quote from Adrienne Rich’s convocation speech at Douglass College in 1977 is extremely powerful, and I think it is worth discussing. Personally, I do not consider myself a feminist. I want women to earn equal wages as men. I also want the traditional stay-at-home mother/wife image to be eradicated in the near future, but I do not label myself as a feminist. However, Rich’s quote made me realize that most “great issues” in the world come from a male perspective, and I think this is unacceptable. In CORE classes 151 and 152 here at Colgate, we read many of “the classics”…written almost entirely by men (it probably depends on the professor, but mine included almost exclusively male texts). Hence, in many CORE classes, we learn about the past through a lens that has been created by the males of the world. Conversely, in my experience with psychology classes and other courses that I have taken (specifically, intro to P-CON comes to mind), I have found that many of the texts on the syllabus are written by women. This may be a sign that change is possible, and although most ancient texts that are taught at Colgate are written by males, newer publications are quite commonly written by females.
Now I want to focus on Enlightened Sexism. In the introduction of the book, Susan Douglas spends a lot of time discussing today’s popular media and how it reinforces sexist ideas. She focuses on television series that promote female power, such as Grey’s Anatomy and Law & Order. She also mentions multiple series that she believes are sexist: The O.C, Gossip Girl, and many others. She argues that girls from my generation (born in the late 1980s or early 90s) tend to watch these “sexist” shows in groups together, and they spend the time watching the show and ridiculing the “empty-headed and materialistic girls on the screen” (15). Douglas argues that this ridiculing creates a fantasy that the television shows are not examples of sexism, although they clearly are. When I was home over winter break, I stumbled upon a reality series called “Bridalplasty” on the E! network when I was at one of my girlfriend’s houses. We were both completely fascinated by this show, and watched the entire episode. The show is fascinating because it is so absurd: a group of soon-to-be brides live in a house together and compete for plastic surgeries. There is even a recovery room in the house, where women can relax post-liposuction, breast implants, nose job, etc. We did not watch this show because we thought it was about gender equality; clearly, it is a sexist show. My friend and I both knew this, but we continued to watch because it was entertaining. Although we ridiculed the girls on the show, we were aware that the show embraced sexist values. Therefore, I think that Douglas’s point about reality shows producing a “fantasy” that we have overcome sexism is incorrect, because I am fully aware that Bridalplasty is sexist.
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