One of the great things about being back in school is that I am being exposed to all kinds of interesting commentary about gender, the media and the way women are viewed in the world. A video that I watched in one of my classes last week really stuck with me and I couldn’t get beyond the way women were portrayed in the video clips. I am eager to hear how other people view this video and their thoughts on how sexism is still very much a part of our modern culture, how it is acceptable and how it engrains itself into our every day conversation.
Is it okay for a news reporter to comment on how attractive his co-host is? Even when I have done television and radio appearances, I have often received on-air comments about my looks. These comments never extended to any of the male guests, but it seemed acceptable enough to comment on my appearance. Why?
Is it okay for news commentators to discuss female senators’ decollage? Is it okay for mainstream media talking heads to claim that females aren’t cut out for leadership roles because they may get PMS and basically ruin the world? Is it acceptable to demean women in power as “nagging first wives”?
More importantly, is this how we want future generations to treat women? Is this how we want our daughters and nieces and granddaughters and sisters and girlfriends and wives and mothers and friends to be treated?
We need to decide what kind of world we want to live in. We need to decide what kinds of voices we want representing us, and if you are feeling anything like I felt after reading this video, we need to work harder to ensure that women are no longer demoralized for being women.
I saw a t-shirt on a man in a photo recently and it said across it: “I have a dick, therefore I make the rules.”
Well, rules are meant to be broken.
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erikdolnack
Terrific blog post, Natalie! This video is very telling of our society today. Rather, it’s telling of the corporate media, and how corporate America views women, even to this very day. When you have a corporate culture that exploits any asset it can for profits, why should a female’s sex appeal be any different than exploiting Latin American workers for cheap labor resources? We’re hardly talking about any kind of ethics, morality, or values when we’re discussing a “free” market, are we?
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Exactly! And, who does this market really support, anyway? Thanks for the comment!
erikdolnack
We like to think women enjoy a higher status in western society than they do in say, the Arabic Community today. But is that true? Yes, subjugation of women runs rampant in Islamic nations, particularly Shi’ite ones. However, Islamic women aren’t exploited sexually in their media the way women are in the west.
I’m not making excuses for other cultures and their mores. I’m merely pointing out the hypocrisy in us thinking western societies are really that much more “advanced” than is the third world when it comes to gender equality.
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Interesting point, Erik!