Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Enlightened Sexism talking points # 8 Connections Blog


In the article Enlightened Sexism by Susan J. Douglas she defines this as the perceived threat of a new gender regime. It insists that woman have made plenty of progress because of feminism, so now it’s okay, even amusing to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women (pg. 9). Douglas then goes onto to give different examples of enlightened sexism. She states that enlightened sexism is targeted to girls who have it all. Douglas also says that enlightened the media and that are producing all sexism they are calling the shots. Plus that it is “undoing feminism.” Douglas then continues by saying that enlightened sexism ignores any girl who is not middle or upper class and makes girls and women compete for a male’s attention. Finally, Douglas states that any person who is on television whether they are rich, good looking or spoiled, that we as viewers are better than them because we can judge them and we make better choices than they do.

Douglas then states that enlightened sexism pulls girls and women into opposite directions “between serious success and respect and wanting acceptance, approval and love and wanting power and dreading power.” So girls now have to figure out whom they want to be and that if they choose to work and have success then we have to be able to deal with the consequences, because it was “our own choice.”

I feel that with all the shows that Douglas mentions in the article, all the shows portray S.C.W.A.A.M.P. These shows portray straightness by showing relationships. They show whiteness because majority of leading cast members are all white. These people are all able bodies and American. Finally, you really see property owner for the reason being all the cast members have al these rich extravagant lives and don’t see to have to worry about money problems.

Another previous reading I thought of when reading Douglas was Raby’s Discourses. Girls today are the storm, at risk, becoming and pleasurable consumption. The storm because girls on TV are easily influenced by all the opportunities that are presented to them. They are at risk because they have complete access to sex and alcohol. Becoming because whenever a girl does a reality show, it is a huge milestone in the girls’ life. They look back at that time and see how much they have grown and changed from that time. Finally, with girls now on TV it gives viewers an idea of what is “in” and “popular”. It makes advertisement easier because they have now have models to base future products on.

3 comments:

  1. I like how you connected the article with Raby's discourses.

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  2. Your connection to SCWAAMP is fantastic! The shows that she mentions and the media are all very SCWAAMPy and are presented to certain groups of people. I wonder if we took a cross section of women and girls from all races and classes, would we have a different view point of Enlightened Sexism?

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  3. I agree I saw SCWAAMP and Raby while reading also.One that is similar to Raby andv immediately came to mind was "...and are fixated by conspicuous consumption" when I read that I thought about pleasurable consumption, which was one you mentioned.

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