Short Post 2/2

The New Girliness

Clueless: I remember that this was one of my favorite movies when I was a little girl. I had a Cher Barbie doll and I loved to pretend I had a wardrobe as extensive as hers. When Douglas brings up Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, I remembered that in Clueless, Cher brings up this book at one point when she is trying to help her friend be more 'intellectual.' Even though I didn't understand everything in that movie when I was 7, i think it definitely had an impact on me. It made me realize that it was cool to have lots of nice clothes, and shoes, and purses and girls look better when they wear makeup and when you learn to drive you should drive a jeep or a convertible. Douglas's critique of movies like this or shows like 90210 make me wonder whether these ideals were created straight from these shows or were they a reflection of what teens at that time were interested in? Its kind of like a chicken and egg question. Which one came first? Either way, the show and real life desires amplified one another to make the consumerism craze huge.

Ally McBeal: feminist and antifeminist.
It seems like Douglas is complaining that Ally McBeal and Bridget Jones inner monologues were only about men and sex rather than their work and serious issues. But I think that women really do think about men and sex a lot and she has to recognize that people don’t want to watch a show about a woman who only thinks about serious issues. Thats unrealistic. Plus womens feelings towards those shallow things is what unites women, we all experience the same feelings at some point or another. But women have very diverse careers so most women don't really want to hear a woman's inner thoughts about a legal case because that is already what the tv show is about. Most women can't related to those thoughts.

You Go Girl

I think the reason why this book is starting to frustrate me so much is that Douglas repeatedly categorizes shows into enlightened sexism or embedded feminism but she doesn’t seem to like either one. So she just complains the whole time instead of telling us what she would rather see. She needs to acknowledge that shows are made to be entertaining and maybe she doesn’t need to pick apart every detail of each show to make a point.
When she talks about Oprah, I just don’t follow her argument. Its pretty unclear to me what her problem is with Oprah. Why can’t Douglas just accept the fact that Oprah is doing the best she can to make a good, informative, helpful talk show? Oprah is an amazing role model for all women and girls and I think Douglas should pay more attention to that than the fact that she is giving into consumerism by trying to sell products.