Main Post Douglas Chapter 4 & 5
Chapter 4 in Douglas is titled “The New Girliness” which works well to sum up the main point of the chapter. She explores the emergence of a new sort of feminine model in which women are powerful; while at the same time conform to typical standards of beauty. The supporting evidence starts with the 1995 movie Clueless, which features Cher a Mini skirt wearing, shopping loving, blonde girl who also saves the day with her intelligence. This movie spawns many other movies and TV shows where we hear the inner monologue of female characters. Douglas claims these inner monologues generally show the supposedly shallow thoughts held by women. This “new girliness” seems to continue the legacy started by warrior women where media exemplifies both progression and regression for the feminist cause. Douglas sums it up by stating, “it offered the fleeting fantasy that girls could have it both ways: they could be sex objects in their fuck-me pumps and micro minis while simultaneously critiquing patriarchal ways of looking at and thinking about young women.” Then Douglas takes a look at the exceedingly popular show Ally Mcbeal and the role it took in advancing women’s image while tearing it down at the same time. Ally in many ways was a model of a woman who was both attractive and intelligent. She was a powerful attorney who could take down any man that was in her way. The show was an inspiration in the ways that it tackled cases about sex discrimination, yet in the next minute the women would be using their sex appeal to seduce a man and Ally would be whining about her inability to find love.
Douglas goes on to point out the similar features in popular entertainment at the time. Bridget Jones makes women appear to think only of men and makes feminists look like unattractive, out of touch women. What Women Want like Mcbeal shows the inner monologue of women thinking of shopping and babies. Then there is the grouping of Miss Congeniality and Legally Blonde, two movies which showed women trying to find a balance between feminism and hypergirliness. While the message may seem like a positive one both movies put strong feminism in an unattractive and unappealing light. Down with Love sends the message that during the second wave of the feminist movement men saw the error of their ways, another reason feminism is now unnecessary. All in all in order to be happy, women had to find to perfect balance between ultra girly and the overbearing feminist. This chapter raised some valid points and I cannot help but agree with Douglas that Bridget Jones’ wining is enough to make almost any women cringe. At the same time it did raise some questions for me. For one is if this is all true then, what is it that made these films so popular? Perhaps it is because in each of these women we see bits of ourselves and our struggle to find balance reflected. Douglas states that it is a loss for women that we see in the media women attempting to achieve attractiveness and girliness. At the same time there is something to be said about people simply wanting to see attractive people on TV. As much as we demand this of women I think that there is also a lot of pressure on men to have the perfect face body etc. Do shallow movies meant to entertain us really convince anyone that all that is floating around in women’s head is shoes, men and babies? I do not watch TV to see an accurate reflection of myself, but sometimes as an escape from my thoughts and a chance to just be entertained.
Chapter 5
I found chapter 5 from Douglas raised less mixed emotions in me as I agreed with more of her analysis. Recently the figure of the sassy black women has risen to a high level of popularity. This is because she tells it like it is and seems unrestrained by the expectations many upper and middle class white women feel govern their behavior. Yet again this character evokes an unrealistic image that feminism is unnecessary. Despite media black women telling it like it is, in reality black women are still trapped in a disadvantaged position. Black women recently became more and more prevalent in entertainment, but Douglas points out that it is often as the butt shaking back up dancer to degrading songs. Then with the rise of black TV shows came embedded feminism for black women. The show Living Single featured black women who managed to have it all. They could be sassy, free speaking bold black women, while remaining attractive, powerful and have boyfriends. Black women began to become a caricature: they were loud, bossy, and generally emasculating. As the Film Waiting to Exhale shows these women rarely had good luck with men, perhaps it was because they did not fit into the typical feminine role. To counter this came Soul Food which showed that true happiness only came to black women who conformed and put there men first. The emergence of Operah was a cultural phenomenon that was the sassy black women who was also relatable to white women. Operah used “code switching” which had been seen throughout the majority of black people in media where she would easily alternate “black speak” with proper English. This draws in a huge audience and once again makes women feel as though the fight for feminism is over; with blunt speaking black women as the example we have clearly reached equality. In order to understand the myth of this created character one only has to look at the real statistics that black women face.
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