A Woman’s Truth

At the end of the documentary “The Punk Singer,” Kathleen Hanna makes a very provocative statement, “When a man tells the truth it’s the truth, as a woman I need to negotiate the way I’ll be perceived. There’s always suspicion around a woman’s truth.” This statement is reflective of the discussions we’ve had in class regarding how a woman must always defend herself. She is always judged and constantly surveyed for the way she looks and the way she behaves. Hanna always feared that her allegations of sexual abuse and the stories that comprise her life narrative would never be believed. She feared the media’s judgement and her friend’s criticism. So, for self-preservation she kept it all to herself. In the film, Hanna explains that she combats this fear by finally telling her truth without worrying how she will be perceived. The documentary is testament to her truth; she finally reveals it all.

Third Wave Feminism and the Riot grrrl Movement

The film “The Punk Singer” highlights the three major feminist movements that have occurred in America’s history. The first wave of feminism sprang out of women’s suffrage in the early 20th century, and the second grew as a result of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s fueled by pervasive political activism. The third wave originated in the 1990’s and is considered to continue to the present. Riot grrrl-an underground feminist punk rock movement dominated by bands like Bikini Killer, is considered part of this third wave. It is evident that Riot grrrl heavily influenced the feminist atmosphere of the late 1980’s-90’s; it was evocative and controversial sparking media attention and feminist debate. It sought to eradicate essentialist definitions of feminine behavior and to combat stereotypical portrayal of women in the media. I’m curious as to what specific part Riot grrrl played in the emergence of third wave feminism? What allowed Riot grrrl to become such a formidable cultural faction? From the film it seemed as if Riot grrrl grew alongside third wave feminism, responding to the political and sexist climate of the day. Riot grrrl widened the public perception of feminism because it spoke through a medium that everyone could understand – music. Does a movement like Riot grrrl still exist at all today, or has it transformed into a new type musical feminism?

The Feminist Stripper

In the documentary, “The Punk Singer,” Kathleen Hanna admits that she briefly worked as a stripper in order to pay her bills. This admission wasn’t explored or developed in the film. It was merely presented as a fact of Hanna’s life, so I was curious what Hanna actually thought about the profession. In the article titled “Keeping Women Down and Out: The Strip Club Boom and the Reinforcement of Male Dominance,” Jeffreys’s argues that stripping is a form of social inequality. On Kathleen Hanna’s website, the singer corroborates Jeffreys’s arguments. She says, “To be clear I NEVER saw stripping as empowering, but I did know what I was doing. A gross job to pay the bills.” In comparison, we explored the empowerment argument through “Live, Nude, Girls Unite!” (2000), where strippers unionized and fought to eradicate the stigma associated with this profession. It’s interesting how divided the feminist movement is in regards to stripping. I believe this schism in feminist opinion is a disservice to the movement as a whole because it prevents women from moving forward and taking social action concerning the strip club industry.

Sources
“Live Nude Girls Unite!” (2000)
Jeffrey’s, Sheila. “Keeping Women Down and Out: The Strip Club Boom and the Reinforcement of Male Dominance.”
http://www.kathleenhanna.com/getting-in-on-the-action/

The Punk Singer

The documentary “The Punk Singer,” which chronicles the life of Kathleen Hanna, explores the stage as a feminist space. As a young artist, Hanna sought to combat the violence and the sexism that usually rules punk rock music shows. She did this by ensuring that her concerts were targeted to a female audience both figuratively and literally. Hanna would call women to the front of the stage protecting them from the dangerous mosh pits that were known to erupt. Hannah’s supporters explain that this small request was actually revolutionary for gender relations as men are accustomed to dominating a room. In addition, the content of the music focused on women’s issues, such as rape and gender prejudice. Instead of music normally acting as escapist, it forced listeners to confront the issues head on; Hannah “screamed what was unspoken.” Concertgoers expressed that Hanna’s stage presence was that of a man’s; she was known to act aggressively and crudely. In “Ways of Seeing,” John Berger asserts that women behave according to how men will perceive them. However, Hanna destroyed this idea by rejecting a man’s idea of how a woman should act through her behavior and through the content of her music. It was difficult for me think of an analogous figure in music today that approaches feminism with Hanna’s aggressive approach. Has this type of feminism died in today’s culture?

Sources
Berger, John. “From Ways of Seeing.” The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. By Amelia Jones. London: Routledge, 2003. 37-39. Print.

Thoughts on Magical Girls

From Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica

Recently it dawned on me that magical girl shows are complicated when thinking about gender. For those who are unfamiliar, a magical girl anime is one that involves one or more girls who transform into crazy costumes and gain magical powers in order to battle monsters. In itself this seems to tackle gender roles that say girls shouldn’t be rough. Also, there is power given to the girls in that they are able to make their own decisions and interact with one another independent of men (Bechdel test, anyone?).  Also, though they do transform into sparkly, colorful versions of themselves, they show that being feminine isn’t necessarily a sign of weakness and can be used to be empowering. Ultimately one major thought comes to mind: are magical girl shows empowering to girls because they show girls being brave and fighting for what they want, or are they oppressive because from a male perspective they can be viewed as a way to combine interests of a male dominated society: sexualized women and violence? Regardless of how they are perceived, I think magical girl shows are important since they are targeted usually at girls in a society where most media is targeted at a male audience and allow them to have role models they can relate to.

Diversity in Engineering

I was on my high school’s alumni page and I saw this link posted. Despite some really narrow-minded remarks that were used to criticize the poster such as “why do we need to bring gender into everything?”  and “what’s next, will we encourage our boys into nursing?” I think this video does a great job of sending a message to young girls that they can be whatever they want to be. What’s really amazing to me is that the girls take all of the very pink, gendered toys and make them a part of a massive contraption in order to open the garage door and see the outside world. To me this represented them not simply rejecting that they were girls, but instead using the resources already given to them by society to pave their own path. However, though videos like this can be so inspiring, I think about the comments left on this post in my school’s alumni page and I wonder what it will take to really show this male-dominated society why diversity (including but not just limited to gender) in engineering and other male-dominated fields is so important.

The media’s reign

Earlier this semester, the manner, in which women are portrayed in the media, was discussed. From music videos to movies, the oversexualization of the female body is a reality of the world we live in. Women are split into parts, made into nothing more than insignificant pieces for audiences to visually consume. Why exactly does the media do this? The answer lies within the society we live in. Heteronormative and patriarchal, society takes on a large role in the development of cultural norms.(Chambers) The media shapes society through publications of the human body and as a result establishes the publications as cultural expectations. Despite some of this year’s movies having women lead roles, they don’t overcome what continued to happen in our society. In the second half of the video women are used as nothing more than props and sexual objects to get viewers to watch the entire advertisement. The purpose of this is post is to raise awareness of the realities that our society faces. What you see in the media isn’t ideal; don’t change yourself to fit the mold.

Chambers, Samuel. Reading the L Word: Outing Contemporary Television. New York: TB Tauris, 2006.

Boys Act, Little Girls Appear

I’ve been seeing this video of an “adorable 911 call” on Facebook and other social media sites a lot lately. In the video, a five year old girl named Savannah calls 911 when her dad has a heart attack. Savannah is helpful in her conversation with the operator, but what makes the video so “adorable” is the way Savannah steers the conversation to her clothes. At 1:54, after the dispatcher tells Savannah that people are on their way to the house to help, Savannah says “Ok. We’re in our jammies… and I’m in a tank top. So… I’ll have to get dressed.” Again at 1:59, Savannah says “”I dont…what I am gonna wear, but… he really needs oxygen.”

The video is garnering attention because Savannah is cute and funny. It is humorous that a little girl is preoccupied with what she will wear to the hospital after her father has just had a heart attack. However, I find the video a little sad because it shows how a five year old girl is already so preoccupied with her appearance. Bergen said in Ways of Seeing that “women appear,” and this video proves that girls internalize society’s expectations of women as decoration at an extremely young age. Savannah must have learned this mentality from female caretakers in her life, as well as media influences. I think this video is an example of gender as a process, and shows how young girls interpret what it means to be female.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/spenceralthouse/3-minutes-that-prove-how-the-media-failed-women-in-2013

Buzzfeed recently posted an article about “The Representation Project” that is fighting to change the way women are represented in media. Included was a powerful three minute video that demonstrated how media failed women in 2013. A lot of the example were reminiscent of the ones we saw in “Dreamworlds” and “Killing Us Softly”, but the sexist excerpts from politicians, news anchors, and radio really left a lasting impression. Seeing women put down and objectified in advertisements and commercials is (unfortunately) not surprising anymore, but the comments from well respected and influential people is. Being at a university that advocates so much from women and equality has put me in a bubble, and now I am shocked by the ignorant and ridiculous comments from the rest of the world. Take a couple minutes and watch the video as well. 

“Deformed Freak Born Without Penis”

http://www.theonion.com/articles/deformed-freak-born-without-penis,34732/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=LinkPreview%3A1%3ADefault

This article is almost too perfect for our class discussion to be true.  This morbidly funny social commentary story is set up in which some deformed “freak” was born without testes or a penis.  Throughout it’s lifetime, the freak has suffered harassment from total strangers on the street, passed up employment opportunities, and been stared at and objectified.  “What’s so deformed about not having a penis?” you might ask.  Well, apparently it’s being the fact that unfortunately, this assigns you the title of ‘woman.’  Though we know that being a woman clearly does not make you a “freak,” I thought that this article’s sarcasm was an interesting, humorous way to shed light on social issues that still concern women today and are reinforced by the theory that men are innately better, more powerful, and more desirable than women.  However, is this type of commentary is too extreme to get real attention or has it truly opened up people’s eyes to the way that society subconsciously views women?