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Prompt: The Media, Real Women and Gender Oppression


Wow. I’ve been wracking my brain to come up with some examples, but I keep coming up short. Luckily, I know a nineteen year old feminist who watches a lot of TV.  In particular, she brought up Orange is the New Black and Game of Thrones as examples of shows that portray strong women and shed light on gender inequity.
By virtue of the all-female cast on OITNB, issues of gender inequity are inevitably raised.  The inclusion of women of color and varying sexuality does much to promote feminist viewpoints.  My daughter sees the treatment of the prisoners by the guards as a metaphor for how the women are treated in real life, also exposing oppression in society. 
I found her inclusion of Game of Thrones to be interesting.  While I haven’t seen the show (I know…I need to watch it!), I have read about the controversies concerning the rapes and otherwise poor treatment of the female characters.  Do such plot points in some way elevate the oppression of women? Perhaps. But at the same time, many of the women characters are portrayed as strong, daunting characters not to be messed with.
The two shows that came to mind for me are The Americans and House of Cards. In the first, Elizabeth is the female of the Russian spy duo whose mission it is to fight the Cold War by infiltrating the U.S. government in Washington, D.C.  Time and again Elizabeth proves to be a kick-ass strong woman, oftentimes proving herself stronger mentally and emotionally than her husband.  In HOC Claire Underwood’s cold, but logical, intelligent personality keeps moving her one step closer to the Oval Office. The problem with both Elizabeth and Claire, it can be argued, is that they both seem to exhibit stereotypical male characteristics to find success. 
On another note, while I was reading the book and listening to last week’s discussion, I kept thinking about not just the media’s portrayal of women, but how women themselves are portraying themselves to the media.  When does celebrating one’s body and good looks cross over from feminism to enlightened sexism? Specifically, Ariel Winter comes to mind.  Is it because we’ve reached gender equality that she and others feel so comfortable showing off their bodies to anyone with a social media account, or is it actually a false sense of equality, as Susan Douglas argues?  My fear is it’s the latter.  Any thoughts?

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