“Post-feminism positively draws on and invokes feminism as
that which can be taken into account, to suggest that equality is achieved, in
order to install a whole repertoire of new meanings which emphasise that it is
no longer needed, it is a spent force (McRobbie, p.255). It is shocking to me that anyone could think
that feminism is over or no longer needed or that gender equality has somehow
been achieved. I find this to be strikingly
similar to the issues of colorblindness that we discussed a few weeks ago.
I think the Hooters episode of Undercover Boss that one of the groups shared last week is a
primary example of how this conception of accomplished gender equality gets
promoted as a reality. While the CEO of
Hooters can acknowledge “Jimbob’s” outrageous, demeaning treatment of his
waitresses, he fails to see that the company’s foundation of objectifying
women’s bodies while they literally serve people (typically men) goes
completely ignored and is treated as normalized. Much like the article we read about the Ugly Betty episode in which whiteness
and white privilege is never addressed, the Undercover
Boss episode also refuses to address the objectification of women and the
male gaze in operation that the entire infrastructure of the Hooters corporation
relies upon.
The perception that the goals of feminism have been
accomplished was challenged on a mass scale this year during the Academy Award
ceremony, particularly during Patricia Arquette’s acceptance speech in which
she called for equal pay for women and Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez joined
in an impassioned support of this call.
This response was later poked fun at by host Neil Patrick Harris
claiming that “Meryl Streep suddenly realized she was underpaid”. Neil Patrick Harris’ privilege as a male
permits him, and wrongfully so, to make the issue of equal pay for women an
individualized topic that somehow women who are paid well are not allowed to be
a force of support for their gender. In
fact the day after the Oscars on Yahoo’s home page there was an article
(written by a man) that was a deliberate combatting of Patricia Arquette’s
claim, entitled “Working women earn more than Patricia Arquette may realize”
(See Full article posted below). The
article insisted that because the pay gap between men and women is less extreme
than in times past that it is a non-issue.
I think this article and its claims are an example of what McRobbie said
as a “thorough dismantling of feminist politics and the discrediting of the
occasionally voiced need for its renewal” (McRobbie, p. 256). Why shouldn’t someone in Arquette’s position
or Streep’s position be allowed to be a voice for women and use the stage of
the Oscars to speak to something that they are passionate about and invested
in? Instead of being treated like they
have no right to speak to this issue because they have money, they should be
praised for coming to the forefront and standing up to an issue that is so
regularly and easily brushed under the carpet of the public’s
consciousness. In my opinion, those who
have money and security have even more obligation to speak up, take a stand,
and work towards change because they too occupy a space of privilege where
their jobs are not going to be at risk if they speak out.
Meryl Streep is actually personally involved in the advocacy
of a new History of Women Museum, which is in the works to be created. She has personally invested over 1 million
dollars into this project as she holds the view that so long as the stories of
women have been written and given importance only through the perspective of
men, then the full complex understanding of women and their achievements cannot
be realized. The idea behind this museum is to give the stories of women and
female figures a voice and perspective that comes from a female point of view. I think it is such an important concept and
project because as McRobbie reminds us, “there is little trace of the battles
fought, of the power struggles embarked upon, or of the enduring inequities
which still mark the relations between men and women” (McRobbie, p. 260). It is so disheartening to think that we have “airbrushed
[these struggles and events] out of existence” (McRobbie, p. 260). I’m with Meryl and Patricia; it’s time for
women to tell their own stories and each other's stories.
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