Demanding for Equality

Faith Beglane

13 February 2015

Demanding for Equality

            In chapter nine of Where the Girls are, by Susan J Douglas, she focuses on the issue of backlash and why there was so much hatred towards the second wave of the feminist movement.  The Medias representation towards women in the bionic bimbo was that women now felt that it was their right to make their image better in the media, but the media’s image didn’t really change because of the Television shows at that time. The television often showed women about to be raped, or scandalous senses that contradicted the image that women wanted to be seen as.  I think that the backlash at this time was so big because the feminist movement was growing and men didn’t like being threatened by the weaker gender. This was the first time women were really putting up a fight and people felt the need to stop them. By using things like Ms. Magazine, women were able to advocate how they really felt and men didn’t like that they were rebelling and putting up the strongest fight that they ever have.

            Ms. Magazine focused on issues like domestic violence, sexual harassment, protested pornography, and date rape. These issues were huge in society and they were not usually talked about. These were very contradicting to the television shows at that time that often showed women in a very sexual aspect and not focusing on the fact that women had barley any rights compared to the men. All of these contrasting ideas left women in a confused state. On one channel, they saw activists like Gloria Steinem enforcing women’s rights, but flip to another channel on the television, they could see a horror movie where a women was almost raped, but then saved at the last minute. People were unsure as what to say or think, “1970s were more difficult than the tension between speaking the truth and hedging it, or even in the end, keeping quiet” (Douglas, 207). The era was confusing for women, but as it progressed women both on the screen and off the screen started becoming more assertive and more demanding.   Although women were confused at first, by the end of the 1970’s it was clear that women in the media wanted to be known for not just their sexuality, but their abilities and talents and this is what would lead the second wave of feminism.