Enlightened Sexism

Caroline Stevens
Women and Pop Culture
Blog Post


            In the book Enlightened Sexism, by Susan Douglas, she talks about women starting to become powerful and taking control. In the discussion today in class, the one thing that stuck out to me was talking about all the TV shows that are out in the world and how women are the main people being focused on in the shows. Douglas mentions Grey's Anatomy in her book. Grey's Anatomy is a great example of enlightened sexism because it shows women being skilled at their job and how they are capable of being doctors just like men. It also shows how women have progressed and became different people than who they were in the past. We started to work with men and we are getting out of our comfort zones. Enlightened Sexism is women to be equally the same as men and have the same rights. There are some women in the world who are not confident with their body and they feel like they need to work out, and have muscles to look good. They are doing that to get attention. Women should dress and look the way that they want to and not just dress sexy to get attention and make men like them. Even today, there are girls in middle school and high school who try to look good for school. You are in High School, there is no one you really need to impress. I like to wear yoga pants and a sweatshirt everyday because that is what I am comfortable with. I wear jeans and a nice shirt on certain occasions but I do not do it to impress people and look sexy. This problem with society also reflects on famous people for example, Kendall and Kylie Jenner. Kylie is only 16 years old and she looks older than her sister Kendall, and does not look like a regular teenager, she looks like a woman. They both act like they are woman and they should just be enjoying life and not wondering what they look like or how to find ways to look sexy and attract men who are older than them. Kylie was seen dancing on a stripper pole and it was posted on the internet. Again, she is 16 and no 16 year old should be dancing on a pole in a sexual way. I mean yeah sure whatever floats your boat but it is not normal. Some women, even famous women have insecurities of themselves but in reality, everyone should just dress the way that they want to and not impress anyone. They should be comfortable with the body that they have and not change it for anyone but themselves. The media should not be using the internet to crop the women's body because that is their real body and no one should have a problem with it and no one should judge them. That is who they are and they should not try to impress someone. Every women have different bodies from each other and they should understand that. This is life and no one can do anything about your body except yourself.