blog post

Kristen Butler

Professor Melissa Santos

Eng. 199-003

Blog #4

            In Susan Douglas’ book “The Rise of Enlightened Sexism” she talks about different instances we see today that show women coming out of the inequality in society. One example that she addresses is the show Grey’s Anatomy. I thought this was an excellent example. The women in that show prove that in order to be an incredible surgeon, you do not need to be a smart male, you can be an equally smart female. In this show they also show examples of the women being better at their job than the men. Douglas then goes on to discuss that the idea of equality is scary for people because it may lead to too much sameness. In order to prevent this from happening, they come out with many ways to prove that women can never be equal. By doing so, they have to degrade women and show them as sex symbols and show that they are worth as much as their bodies. She says that yes, you can do and be whatever you want, but you are still expected to be the stereotypical women; cook, clean and be sexy.

            Susan Douglas writes about how “feminism” is seen as a bad word. She describes that when people hear that someone is a feminist they automatically assume that they are “man-hating, child-loathing, hairy, shrill, humorless, and deliberately unattractive” (Douglas 11). Simply because a woman believes in the equality for her own sex does not mean she is an awful person. There are many celebrities that are feminist, that are married with children. They just believe they should be treated equally. All of the instances of women being degraded are shown very well through television shows. Douglas talks about shows like The Bachelor, Laguna Beach and The Real World. These shows are supposed to show how women really act, yet all we do is criticize them for being this way. However that is how society wants to view us, females. These shows just show that women are supposed to behave for a man to like you. Douglas puts into reality how much backlash women get today for just supporting their opinions and being a feminist.

After going over the readings in class we discussed a lot of different instances of celebrities that make society look bad. One main person we talked about was Kim Kardashian. We addressed the recent nude photos she posted; it completely blows my mind that a woman that is a mother would pose in this provocative way. In episodes of the show she talks all about paparazzi and how they make her seem to be a bad person yet she goes and leaks this pictures of herself.