Entry #2

Kristen Butler

February 6, 2015

Blog entry

Throwing our Ours Bras

            In Susan Douglas’ writing “Throwing out Our Bras” she discusses the movements that were made during the 1960’s. She talks a lot about the advertisements, music, and all of the ways lifestyles were changing for many different people. Douglas has written many books, with women being the main topic she speaks about. Her works focus on an analysis of the mixed messages surrounding women, and the struggle she sees in the media between feminism and sexism. I found this article to be very interesting, and it made me think about my life today. Being a female today in society is obviously nothing like it was before, Susan Douglas helps to prove just how hard the lifestyle was for a woman back then.

            Feminism has always been a topic that has been extremely controversial. Nowadays it is not as serious or important for many people since women have gained many more rights and are treated much more equally. However there are still many cases of women being treated unequally. In today’s time there are not many things a woman has not done that a man has, but in the article that Douglas wrote, the 60’s was a huge time for woman to express themselves and to show huge advantage. The article starts off talking about the Miss America Pageant in 1968 in which the showed just how much they did not believe in what happens during pageants. Douglas says “they were not there to attend the pageant and chose who was prettier or had a better butt; they were there to put down the pageant, and put it down they did” (Douglas 139). There has never been such an event that showed the feelings of woman so much. These women took off their bras and expressed how much they felt that they were treated like animals. The part that I liked the most about this article was that Susan Douglas was physically involved in these revolts; it helped to show me, as the reader, what was really happening. She says  “One of the first photographs taken of me and my roommate freshman year featured us braless, wearing men’s undershirts instead, holding a sign that read, simply, “Ban the Bra” (Douglas 140). She then carries on saying “I was not a feminist yet, not by a long shot” (Douglas 140). This was my favorite quote from the article because it proves that even if you were not considered to be a feminist in this time period you were still able to support the rights that women should have. Women should not be treated as if they are animals or lesser people just because of their gender.

            The reading that we did in Andi Zeisler’s book Feminism and Pop Culture, talks a lot about advertisements and how much they affect women. Many advertisements make women think they are not good enough or that make them believe that they need to look a specific way to be attractive to men. These advertisements relate back to what Susan Douglas is saying when she is talking about the pageant because the woman at the pageant started throwing away all of the things that they were required to use in order to make themselves prettier than the other woman that were participating against them. Douglas also talks a lot about television shows that were being aired in the 1960’s. If you are to turn on a television in todays you may find families that have a working dad with a stay at home mom, however it is rare, but turn on a TV in 1960 and you will see that all the households have a man that goes to work all day while the woman stays home, cleans and takes care of the children. However the man is still head of the household regardless of the fact that he is not their all day. This has all changed because woman showed just how much they are capable of doing for themselves.