Injecting Feminism into Pop Culture

February 19, 2009 Written by Women

Take just a few seconds and think about the last tabloid television show, website, or magazine you saw or read. Now think about how women were portrayed in the communication. I’ll be willing to bet that the majority of the articles you recalled centered on female celebrities and the latest paparazzi photos (i.e., best and worst figures), baby-watches, and plastic surgeries.

One could surmise that women continue to be evaluated as objects, evaluated by their sexual appearance and reproductive capabilities.

Really ladies when you think about it, have we ONLY come this far in the last 100 years?

This was just one of the questions discussed at the Feminism 2.0 conference where we came together to identify the various methods we can use to inject feminism into popular culture and combat the objectification of women. If we want to stop the continued objectification of women we need to:

  1. Stop being our worst enemy. Women need to be cognizant of their public image and stop perpetuating negative stereotypes. Case and point, in just 30 seconds Danica Patrick, was reduced from a talented IndyCar driver to simply a sexual object in the GoDaddy Superbowl Ads.
  1. Support women who are currently involved in the media and generate great content. Demonstrating support for our colleagues will help them remain in the media spotlight as well as boost their confidence. Show your support by sending positive feedback to the news station, publisher, newspaper, etc.,
  1. Be a Mentor and introduce more women into the conversations. Let’s face it, the news is primarily generated and communicated by white males; by leveling out the gender ratio we can impact the social agenda and how women are represented in popular culture.
  1. Don’t be a bystander. If a something is entertaining, we watch it. Unfortunately many images in the media reinforce the objectification of women, it’s subversive! Sitting back and watching simply reinforces the imagery and buys into the system. Affect change, where negative images exist, write a letter of protest, take it to the blogosphere, stop watching the show or using their products.

In the crowd of smart, talented professional women, all feminists, many of us were found guilty to some degree of perpetuating the objectification of women. I can tell you first-hand that there has been more than one weekend where I have glued myself to the television to watch the Rock of Love or Flavor of Love marathons and even the Duggar family specials on Discovery.

So knowing what I know now, what will I do to do my part and end these negative stereotypes?

I will continue to encourage women to be cognizant of their public image. I will continue supporting women making news in the media, featuring them on my blog and sending kudos to their employer. I will continue mentoring women in marketing and video games so that it increases women entering these fields. Last but not least, when I see strong female characters that I identify with, I will write to the television shows so that they are motivated to bring on more personalities like her.

About Tina Tyndal

Ever since I started bragging about working at a comic book store, my close friends dubbed me “Queen of the Nerds” and I wear the title proudly. I’ve been a gamer for life, starting with the Atari 2600 ending to the latest generation consoles. My favorite material possessions include my mint in box game and watch collection, consoles and various gamer shirts I’ve collected through the years.

The zombiepocalypse, comic books and the latest tech toys round out my list of obsessions.

XBLA/PSN/Steam: Bawdess
WOW: Prissywissy
 

Cross-posted with permission from Gaming Angels

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  • http://womenmakenews.com amy cross

    Tina’s right, we need to be active in choosing the media that we like–telling the producers. Too often media producers only get protests,(which can be effective) not letters telling them they’re getting women’s audiences and why. Someitmes ratings aren’t enough for them to figure it out..

    And of course, in this chock-a-block full economy of culture, it’s hard to know what is good.

    Does someone/some blog keep a list of good fem culture, a rating system, like R or PG–something like SOF- sexism and objectification free media? Or course, one could read lots of women in hollywood, but i’d want a rating or list. I’m going to rent baby mama just to up Poehler’s numbers!

  • Pingback: Injecting Feminism into Pop Culture at Fem2pt0 : society’s issues … | igotmines.com

  • http://groups.to/FAB MadamaAmbi

    hi Tina!!! I love what you wrote! Thank you! Women are indeed complicit in the perpetuation of patriarchy and stereotypes that ultimately harm us. I’m not saying that women knowingly prop up patriarchy. One of the main jobs of feminists/womanists, one of the hardest jobs, in fact, is figuring out how we unconsciously hurt ourselves and how to change our own behaviors and our own thinking about who we are. Learning to listen to criticism without getting defensive is necessary. Learning to give criticism without dumping (more) shame on a sister’s soul is critical.

    Women who wear stiletto high heels and can barely walk in them is one of my pet feminist peeves. A woman holding desperately onto the arm of her male companion while she teeters down a hill makes me want to grab her and scream that SHE DOESN’T HAVE TO WEAR THOSE STUPID SHOES!!! But, I know conscious feminists who love their stiletto heels and will never give them up. I’m sure if they were to scrutinize my life, they’d find a way I’m not living up to my feminism.

    I think these kinds of discussion are critical. However, they don’t get very far because right about here people start defending their personal choices and their right to indulge in the things that give them pleasure. And then people wonder where the sisterhood went and we are a movement of women who feel hurt by their movement.

    I don’t have an easy answer to this problem. I’m getting a little repetitive, I realize, in commenting again and again that “it’s a process.” So, where is the process? Well, right here, and anywhere women are talking to one another and really listening and not getting defensive. Do you remember consciousness raising groups? I might be one of the oldest feminists hanging around online with you young’uns! People scoff at CR groups as if they belong to a once-in-a-herstory time of flower children, granola and women-libbers. But I’ve done enough groups, both as a participant and as a facilitator, to know that this kind of circle is the circle that can rock the world.

    When women come together and speak from personal experience about their lives, it becomes clear how hurt we are by patriarchy. Without anyone having to put out an action plan, it becomes clear what needs to change. We start to see who we are when we are not squeezed into rigid, smallminded, sexualized jewel boxes. We cry. We laugh. We collectively hold a vision of a different and better world prioritized around the very values that patriarchy has ground under its heavy, angry foot.

    Right now I’m producing a webcam roundtable, UtalkGirl, for this very reason. We’re very much in beta right now and I’ve posted clips of our first session on YouTube. The quality of the video/audio sucks, but some of the conversation is as good as it gets. Unfortunately, our platform, ooVoo, didn’t record all of the audio and some amazing footage was lost, but it will come up again and it will be spoken again.

    I’m doing this via webcam not only because I’m disabled by chronic pain/fatigue, but also so that I can broadcast these conversations. I’ve also put out the word that when we get the technical kinks worked out, I welcome women to come and produce their own roundtable. I’m also interviewing women by phone about their feminism, and I will be podcasting those on Interview for Obama. I want real women being real to be visible to one another. I want our conversations to be broadcast and accessible to the widest audience possible. The voices of real women have not been heard, not even those who have managed to climb the ladder and break into mainstream media. They probably do not even realize how much they are aping the patriarchy and how unknown they are to themselves.

    Let’s keep talking and listening, sisters.

    LOVE
    Madama

  • http://blog.shapingyouth.org Shaping Youth

    Being that I was almost ON this panel and got detoured in the land of overwhelm, I’d sure love to crosspost this on Shaping Youth as well, so Tina, how ’bout it???

    We cover this issue extensively (this ‘all things girl’ series about empowering girls rather than consuming them will give you an idea of our devotion to this topic: http://blog.shapingyouth.org/?p=4507 so ping me if you’re game. Amy at shapingyouth dot org. Thanks all! Let’s get the word out. Sure wish I could’ve been there…slating a follow-up piece soon…

  • http://www.girlswhogame.wordpress.com Tina Tyndal

    Thank you for the kudos; :) I’m pretty excited by the energy generated by Fem 2.0! It’s how we initiate change on the status quo!

    Building awareness among our peers out there is key to breaking the perpetuation of stereotypes – another is developing or continuing to support evangelists out there in the market that are helping to shatter stereotypes.

    MadamaAmbi, self-reflection is absolutely important so that each of us understands how we may be contributing to continuing the stereotypes. Although we may not all align on all of the root causes, feminism is a pretty personal and different experience for each of us, perhaps we can align on some of the broader issues impacting women and make a difference.

    Just thinking today I’d also like to see us be proactive rather than reactive. As an example, illustrate the value of the female market, opening up their traditional demographic (Nintendo is an excellent case study in this arena) positively impacting revenue and ROI. Let’s face it, big business cares about their bottom line.

    Nintendo skyrocketed to the top within the latest generation of console wars. Why? Because they explored a whole new demographic (women and older gamers) that was largely ignored by Microsoft and Sony. Their marketing campaigns in the latest generation(skewing heavier to women) demonstrate men and women, across generations, enjoying their product. Look at the latest Nintendo handheld – is it by coincidence that Nintendo executives renamed it the Nintendo DS from the Nintendo GameBoy? The rename opened up their market!

    This is revolutionary thinking for the video game industry where “booth babes” are the norm and marketing campaigns like this occur, not infrequently: http://kotaku.com/5156423/half naked-woman-launches-uk-x blades

    Sigh – but again with strong women working in the field and serving as mentors – positive growth and change is inevitable. :)

    Amy I will be in touch.

  • Maria A.

    I cannot tell you enough just how damaging and harmful it is to my self esteem to just try to sit on my couch to try to watch a television program, commercial or to even get through a movie (even PG-13s) without utter disgust and without feeling completely worthless when I’m done watching it due to the objectification of women!!!

    Especially when I’m watching with my husband, it never fails to see tons of girls/women (perfect bodies, I might add) in either barely anything or nothing at all and now they’re even including women on women action (if you know what I mean). It is completely upsetting and humiliating to me every time I turn on tv and I’m to the point where I feel that I need counseling because I feel so horrible everyday!

    Does anyone else out there feel this way because it doesn’t seem like it or am I just crazy??