Friday, February 22, 2008

Faludi and Feminism: Women in the Media

Faludi’s articles are interesting and full of support to help feed the fuel that the media is totally against feminism. The first chapter set up the last two chapters in explaining the ideas and backlashes associated with feminism.

The second article discussed how women are paid less even though have the same or more education that their male counterparts (which is still freaking unbelievable and I believe is a huge problem with America) as well as the problems with divorce. Faludi said statistics showed that “men are less anxious to untie the knot than women: in national surveys, less than a third of divorced, while women report they were the ones actively seeking divorce 55 to 66 percent of the time” (Chapter Two, 26). She also explained the double standard with fertility regarding men and women. The studies are only centered on women and their infertility, not men and their fertility problems.

But, the article that really had me going was Chapter Six and the revelations about the executives at the networks. Essentially, empowered women on television left a bad taste in their mouths, but, in the end, were giving the networks high ratings shares, buckets of money, and great publicity. Of course, the backlash against these outspoken women (like Rosanne Barr and Candice Bergin’s character Murphy Brown) was intense and never-ending, especially when Murphy Brown had a baby out of wedlock. Also, when CBS moved the ever-popular “Cagney and Lacey” to a death time slot, it finally died after failed attempts. Basically, network executives (all male during this time) didn’t want females to have power and promote the ideals of feminism. So much for Girl Power, huh?

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