Rachel’s Musings

Several disturbing and interrelated posts can be found this week on the Feminist Philosophers’ Blog. Monkey gave us low-lights of a Lingerie Superbowl and a new “dating” show, both filled with stereotypes and objectification of women (and men). What really disturbs me, though, is how these two posts tie in with a third about an article in the New York Times. The article by Kate Zernike on “Postfeminism and Other Fairy Tales” shows what we could argue are the consequences of stupid TV shows like the ones described: Sexism is alive and well in our culture. Worse, though, at least to me, is that most of us have almost become immune to the pervasiveness of sexist shows and the use of women as sex objects. Zernike points out how the combination of the treatment of Hillary Clinton and Spitzergate seems to shake some women out of our trance, especially the younger generation who might’ve taken feminist achievements for granted. Slowly we are realizing that, as Katha Pollitt puts it:

“The hysterical insults flung at Hillary Clinton are just a franker, crazier version of the everyday insults — shrill, strident, angry, ranting, unattractive — that are flung at any vaguely liberal mildly feminist woman who shows a bit of spirit and independence,” she wrote, “who puts herself out in the public realm, who doesn’t fumble and look up coyly from underneath her hair and give her declarative sentences the cadence of a question.”

“Every woman I know who calls herself a feminist, or is even just doing well, especially in a field in which men also contend,” Ms. Pollitt wrote, “deals with some version of this.”

It is interesting to observe how Obama is treated versus how Clinton is being portrait. The sad conclusion from this observation is

But some also argue that the media is not as quick to recognize misogyny as it is to recognize racism. “The media is on eggshells about race, but has blinders on about sex and gender stereotyping,” said Ms. Goldberg of Columbia.

Kate Michelman, a former president of Naral Pro-Choice America, who is an adviser to Mr. Obama, said in an interview that “racism has risen to a level of social consciousness that sexism has not.”

Hopefully, this is not temporary increase in awareness but the beginning of some important consciousness raising.