After the Rise and Stall of American Feminism by Chancer Lynn S.;

Author:Chancer, Lynn S.; [Chancer, Lynn S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: 2018-03-16T16:00:00+00:00

6

Changing Sexist Imagery

Has the gender revolution been televised? When it comes to media representation, it seems obvious that radical transformations across a wide array of cultural venues occurred from the second wave of the 1960s and 1970s through the present. Watching television, or going to see a film, or listening to music—it is hardly possible not to perceive shifts in representations of women and men as well as altered portrayals of people of varied races, classes, and sexualities. From movies to television, music, and magazines, and news coverage from mainstream to alternative, gender consciousness has increasingly permeated the American cultural landscape. Once again, the question is whether enough has changed that feminists of common as well as differing persuasions have reason to be satisfied.

To assess feminist progress and ongoing problems in the culture industries, let us begin by noting that media images are relevant to, and affect, each and every feminist issue this book explores—from political, economic, and educational equalities, daycare, and family/work arrangements to sexual and reproductive freedoms and violence against women. Reflecting and (re) creating the influence of feminist ideas as well as debates in the wider society, a veritable tidal wave of gender-related representations exploded on the American cultural landscape from the 1960s through the present. To start with an example from the news media, as the 2016 presidential election unfolded, counter-posing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, newscasters spoke frequently of voters’ (especially women voters’) gendered concerns. Gender-inflected discussions started by feminists about women’s and families’ workplace needs (for example, the issue of paid parental leave), about sexual assault, and about sexism in general appeared virtually everywhere as the campaign went on. These were amplified after a videotape of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault was released in October 2016, followed by eleven women alleging coercive actions Trump had taken against them. By November and December 2017, news and other media coverage of feminist issues became even more spectacularly publicized and influential as women began to bring charges of sexual harassment, unwanted sexual advances, and assault against a range of other political as well as media figures, from Harvey Weinstein, Dustin Hoffman, Kevin Spacey (accused by men), Brett Ratner, and Charlie Rose through Senator Al Franken, Congressman John Conyers, and Roy Moore (the Alabama candidate accused of having sexually approached underage women). Without the feminist movement, interpretations of the objectification, demeaning, and powerlessness of women that the charges signify—which led not only to further charges but to the resignation after resignation of influential men, obviously in and outside the culture industries—would be virtually impossible. The American feminist movement and the contemporary wave of sexual harassment charges in the news are closely linked.

Within popular culture too, of course, and not just the news, feminist ideas and issues seeped into television shows like Lena Dunham’s Girls (2012) or Sarah Jessica Parker’s earlier hit show Sex in the City (1998). More recently, binge-watched cable series have distinctively elevated far more complex women characters than would have been found on TV before second wave feminism in the 1950s or 1960s.

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