I’m going a little off
the map this week (three points for cheesy geography joke!). I want to
demonstrate the impact that this research opportunity has had on me. I think
the greatest evidence one could obtain that something has changed her life is
that the entire world around her somehow looks different. I see things, hear
things, read things and watch things from the perspective of an almost
completely changed woman. Perhaps that sounds a little dramatic, but in the
next few blog posts I’m going to prove just how deeply these last three months
have affected me, and what better way to do that than to turn to media?
Throughout this research opportunity I have relied predominantly on books and
academic articles. During times when I am not reading, however, like most
people my age my face is glued to some screen or another: my phone (which is so
large that I can comfortably have extremely long-winded YouTube binges), my
laptop and my television are constantly bombarding me with new ideas and
information to apply my critical eye to. While on the surface some of the
things I watch might be shameful for someone who will one day have a PhD framed
on their wall (this sounds cocky but I think that if I keep saying
it, it will happen!), there’s actually a lot to learn from some of these
seemingly shallow programs.
While I didn’t choose
this television show for my analysis, I want to point out The Bachelor for a moment. Now this show gets a lot of heat, and
rightfully so! Although many educated feminists would probably refuse to watch
even ten minutes of a program like this, I actually find it quite interesting
(and often infuriating). In order to make the whole process of one man having
his pick of twenty-six gorgeous women who all happen to be in love with him (it
is rare that someone will leave on their own because they realized that they
don’t actually have feelings for the person…which in reality doesn’t make a
whole lot of sense), they created The
Bachelorette to even the playing field. So instead of twenty-six women
vying for a man’s affections, it’s twenty-six men vying for a woman’s
affections. Okay, I mean…that sounds alright. But then you get seasons like
this past Bachelorette season, where they throw in this ridiculous twist where
they have two bachelorettes and then the twenty-six men have to choose between
them. How is that fair?! This is supposed to be the WOMAN’S time to shine, but instead
she has to compete with another woman and win all the men over in order to
continue? And then there’s the double-standard when it comes to sex on the
show: the bachelorette this past season had sex with one of the guys and she
ended up receiving messages on social media calling her a whore and other
atrocious insults. She even admitted to getting death threats! This is all
because she wanted to further explore a relationship with someone. In the real
world, when people are dating…they have sex! At the end of this show, there’s
supposed to be a proposal…and as much as I respect people who choose to wait
for religious or other reasons, I’m not marrying anyone I haven’t been intimate
with. It’s such a huge part of a relationship…how could you walk down the aisle
with someone if that kind of chemistry is not there? At the end of the day, this is about a marriage. And if the bachelorette wants to have sex with someone she cares about, it's her choice.
Would the bachelor
receive similar taunts for making the same decision? Absolutely not. There has
been sex before…but since it’s the bachelorette to decide to have sex with
someone and come clean with it, she’s a whore.
See? There’s actually a
lot to learn from television shows like this. They serve as a great reminder
that regardless of the progress women have made in terms of equality, our
society hasn’t nearly come as far as we think.
Now with that little
rant aside, in the following three blogs I’m going to be exploring YouTube,
television and online news media that have really stood out to me over this
past summer as emphasizing some powerful feminist issues. There will be a blog
dedicated to each of these media platforms, and then there will be a following
blog that will serve as a personal reflection. I’ve been meaning to do a
personal reflection for a long time now, and I finally feel like I'm in a good place to write one.
So without further ado,
YouTube is first up!
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