More Than Boobs and High Heels

Is being the ugly duckling a new statement for women and their success in life and the workplace? Or are women still expected to be ‘dolled up’ in order to show that their femininity is an asset that allows them to get ahead of the game? These are the basic issues that are addressed in Rosalind Gills Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility (2007). “The body is presented simultaneously as a women’s source of power and as always already unruly and requiring constant monitoring, surveillance, discipline and remodeling (and consumer spending) in order to conform to ever narrower judgements of female attractiveness” (Gill, 2007). Gill wanted to show that women are constant hostile and objectified positions where they will either maintain this standard of beauty or be unwanted by men.     

When looking at media in our Western Culture, we utilize comedy in order to make these ‘taboo’ topics of feminism and radicals more in the spotlight. In Miss Congeniality (2000) featuring Sandra Bullock as a successful FBI agent who goes undercover into a beauty pageant to identify a terrorist threat. While Bullocks character, Gracie Heart, is forced into going through a makeover paradigm. Along with self-surveillance and discipline in order to seem more desirable by the pageants judges and the audience to further her time in the pageants competition. In this film they used a successful agent and forced her into ‘dolling up’ to complete the mission.

         This shows young women that in order to get attention and be liked they must be have the following qualities: nice hair, white teeth, flat stomach, wear high heels, look good in a dress/ swimsuit, impress men by simplicity, and to top it off have little to no intelligence. Bullocks character portrays herself as a woman who fits all the qualities but struggles to find her inner femininity because that is not who she really is. In the movie during the preliminary talent show she mistakes a man in the audience for the terrorist, and she tackled him. She received a lot of backlash for this ‘un woman-like’ behavior.  In the end she shows that being successful and possessing bodily femininity does not necessarily correlate with each other. It depends on the psychological aspect of the person as to whether their ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ qualities surface due to a preference as to which one they identify more with.  

         When thinking of postfeminism a sesnsibility that comes along with this is individualism, choice and empowerment (Gill 2007). When taking a closer look at how Western Culture media has taken an effect on how women and adolescents view themselves and their stance on how they will make their own decisions and not conform to the standards that once were expected to lived up to.

‘Another aspect of postfeminism that is seen as a sensibility more than a feminist or anti-feminist quality is a sense of individualism, choice and empowerment. achieving desirability in a heterosexual context is explicitly (re-)presented as something to be understood as being done for yourself and not in order to please a man. In this modernised, neoliberal version of femininity, it is absolutely imperative that one's sexual and dating practices (however traditional, old-fashioned or inegalitarian they may be - involving strict adherence to rules, rationing oneself and not displaying any needs!) be presented as freely chosen.’ (Gill, 2007)

This idea of choosing ones’ fate over those who subject women to a standard really peaked interest in today’s post feminism society. Grace, a singer sampled the original song “You Don’t Own Me” by Leslie Gore. In this re-amped version featuring G-Eazy the two portray this idea of individualism and choice and how she will not subject herself to being tied down to a man and pleasing himself.

         “You don't own me

I'm not just one of your many toys

You don't own me

Don't say I can't go with other boys

Don't tell me what to do

And don't tell me what to say

Please, when I go out with you

Don't put me on display

You don't own me

Don't try to change me in any way

You don't own me

Don't tie me down cause I'd never stay” (Grace, “You Don’t Own Me”, 2016)

A sense of individualism and choice is theme of this catchy song, along with a trying to demolish slut-shaming. By saying ‘don’t tell me what do to do, and don’t tell me what to say. Please, when I go out with you, don’t put me on display’ the purpose is that she will not stand to be ‘owned’ and ‘tied down’ to a man who seems to belittle her or subject her to fitting his standards.

         “I don't tell you what to say

I don't tell you what to do

So just let me be myself

That's all I ask of you

I'm young and I love to be young

And I'm free and I love to be free

To live my life the way I want

To say and do whatever I please” (Grace, You Don’t Own Me, 2016)

Being ‘owned’ is a statement that is not accepted by this song and the artist who performed it. Having a choice, free will, and being her own human being is what she is wants to make clear. This is a sensibility that Rosalind Gill discusses in the section “Individualism, choice and empowerment” (2007).

         When considering this article by Rosalind Gill and how the postfeminism has neither qualities of feminism or anit-feminism but rather sensibilities and the difference between the two stances and how Western Culture has changed the media. In conclusion, Gill points out that women either use their bodily possession of femininity as an asset or is still subjected to the high demand of being ‘feminine’. Some celebrities are subjected to tightening their bodies and getting in ‘better shape’ to help maximize their desirability for the viewing pleasure of men. This still shows that the media is flawed, not the women who are subjected and objectified due to ones’ irrational desires for the ‘ideal woman’.

Gill, Rosalind (2007) Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility. European journal of    cultural studies, 10 (2). pp. 147-166.

Petrie, D., Bullock, S., Lawrence, M., Ford, K., Lucas, C., Caine, M., Bratt, B., ... Warner Home         Video (Firm),. (2005). Miss Congeniality. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video.

Grace. (2016). “You Don’t Own Me” Ft. G-Eazy. FMA. RCA Records.