According to Susan
Douglas, enlightened sexism is
A response, deliberate or not, to the
perceived threat of a new gender regime. It insists that women have made plenty
of progress because of feminism, indeed, full equality, has allegedly been
achieved. So now it’s okay, even amusing, to resurrect sexist stereotypes of
girls and women (Douglas, 2010).
Long gone are the
days of fighting for equal pay and reproductive care rights. Now, we’re
fighting over the best labels on our clothing and the hot guy in our math
class. Much like Douglas, Pink decided she had enough of the enlightened sexism
surrounding her when she wrote the song “Stupid Girls.” Picking celebrities
such as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsay Lohan as her inspiration,
Pink took a look at today’s modern woman and challenged the ideals of sexiness
and designer clothing being more important than intelligence and independence.
The video shows
Pink struggling for male approval by acting like the other females around her.
By pretending to be obsessed with her looks, she’s providing a social
commentary and discussion point of the exact thing Douglas wants to end. In one
scene of the video, Pink’s date starts to pay excessive amounts of attention to
another female wearing a low-cut top and a mini skirt bouncing up and down. To
make her date pay attention to her again, Pink pulls her “In Case of Emergency”
cord to inflate her breasts excessively. The trick works and the date continues.
Later, Pink asks “What
happened to the dream of the next girl president?” She answered her own
question with “She’s dancing in the video next to 50 Cent.” Here, she is giving
examples of how girl power has changed with the times. Where we once burned out
bras to fight the societal oppression, women have now turned on each other and are
more concerned with male affection and how attractive you are. Douglas also
gave sources of this problem in her book, including the Pussycat Dolls, The
Bachelor, and the television show Are You Hot?
Pink and Douglas
alike urge girls to ignore the media influence and to have ambitions and goals.
They are trying to convince women that there is so much more to them than just
how a man feels about them. After reading excerpts from Douglas’s book and
listening to Pink’s song, I agree.
I’m not sure where
we went wrong, but we as females must have goals and ambitions to excel in the
patriarchal society we live in. We have to band together to change the way we
are treated today. Women comprise 46% of the American work force, yet they make
only 77.5 cents for every dollar a man of equal occupation makes. The statistics
are even worse for women of color. Worldwide, four out of every ten businesses
have no women in senior management. 4 out of 5 victims of human trafficking are female (MAKERS Team, 2015).
So what’s a girl to
do? Women must fight societal pressure to focus on our looks and the male gaze
and use our minds to continue the fight for equal rights. Instead of designer
labels, let us adorn ourselves with knowledge and courage to crush the glass
ceiling. We must band together and smash the patriarchy because the approval of
a man means nothing if you aren’t in the same playing field. We cannot forget
our foremothers before us and what they were fighting for. If we do, all of
their hard work was for naught. We as females can’t let that happen.
Oh, and if you’re
curious, I left that boy alone the next day. If he couldn’t appreciate me for all
I had to offer, he didn’t deserve my good looks.
Works Cited
Douglas, S. (2010). The
Rise of Enlightened Sexism: How Pop Culture Took Us From Girl Power to Girls
Gone Wild. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press.
MAKERS Team. (2015, March 07). http://www.makers.com/blog/21-facts-you-never-knew-about-international-gender-inequality. Retrieved from URL.
Pink. [PinkVEVO]. (2009, October 24). Stupid Girls. [https://youtu.be/BR4yQFZK9YM]. Retrieved from URL.
