(Re)Engaging Students with Feminism in a Postfeminist World
Teaching the Conflicts: (Re)Engaging Students with Feminism in a Postfeminist World MEREDITH A. LOVE AND BRENDA M. HELmbRECHT What happened to the dreams of a girl president She’s dancing in the video next to 50 Cent They travel in packs of two or three With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees Where, oh where, have the smart people gone? Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back Porno Paparazzi girl, I don’t wanna be a stupid girl Baby if I act like that, flipping my blond hair back Push up my bra like that, I don’t wanna be a stupid girl —Pink, “Stupid Girls” If representational visibility equals power, then almost-naked young white women should be running Western culture. —Peggy Phelan, Unmarked There is no question that the work of femi- all around” and a “World despaired, their nists has benefited the daily lives, health, only concern [is]: Will they fuck up my and financial status of many American hair?” Certainly, Pink is prone to hyper- women. In fact, some women’s lives have bole, but her questions resonate: do young been so improved that today’s younger women still dream of being world leaders, generation of women may not even know or have their ambitions been curtailed that “we’ve come a long way, baby” and, in lieu of the smaller achievements they perhaps even more importantly, that we can make with their buying power? Peggy still have a long way to go. Even pop cul- Phelan makes a similar point above, noting ture icons themselves, such as the musi- that “almost-naked young white women” cian Pink, recognize the current state of are given great visibility in our culture, gender politics, lamenting the fact that especially in advertisements, television, young women today are more concerned and film; yet it would be preposterous to with what they need to do and buy to suggest that their visibility instantly trans- maintain their image than they are with lates into power.
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