Feminism In Pop Culture

America, the country which is bonded happily by capitalism and which stresses the importance of freedom and pursuit of happiness is not as unified as most authors would agree it is. If one looks closely towards the nation, and how the various communities differ from one another, one would possible be able to assert that this country is not all uniformed. Much of the differences in identity rely on the social class and historic factors. Having equality amongst the gender has been one of the major issues that define differences. The struggles minorities and women have faced because of their oppressive social system has created the notion of feminism.

Feminist authors have shown contradiction on women having an equal standpoint and a status in

the society as men. Authors from the 1970s until the current generation still argue that it is a “man’s world.” Thus, the topic of feminism comes into play. Ariel Levy, Adrienne Rich, and Jessica Valenti, are authors who agree that men have been dominating the world and showing supremacy making seem like the female power is inferior as compared to men. These authors in their articles as well as speeches use different tones despite being brought up in different societies and at times far apart from each other. The three authors share a desire to illustrate to their readers that inequality still pertains in the world while also sharing how discrimination has an effect on women’s empowerment, not only in the olden days, but also in the case of a modern day scenario. These discriminations and differences in the workplace, pop culture, and gender politics are oblivious in an urbanized setting. The author persuades the readers by highlighting these injustices through statistics and personal experiences.
In the human race, men have dominated women in almost every aspect of life. This occurrence is called patriarchy , a system where men have a higher authority which leave women to be excluded. The power men receive from patriarchy proves substantial and thus creates a situation where destroying the system will hurt power holders. Though the social norms have progressed and women’s standard of life has improved in the recent decades, it has not translated into all sectors of society. The work place is a predominant example where discrimination continually haunts women. Industries have been prejudiced against women by passing discriminatory policies, which has resulted in a system where females and traditional female jobs receive less pay. Additionally, due to women having maternal characteristics, they are often not selected. Valenti impacts on the readers by providing statistics and comparing the wage gap in her book, “Full Frontal Feminism.” She states that, “the fact that women with children make seventy-three cents to a man’s dollar (single mothers make fifty-six to sixty-six cents to a man’s dollar), while women without children make about ninety cents to a man’s dollar, is pretty nuts” (Valenti, 169). The wage gap which injustice runs on has affected on women in general, but more on the women having children. The work place is known for its male domination and therefore is the perfect example of an institution which punishes those who are different. Complimenting to that Adrienne Rich, from the speech “What Does a Woman Need to Know,” mentions, “You have, to begin with, the privilege of literacy, 60 percent of the world’s illiterates are women. Between 1960 and 1970, the number of illiterate men in the world rose by 8 million, while the number of illiterate women rose by 40 million. And the number of illiterate women is increasing” (Rich, 3). This shows the readers that for women, all privilege is relative. Some of them are not born with class or skin-color privilege, and the others are not privileged with education, which is the primary determinant that assists people differentiate between the rights and the torts. In some cases, even if they are enabled to educate themselves, they are educated in a manner where the knowledge of their own gendered is repressed. This male domination has forced women to turn against each other in the corporate world. Most of the females still think that they are making progress by achieving greater goals and getting promoted. However, this characteristic of the male domination makes the women forget her own identity and give up their identity as women in return for hopes of success and accomplishment professionally. Levy calls these women who give up their identity in order to gain power “loophole women.” This terminology as explained by Levy means that,“(loophole women are) an exception in the male-dominated field whose presence supposedly proves its penetrability” (Levy, 268). Levy’s statement criticizes the labor force by pointing out how success occurs by becoming more masculine. Consequently, women that grew up in a quiet society, who managed to succeed, are rewarded by the patriarchy system by choosing to give up their femininity. These loophole women think that they’re setting a role model for the younger generations with their success and excellence in their field ; however, the message is flawed because it proposes succumbing to the objectifications of the patriarchal system. The fact that they have completely forgotten their identity as women demonstrates in the society ,while finding it more efficient to identify themselves as men , signals that it has not uplifted the entire female sex to their level. Levy influences the reader by showing the writers Mary McCarthy and Elizabeth Hardwick who were famously contemptuous of “women’s libber,” and were untroubled about striving to “write like a man.” These glamorous and enthralling women in the history have been compared to men, either by their admirers or detractors. There is a certain kind of women- talented, powerful, unrepentant-whom we’ve always found difficult to describe without some version of the phrase “like a man,” and plenty of those women have never had a problem with that and thus do not care that this doesn’t elevate the level of sisterhood. Similarly, Rich mentions a same idea as loophole women in her speech known as “token women.” Female tokenism means “that power withheld from the vast majority of women is offered to a few, so that it appears that any “truly qualified” women can gain access to leadership, recognition, and reward; hence, that justice based on merit actually prevails.” This encourages the token woman to see herself as different from most other women. It causes them to feel exceptionally talented and deserving, which separates them from the sisterhood. When these women realized their potential, they alter their behavior. This blurs their outsider’s eye. Losing her outsider’s vision, she loses the insight, which both blinds her to other women and affirms her in herself. Due to this she considers herself different from the group of ‘ordinary women,’ women less privileged. She loses her perception of female consciousness. Ordinary women become invisible to her, as their role and contribution is less than hers, which causes the token women to lose her outsider’s eye. The large-scale discrimination in the corporate environment is caused due to the opaqueness of the outsider’s eye. These flaws can be solved if the token and the loophole women learn from the history, accumulate all the knowledge and not forget that even if they reach the top their outsider’s eye not ever turn gloomy. Rich and Levy persuade readers with the help of the concepts of female tokenism and loophole women, which leads to a more complex terminology, the outsider’s eye. Rich is archaic while Levy has a contemporary tone. The ideas they both the authors try to explain are the same but the way of approach and the tone is different.
Due to the ease of social media everything has become easily accessible to people.

The most trending music genre gets a lot of listeners because of its the discrimination. As the songs and advertisements gain followers, it starts to become realized by the citizens. Pop culture artists sing about drugs, alcohol and women. The portrayal of women by these composers is dreadful because it degrades the significance and importance of their existence. Pop culture has always been a home for gender domination and discrimination. It is becoming increasingly “pornified.” As Valenti quotes, “After all, while billboards and magazines ads may feature a ripped guy from time to time, it’s mostly women who make up what sexy is supposed to be. And it’s not just sexy-it’s straight-up sex” (Valenti, 44). The pornography has been a part of the culture and has been accepted by younger women. Feminists have argued that this has increased the inculcation of “raunch culture” in the lives of younger women who fall into it as they feel it empowers them. However, it is a kind of faux empowerment. This illustrates that the media is promoting and utilizing pop culture to change the social norms in an attempt to instruct women on their role in the society. In essence, pop culture with its propaganda desires to change women’s view on nudity until it can become inherent in American culture, and thus eliminating opposition to benefit pop culture in the long run. Valenti persuades her readers by saying, “ the ‘show’ is everywhere. In magazines like Maxim and Playboy. And in the insanity of Girls Gone Wild, with teens putting on fake lesbian make-out sessions so guys will think they’re hot.” Levy also mentions a character, influenced by raunch culture and a reader of Playboy magazines, named Erin who is piqued her curiosity and provided her with inspiration because of this culture. Erin says, “There’s countless times in my life where I know I’ve turned people on just by showing off (by putting on a

little performance, making out with another girl, for instance)” (Levy, 270). Levy and Valenti propose that valuing a woman on the sole basis of her hotness is not only disrespectful and degrading but it is also dehumanizing. Levy and Valenti, demonstrate the same point of view on “raunch culture”; however, with differentiated tones. Levy provides a slightly distinguishable tone throughout her essay by focusing more on tokenism and tomming. Meanwhile, Valenti’s tone is more relevant to the times and is broad-minded in her approach. However, together both authors share frustration with how the patriarchal societies they inhabit hinder the process of equality for women by objectifying them through pop culture.
Inequality and discrimination still prevails in our corporate environment as well as in pop culture.
However, no doubt the feminist crusade has made a noteworthy amount of difference in the past century. The generation gap between the authors gives us a varied but similar viewpoint. The difference in generations has exemplified the approach of the authors and has made it evident patriarchy still shapes society. Rich has a serious tone and a regressive approach compared to Levy while she has an open-minded approach but a serious tone. Paralleled to these two, Valenti has a really casual tone and tackles the present-day scenario. These women impact the readers by providing them with their personal life experiences, stories and the statistics. Gender inequality can be irradiated from our system with time. Women should be made to learn from their own history and should find inspiration from their ancestors. However, they should proudly self-educate themselves , learning their history with pride and calling up the voices women need to hear within themselves. These are solutions and actions needed to be taken against wage gaps, gender politics and pop culture, the contemporary ways in which women face oppression in our culture. When women in their youth will inculcate these facts, they will expedite the process and thus eliminate inequality from the system.