Talking Points #8: Enlightened Sexism Connection

I particularly liked Keisha's conclusions in the piece, "Enlightened Sexism". Throughout her piece, Keisha reaffirmed the messages that Susan Douglas set forth in the piece, specifically that women do not have power, only the appearance of power through distorted messages in the media. TV shows, magazines, newspapers, and ads encourage the idea of a power structure that does not exist in the reality that we live in. Further, Susan Douglas slams the capitalistic hegemonic practices of girl power that has also contributed significantly to the undermining of true liberation.

In Keisha's blog, she noted, " Douglas argues that young women are not as powerful as they seem in the media, because there are men setting the boundaries of how far they can go." I agree but I would further the argument by saying only men from a particular race and class have the ability to set these boundaries. They maintain the power structure and also have significant control of our economic decisions and our foreign policy-as a collective and as individuals. This class of men have an extremely conservative view point of what a human is, what it is capable of, and how the human being performs. The performance is key in understanding the true problem of enlightened sexism. 

The performance of gender becomes particularly tricky for females. Douglas says, "indeed enlightened sexism is meant to make patriarchy pleasurable for women." Because feminism has been revamped as inherently bad for society, females are encouraged to take part in the power structure through buying and selling. Females are constantly marketed to about what it means to be a woman, how to be a woman, and what it should look like. Power is available to those women who mold, shape, and prepare their bodies in such a way that it presents itself as a masterpiece to the audience. Keisha made the point of, " it brings up the fact that women and girls are portrayed as being equal to men, but in the real world once women or girls move forward they are degraded by the male world." And this is entirely the problem of being pre-packaged power but never having the ability to tap into it.

And finally, Keisha makes a very good argument when she quotes Douglas: “instead, the wheedling, seductive message to young women is that being decorative is the highest form of power- when, of course, if it were, Dick Cheney would have gone to work every day in a sequined tutu”(5). In Tolman’s article we learned of how women were just in magazine a decoration, while men were active.  Douglas writes that women are only powerful when dressed right or wear the right thing. Douglas ends by stating that women are still in need of work. The quotes I choose relate to the reading because it shows women and girls have been placed in a box out a world run by men."

Again, I would further conclude that as human beings we are suffocated by patriarchy. It shapes our ideas on what we are to be as women, how we are to look or to morph into, it confines us in our aspirations and our desires. We have no safe space to truly express ourselves and to find "who we are" individually and collectively unless we make some pretty bold moves. Audre Lorde said, "I am deliberate and afraid of nothing." I believe that Susan Douglas would agree that is what must end in order to stop the destruction of patriarchy.