Are we living in a post-feminist state?
Do you agree there is still a need for feminism?
To what extent does the media contribute to the identity created for women in popular culture?
These are some of the questions we need to consider in this next section of our Identities and the Media unit.
- The two texts that the article focuses on a TV series called Pan Am, and Beyonce.
- An example of the Male Gaze is how Beyonce in her music video 'Why Don't you Love Me' she looks down the camera playfully and winking at the audience.
- Texts such as these do show that there is a need for feminism as although Beyonce's lyrics suggest that she is powerful and she is a feminist who actively has helped woman become more feminist, she still has to use her body and objectify herself to get her point across to the audience; therefore there is still a need for feminism.
- Definitions:
Feminism: A movement aimed at defining, establishing, and defending women's rights and equality to men.
Post-Feminism: An ideology in culture and society that society is somehow past needing feminism and that the attitudes and arguments of feminism are no longer needed.
No More Page 3:
The No More Page 3 Campaign was started by writer and actor Lucy-Anne Holmes, and she had started the campaign because she became sad that the most prominent photograph of a woman in the widest circulation British newspaper is of a young woman in just her pants.
The 6 reasons for No More Page 3
-It’s 2014! Page 3 was first introduced in the sexist 1970s. A lot has changed over the last 30+ years in our society, we think it’s time The Sun caught up…
- It’s soft porn in the UK’s no.1 selling family newspaper that children are exposed to. Until 2003 the models were only 16 (and made to dress up in school ties and hats – seriously!) It’s never been OK. One day we’ll look back on this and think “oh my goodness, we did what?!”
-What does it teach children? They see page after page of pictures of men in clothes doing stuff (running the country, having opinions, achieving in sport!) and what are the women doing in this society they’re learning about? Not much really, other than standing topless in their pants showing their bare breasts for men. It’s not really fair, is it?
-Women say, do and think so many interesting and incredible things and should be celebrated for their many achievements. They are people, not things! Not ‘that’. The fact that we hear ‘look at the tits on that’ or ‘I’d do that’ is disgusting, disrespectful and objectifying. Page 3 of The Sun is the icon that perpetuates and normalises this horrible sexist ‘banter’.
-Every single weekday for the last 44 years in The Sun newspaper the largest female image has been of a young woman (usually of a very particular age, race, physicality) showing her breasts for men, sending out a powerful message that whatever else a woman achieves, her primary role is to serve men sexually. Pretty rubbish that really.
-The Sun newspaper could be so much stronger without Page 3. Because currently, any story they run about women’s issues such as rape, sexual abuse, harassment, domestic violence or the dangers of online porn is drowned out and contradicted by the neon flashing sign of Page 3 that says ‘shut up, girls, and get your tits out.’
My View
My views on the No More Page 3 Campaign is that it is relevant and I agree with the campaign. It should continue as it raises a very current issue as it is outdated in a post-feminism era and that whilst women are growing to be more equal, the page 3 demoralises women, and sexualizes them, being available to a younger audience leading to being negatively influential.
I agree that we are in a post feminist state to an extent, as women are still able to work and educate themselves in most country's. However, they are still street harassed, and disrespected, and have been given less ability to be in elite positions such as politics and CEO.
