Women Advocacy in Alternative Media

Feminism, as we have discussed in class, is a widespread sentiment that is usually viewed as extremist and overtly aggressive. Only by gender and media literacy and education are we able to see the paradoxes society poses in terms of womanly roles and the power struggle between the sexes. Daily, we are bombarded by advertisements and commercials that sell products AND ideas that we don’t think twice on. Women think an advertisement for lipstick is merely an advertisement for lipstick, and not a hint hint at the promotion of silence. An ad for a specific jean, skinny models who promote size 0’s, can underline the idea of women to be size less and, therefore, nonexistent. It’s difficult to think of things that may change this sexist mentality that is so engrained within our systems. It measures down to every small choice a child makes, whether it is playing a specific game or choosing a colored marker. Jean Kilbourne, Bell Hooks, and John Berger, and Wykes Gunther also have helped roles of feminists take a stronger stance. The study of media is a study that can be used both for and against the general public. The form of alternative media I choose in general is blogs, but more specifically, tumblr. When I used tumblr a lot more (before instagram) I used to browse queer blogs, blogs about identity, and women empowerment blogs. If these sites were more accepted by men and women alike, there would be more widespread access on information and talk on how we can change as a whole.

Jean Kilbourne, a former model and now women’s activist, has been speaking about how women see themselves for years. She focuses on how women are depicted in the media, and how they are always viewed as sex objects to be worn, used, abused, and bought. They are commodities with an expiration date, something replaceable. Since it is most common that women are dehumanized this way, it is easy for sexism to perpetuate. In her chapter “Beauty and the Beast of Advertising,” she discusses more explicitly how women are used as sex objects, “Conventional beauty is her only attribute. She has no lines or wrinkles…no scars or blemishes-- indeed, she has no pores,” (122). Examining images we see every day, this illustrates the scary truth that what we try to emulate is not real. Women can try their hardest by changing their hair color, eye color, putting foundation on-but they cannot hide that humans are made flawed. “Women are also dismembered in commercials…If a woman has ‘acceptable’ breasts, then she must also be sure that her legs are worth watching,” (124). How appalling is it that women are shown as corpses in commercials or beer bottles? That’s why I was inspired by a tumblr blog that I found, with resources like images and documentary links that educate us about taking a more equal stance.

http://www.theabortiondiaries.com/excerpt.htm - A more prevalent issue pertaining to woman’s ability to choose what to do with her body has been debated in government for a long time.

I found it extremely interesting how documentaries like this one and the one I posted a link to before, are made by women. This cannot possibly mean that the majority of people who are interested in confronting women’s insecurities and women’s rights are…women. Penny Lane and Lisa Rogers see a general lack of women representation on forthcoming issues and decide to gather more insight by speaking directly to women or people who are aware. For example, Lisa follows a young girl throughout her labioplasty procedure and how she feels before and after; meanwhile Penny wanted to document women speaking out about their experience with abortion. Both documentaries gave me a sense of inspiration because they both promote women speaking out about themselves in order to encourage a domino effect among all young women who may be dealing with the same insecurities or judgments.



http://femblr.tumblr.com/page/2

On the issue of the beauty myth and ideals of body image, Wykes Gunther assists us in understanding how little our options are in terms of self-hate and self-love on page 214:

·         If you are not thin you are not attractive.

·         Being thin is more important than being healthy.

·         You must buy clothes, cut your hair, take laxatives, starve yourself, do anything to make yourself look thinner.

·         Thou shall not eat without feeling guilty.

·         Thou shall not eat fattening foods without punishing oneself afterwards.

·         Thou shall count calories and restrict intake accordingly.

·         What the scale says is the most important thing.

·         Losing weight is good/Gaining weight is bad.

·         You can never be too thin.

·         Being thin and not eating are true signs of will power and success.

             These statements seem extreme, but they are usually what come into one’s head when they think about “the perfect body” or what it feels like to have one. This bullet point mentality is evident in most women issues, as it is the foundation of how patriarchal oppressors keep women in the dark and concerned about image of self. Consistently talked about in “The Abortion Diaries,” is the fear of women to speak out because the power that pushes them down is too great. There are too many women in silence, there are too many people telling women they are wrong for speaking their mind. 


            The tumblr account that I came across, called "Femblr", is an overarching feminist blog that exposes issues that carry both social and political relevance to the readings and videos we have been watching in class. Social sites like this carry all the more significance because they usually follow movements using the power of image and artwork. We also spent a class talking about how to use twitter, and how it exposes people to other twitter pages under the same themes using hashtags. This Femblr site allows the onlooker to view where the sources are coming from, for example "fuckyeahfeminists". A leading issue with civil rights of women has been continuously under abortion, in this way Femblr is working in conjunction with The Abortion Diaries encouraging both women and men to become more educated and vocal about abuse of women internationally, whether it be with illegal and unsafe abortion practices or the philosophical question of whether it should be provided as a service in the United States.

http://www.cpcny.org/ - 

This is a "pro-life" site, as I had never explored one prior to watching The Abortion Diaries. It provides services like therapy, and does not specify the "other options" that can be weighed with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. However, they are outward in stating that they do not provide abortion services or recommend it, but that they will happily notify women of all the hazards of the procedure instead.






http://femblr.tumblr.com/