I really liked this article, it put words to the feeling I have been having regarding sexism for the last few years. When I was in 11th grade I remember learning about woman's suffrage and even a little about the feminists movements of the 1960s and 70s. At the time I thought that the activists of those times had ended sexism for good. A few years later I realized how wrong I was. Sexism isn't gone, its just being done in a different way. Today sexism is much more covert and subtle then it once was, today we have this new "enlightened sexism" as Susan J. Douglas calls it. It hides behind words of encouragement and power, telling girls they can be and do anything they want while at the same time pushing them into the constricting boxes society has always had for women. Today society hides the wrongs done to women by trying to cover it up with all the things women can do now that they couldn't do in the past. I think Susan J. Douglas did a very good job of pointing this out in her article "The Rise of Enlightened Sexism".
~Heather Self
I agree, sexism is still very prevalent. The problem is, not everyone can see it and some people don't even know that they are trying to conform to it!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. I feel that most people, especially males feel that just since laws say that women are equal, and you can't treat them differently than men, that sexism doesn't exist. But as a girl growing up in society I first hand know that's very untrue. In the article Susan J. Douglas points out that our optimism for girls to succeed has substantially increased from what it's been years ago. Now, women are told to go to college, get a job in a male dominated field, etc. However, with things such as lower pay for women and other unequal actions towards women, sexism doesn't go away. Our society just wants to sweep this, among other problems, under the rug and put on a facade to appear as this utopian society, when in fact its not the laws written on paper that will change any minority battle. It's the thoughts an actions our society would have to be willing to change.
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