WWIII: Feminism and The Media

Feminism and the feminist attitude is one that has developed over the years and continues to affect us today. While women today have many more rights and privileges than in the previous years, there are still issues that push the line of near equality.

"Rather than focusing on men's images of women,they focus on women's images of themselves and women's stories about their own experiences." This line was taken from Rakow's reading, about modern feminism. This line reminded me of a discussion we had in Sport Media about how women are portrayed in the media. A particular case we discussed was that of World-renowned tennis star Serena Williams. This year she was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated as Sportsperson of the Year, but not in the way you would think.

Instead of being featured as Serena Williams, the tennis star, she instead was featured as Serena Williams, the sexy model. There has been much controversy over this image and debate  over its true purpose or meaning. Sport's Illustrated actually stated it was Serena's idea, that it was "intended to express her own ideal of femininity, strength and power. This was likely in response to the media backlash about how Serena "isn't feminine enough," how she even "acts like a man."

Although Serena used this image to combat those negative comments, her actions do not reflect the new feminine attitude. She is simply using the comments made against her to further the images men consider feminine, instead of the images and experiences of women. An article from PetaPixel even states the cover "doesn’t help female athletes." If the image featured on the cover would have been Serena with her tennis uniform on, or on a tennis court, the responses would have been drastically different.

"Men and women live in two different spheres, and have two different cultural experiences." This is another theme Rakow talks about in his text. He states instead of women trying to have equal representation in one culture that we should completely separate both and not market to the other. Personally I completely disagree with Rakow, I would like to see the two cultures come together to an equal acceptance, but it will only stop when we focus on the actuality and realistic images and their meanings, not these over fantasized and sexualized  images we do now. Maybe in the future, if the media would portray the unbiased reality so often it became the norm, the feminist movement would cease, and the gender war would finally be at peace.