Have you ever heard a news broadcaster ask a male politician if he’s had cosmetic surgery? When was the last time a powerful male executive was asked how he balances work and fatherhood? If a young male public figure gains some weight, it must be because he’s pregnant! How come the media dialogue is so different when it comes to high profile women vs. men?
The issues of women’s rights and gender norms are important to me and I’ve had “feminist tendencies” for as long as I can remember. I dream of a time when the opportunities, success and equality of my gender are no longer topics of concern.
For me, a key problem with the women’s “equality dialog,” is that many want recognition for their woman-hood. They want an extra round of applause (an entire gendered history month!) to celebrate overcoming the obstacle of being born female. I think this is the wrong approach. While women should network to encourage, foster and support the success of other women (because significant gender-related obstacles do exist) what our end-goal should be is to be treated like “one of the boys”. For me, a successful women’s movement would be one where being a woman who accomplished something is impressive for the accomplishment itself, not because a woman managed to succeed where no woman has before.
How do we get the media to be less gendered? Do you have habits which you could change for the benefit of greater equality? If this topic interests you at all, this is worth watching and this is worth reading.
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