The Myth of Postfeminism - Why the 00's Were So Sexist

this video is brought to you by curiositystream the best way to watch thousands of award-winning documentaries and non-fiction movies and tv shows the women's movement jesus christ i haven't even had coffee yet [Music] what makes a true modern feminist that's what we're unpacking with our new series feminism and pop culture the future wave each video will be dedicated to one of feminism's many faces past and present and how it's represented in pop culture seventh wave feminism is all about owning our sexuality in order to understand what the reality of supporting all women and gender equality actually looks like as our culture collectively revisits the misogynistic treatment of the britney's paris's and meghans of the 2000s we have to ask why was this era so deeply toxic for women a key answer to this question is a thing called post-feminism this outlook puts forward the idea that we live in a post-feminist society i.e one in which misogyny and sexism are over and therefore feminism is no longer necessary you suffered so much growing up in middle class paris i mean the agony in the trenches of the sorbone and the post-feminist era many female-led stories in the early 2000s seemed to celebrate that feminism had delivered women all the freedom and options they could ask for but also to suggest that all those choices weren't actually making women happier as post-feminism became more entrenched in the 2000s high-profile women avoided identifying as feminist i'm not a feminist i i hail men i love men while tabloid culture and gossip blogs cultivated an environment of aggressive accepted misogyny that in hindsight is pretty shocking thank you britney spears being bad is good for my business yet to this day many still claim we live in a post-feminist society the central problem with post-feminism's assertion that sexism has been solved is that it makes it difficult if not impossible to call out instances of misogyny and discrimination when they still happen hello trampy dress hello here's our take on the myth of post-feminism and why the crucial first step of fighting sexism and misogyny is admitting they're there [Applause] we'll take it out in editing if you're new here be sure to subscribe and hit the bell to be notified about all of our new videos rosalind gill writes that post-feminism originally emerged as a way of making sense of paradoxes and contradictions in the representation of women but more colloquially it came to represent the idea that feminism had achieved all that it could and sometimes even to express that women were losing their essential womanhood in their fight for equality these angry feminists and i say angry feminists like there's some other kind in december 1989 the cover of time magazine read women face the 90s while the copy asked in the 80s they tried to have it all now they've just plain had it is there a future for feminism from the 60s to the 80s second wave feminism made major gains in addressing concrete problems like gender inequality in the workplace and reproductive rights and post-feminism can be understood on one level as a form of ongoing backlash to what second wave feminism stood for post-feminist storylines in film and tv subtly suggest that women can't be fulfilled through achievement in the workplace and that true female happiness stems from domestic bliss 1988's working girl seemingly champions the gains of second wave feminism in a story about a woman rising in her career but it simultaneously focuses on a character who upholds traditional standards of femininity is betrayed by a less feminine woman boss and succeeds with the help of a romantic partner who fulfills her tess is this team's leader she put this deal together less than a year later in 1989 disney's little mermaid told a strikingly similar story about a gorgeous young woman with a strong will and desire for self-determination who's betrayed by an over-ambitious older woman and whose happy ending is winning a man's heart in the 90s a long line of spunky female characters were positioned in a positive light due to their independence only to receive their happily ever afters through traditional heteronormative partnership i want the fairy tale then in the early to mid 2000s came what rosalind gill describes as the post-feminist canon including ally mcbeal sex in the city and bridget jones diary amanda d lotz writes in redesigning women that characters like ally mcbeal and a striking number of female leads that emerged from the late 90s on were empowered and fantastic action heroines depictions of single career women flawed yet authentic professionals who seem to indicate unprecedented possibilities for female characters and audiences in many ways the era's plethora of female-led stories appeared to be a great celebration of where feminism had helped us get to ms miranda hobbs esquire aka just me bought herself her first apartment and promptly took herself out for a drink strangely though the supposed feminist utopia many of these characters were living in was painted as making them kind of unhappy ally mcbeal had the ostensibly feminist premise of centering a high-powered female protagonist making her way in the traditionally male world of the law however much of the show focuses on mcphee's longing for her ex and confronting her biological clog which is embodied by a small dancing baby time magazine seemingly conversing with its past cover from a decade earlier pictured mcbeal alongside historic feminist thinkers susan b anthony gloria steinem and betty for dan on their june 98 cover under the headline is feminism dead sex in the city marked a progression from ally mcbeal by featuring four independent liberated female characters who are content with their strong female friendships and careers yet over time its revolutionary edge gave way to more traditional rom-com storylines increasingly focused on finding a man and settling down carrie you're the one bridget jones has the same goal of wanting to settle down with a little career ambition at first and unlike these other examples she's pretty upfront about that we'll find nice sensible boyfriend to go out with angela mcrobbie writes that bridget jones is the product of modernity who's directly benefited from feminism its progress has allowed her to relocate to the city to earn an independent living without shame or danger however this also gives rise to new anxieties unless something changed soon i was going to live a life where my major relationship was with a bottle of wine part of the humor or the reason audiences laugh with bridget mcrobbie argues is that on some level they're conscious that modern women shouldn't be shamelessly longing for a husband and babies and neglecting their careers as bridget does so it is quote a relief to escape this censorious politics and freely enjoy that which has been disapproved of likewise aj strickland argues in her essay women at work that post-feminist hollywood properties have aimed to convince women that they had it better when they had fewer choices it's important to acknowledge that films and shows of the post-feminist canon provide great comedy and entertainment and their complex female characters have been empowering to many women bridget ally and kerry spoke to women because they honestly voiced relatable fears and desires i am someone who is looking for love as well as celebrated the truth that many women still do want to project traditional femininity or have husbands and families all of which shouldn't be incompatible in any way with feminism as mcrobbie acknowledges quote these new young women are confident enough to declare their anxieties about possible failure in regard to finding a husband they avoid any aggressive or overtly traditional men and they brazenly enjoy their sexuality i'm a trisexual i'll try anything once yet because these narratives were so set on delivering the satisfaction of a rom-com formula they could inadvertently reduce their more radical depictions of single dumb to just prologue for traditional happy ever after and if you find someone to love the you you love that's just fabulous these stories sometimes ended up reinforcing the regressive idea that women were only pretending to be content unless they achieved the one-size-fits-all heteronormative ideal of becoming a wife and mother these post-feminist stories actually do contain a number of feminist observations too and end up illustrating a fair amount of sexism that their female characters face you want to be known as the mini skirt attorney i don't want to be known as the attorney who let the judge tell her how to dress but they tend to show these women rising above that sexist environment due to harnessing their strength as individuals 2000's miscongeniality may underline the unfairness of the boys club gracie hart confronts as an fbi agent yet the movie's solution to this problem of institutional sexism is her undergoing a makeover so that as a prettier more feminine version of herself she's ready to succeed in both her life and her job this experience has been one of the most rewarding and liberating experiences of my life ultimately what these stories have in common is this emphasis on individualism so they helped foster the idea that any female advancement was due to her personal choices and the flip side was the implication that if a woman wasn't advancing that was on her meanwhile both pop culture and famous celebrities felt compelled to distance themselves from explicit feminism female celebrities of that time would frequently declare that they weren't feminists because they were instead humanists didn't like the label or loved men too much in 2001's legally blonde elle is an intelligent determined and capable woman who is proud to be both smart and feminine and the plot centers on elle and another woman vivian realizing that it's not worth competing over a man who's not good enough for either of them warner doesn't even do his own laundry i know he has to have it sent out i know however the movie makes a joke of the outwardly feminist character implying that her fixation on women's issues is absurd that's why i'm petitioning to have next term be referred to as the winter old vest this type of straw feminist figure who creates issues that don't really exist reinforces the post-feminist idea that feminism no longer has problems of substance to address she's part of your mom's feminist group she hates men too so i'm really excited about this series that we're starting with this video we talk a lot about feminist topics and we talk about how they are applied in pop culture or how pop culture expresses a certain view of gender relations and you know this is a way for us to really dig in directly to these questions speaking about the myth of post-feminism there are many other things about our world that many of us have probably been completely misunderstanding for years so if you're like us and you like to clear up those misunderstandings and learn more you are probably going to enjoy this video sponsor curiosity stream curiosity stream is this awesome service where you can access and watch thousands of the most interesting documentaries and movies about all of the issues that are really important our world today no matter what you're interested in there are shows and films on everything from heists to emojis and they also have 35 expert curated collections on there right now if you're like me you're into learning more about feminism and i bet you'll enjoy the futures female collection it's a truly intersectional selection with both historical and contemporary stories about incredible women from across the globe we just watched mama rwanda which is about working moms in rwanda it's a half hour documentary so you can actually get through it if you're a working mom and you know really really learn something about what somebody else's experience is and it's set against the backdrop of the country's national reconciliation we highly recommend it and so many of curiosity streams other offerings so click the link in our description below curiositystream.com the take use our promo code take and you'll get a whole year of curiosity stream for just 14.99 check it out while pop culture seemed to move beyond explicit feminism off-screen society was still ruled by socially acceptable misogyny 1992 was dubbed the year of the woman after a record number of women were elected as senators and to congress but a 2006 study from cornell university proved that the narrowing of the wage gap in the 1990s was actually slower than it was in the previous decade in the 2000s post-feminism was in the air as famous for being famous culture donned and the height of the tabloid's dark power in an internet focused but pre-social media world made an atmosphere of misogyny more accessible i don't know your ass was that good either this one this picture i mean yes of course yeah they should have called you ass spice pop culture routinely punished women for enjoying the freedoms they had supposedly won as female celebrities were slut-shamed unapologetically objectified and routinely pitted against each other maybe the most glaring evidence that post-feminism was amid was the fact that the gains achieved by women only ever seemed to apply to a certain kind of woman the kind who were thin cis white and heterosexual in these prominent female-led stories queerness was either shamed or largely ignored i'm not even sure bisexuality exists trans women were othered depicted as not real women and turned into punchline there they were samantha's friendly neighborhood pre-op transsexual hookers half man half woman totally annoyed and while there was little discussion of sexism there was even less attention paid to the compounded obstacles facing women of color all this was proof that individualist female role models were not enough to address systemic problems of gender class and race the hashtag metoo movement sparked a new era of reflection on the ideologies of post-feminism its impact was to cause a mass re-evaluation of the culture that allowed powerful men to subjugate women without fear of punishment and to reject a purely individualistic mindset drawing attention is how women need progress as a collective it's also been an opportunity to look back at the kind of rhetoric and mainstream culture attacks that we once collectively deemed acceptable britney spears is 18 she's like you know takes two band-aids and she's singing there i don't appreciate that i heard when the cops gave paris the breathalyzer test i told her to blow and she started sucking monica lewinsky was attacked with an unrelenting barrage of sexist criticisms and jokes when her relationship with president clinton first came to light but has received public support in recent years as we've come to better understand the toxicity of how she was blamed and slut-shamed for being the 22 year old victim of an abuse of power this rush to judgment enabled by technology led to mobs of virtual stone throwers and while lewinsky had no control over this narrative for decades it feels like a significant milestone that the next series of american crime story will focus on the clinton affair with lewinsky working as a producer thereby helping to tell her own story on a major network the same re-evaluation has been applied to the dismal response to anita hill's 1991 accusations of sexual misconduct against clarence thomas and to many starlets of the early 2000s who faced misogynistic degradation for simply existing as women in the public sphere in framing britney spears we see the ugly role of the tabloid press in damaging britney's mental health and how her hyper-sexualized image was used against her the way that people treated her to be very high school about it was like she was the school's [ __ ] constance grady wrote that the leaking of paris hilton sex tape something which defined the early years of her career was an act of revenge porn megan fox is receiving retroactive apologies for how her concerns about being objectified as a young teen were routinely ignored his solution to that problem was to then have me dancing underneath the waterfall getting soaking wet that's sort of a microcosm of how bay's mind works yeah well yeah well that's really a microcosm of how all our minds work many are also pointing out the unfairness of janet jackson's career setbacks after her 2004 super bowl halftime wardrobe malfunction especially since there was no professional harm to justin timberlake the one who actually briefly exposed her chest and the media's mistreatment of lindsay lohan's addiction has come back into the public consciousness who's taking you to rehab you don't want to talk about that either right speaking to the guardian former gossip columnist ben whittakeum said i was so seriously worried that either lindsay lohan paris hilton or britney spears would die and the media would pretend to hand ring in sorrow but actually their deaths would make a lot of money for them our culture's post-feminist outlook was a key weapon wielded against these women making them feel they couldn't speak out if misogyny is the water everyone's swimming in and the party line is that it's been eradicated how do you even summon the vocabulary or get anyone to listen when you try to voice what's happening to you post me too revisionism has revealed that post-feminist culture was wrong for pretending that individual success proved the end of sexism because the problems of gender inequality are systemic and firmly embedded in everyday life tabloids are financially incentivized to provoke women into mental health crises that night was not a good night for her but it was a good night for us because it was a money shot male actors are routinely paid multiples higher than their female co-stars and interviewers are trained to ask female celebrities totally different questions were you able to wear undergarments you're like the fifth person that's out no because is it inappropriate to ask somebody what kind of underpants they were i didn't ask you what kind you just asked me if i was wearing any now that hashtag me too has brought the abuse of power by many male celebrities and elected officials into the spotlight it's much harder to deny that sexism misogyny transphobia massage noir and other forms of prejudice created by a patriarchal society exist and it's deeply important to have this foundation of acknowledgement to build on so we can address these issues today far from the f word being a dirty word chimamanda ngozi adichie's adage that we should all be feminists has taken hold more of us should reclaim that word a feminist is a man or a woman who says yes there's a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it and emma watson's he for she campaign has sought to involve more men and boys in feminism recognizing that the negative effects of the patriarchy aren't just felt by women sadly there may always be a need for a women's movement and one that speaks for all women everyone is loved everyone deserves justice and everyone deserves equal protection and prosperity feminism there's still so much to talk about and it's so layered it really is an evolving ongoing conversation and dialogue i think this series is really important to us because we love to talk about these issues and it's really important for us to talk about them in a real way what message pop culture is sending you love of a movie you love a show and that's great and we can always enjoy it no matter what but i think it's also important to bring that consciousness the idea is just to stay aware and to be aware and to think more carefully about all of our interactions and it's what's so cool is the conversation is happening and the conversation around gender too opens the door to think about it and to think about how we really treat one another and ourselves [Music] you

Channel: The Take

Views: 370,883

Keywords: buffy, xena, ally mcbeal, carrie, sex and the city, legally blonde, 2000's, paris hilton, britney spears, megan fox, lindsay lohan, demi moore, lady gaga, madonna, bjork, sarah jessica parker, kat stratford, jessie spano, daria, bridge jones, diary, pretty woman, little women, thelma and louise, miss congeniality, tmz, janet jackson, working girl, mulan, ariel, gracie hart, elle, monica lewinsky, american crime story, the clinton affair, me-too, grey's anatomy, ellie salter

Id: oBxgEIcMB6o

Length: 19min 42sec (1182 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 11 2021