Third Wave

As I read EFR, and Enlightened Sexism, I noticed a common theme: Action. In Rebecca Walker's "Becoming the Third Wave," she takes a stand. After she overhears two men degrading women in a sexual notion, she decides to say something. She takes a stand for women in general, and herself when she says "I aint your sweetheart, I ain't your bitch, I ain't your baby." Her courage to stand up for herself shocked the men and they hardly could make a comeback.

In Baumgardner's and Richards piece, they list the 13 point agenda for women's rights. I agreed with the agenda and it is clear that actions want to be made about concerning sexism, but I think they should have gone on to describe how they were going to get these points accomplished.

In the chapter "Get the Girls" the theme of media was highlighted. The focus was on the show 91210, and the theme of enlightened sexism. Douglass even says "The show was an essential early building blocks of enlightened sexism because it was the vanguard of targeting teenage girls with an intensity that made the 1960s efforts..." I think that the media has a huge effect on teenagers across the country because they reflect on the norms in movies and t.v shows and imitate behavior. The age that people lose their virginity is getting younger and younger. The age that kids start drinking has decreased tremendously, and the age that boys and girls start "dating" is also at a young age. At the same time, our generation today has gone through a shift as media has gotten racier and racier. See the correlation?

In the chapter, "Castration Anxiety", it focuses on the violent action that some women have taken in order to prove a point to men. The two specific cases that stood out to me was the story about John Wayne, and the castration of his penis, as well as the story about Amy Fisher, shooting a woman in the face because she had been having a affair with her husband at the age of 16. These stories represent the extremes to which woman take action. In the beginning of the chapter it talked about how the media never highlights the accomplishments that woman achieve, rather the negative stuff like date rape, harassment, and crime.

In the Chapter "Warrior Woman in Thongs" it highlights the image in the most recent films at that time of sexy woman who have the karate moves to take anyone on. However, film makers adopt to this new trend, and automatically make them sexy and slutty at the same time, so that the power of attraction is still there. How will women ever escape this stereotype of gaining power through beauty? That is the real question.