Follow up: Third Wave

Caroline P brings up a great question: How will women ever escape this stereotype of gaining power through beauty? As a extremely superficial society, it is an instinct that people do not look beyond appearance. I read in an article for my American School course about a form of discrimination that I did not ever think about. The authors describe the subtle form of discrimination as lookism--giving attractive people more advantages, attention, respect, etc. over unattractive people. Going on this note, beauty is a huge factor in our society that dictates how people are treated, where they stand in society, and how others view them. Caroline C also brings up a good point that I wonder about; as television shows such as 90210, Melrose, Nikita, and other shows along that genre begin to influence our youth population, I wonder, not what influence these types of shows are imposing on our youth, but what responsibilities and roles we as consumers and viewers have in this form of entertainment. To think about it, the shows Douglas is analyzing are shows in the 1990s; however this shows have reemerge on television networks with new seasons, new actors and actress, but with the same plot lines. What does that say about our society and what we like to see on television or, even on a boarder scale, the media?

Both Rebecca Walker's "Becoming the Third Wave" and Susan Douglas' "Castration Anxiety" seem to come to a consensus that manhood is signified by "penis power," as Walker calls it. The incidences Douglas discusses in Chapter 2 illustrates men's fear of women's power in relation to what women can do to their private parts or the outrageous things they will do out of rage or jealousy. This chapter makes me think about how people and society define what a man or a woman is. In my Legacies of the Ancient World class, my professor said "if you think you are man, please stand up." Of course all the men stood up (and one girl stood up), but when the professor questioned why they stood up their answer ranged from the obvious answer, "I have a penis" to more board answers "I take on responsibilities" or "I took care of my single mother" etc. My professor was not satisfied with these responses and he challenged the notion of what society classify as male or female. I think it would be interesting to see how our class define as manhood and womanhood.

Douglas' third chapter "Warrior Women in Thongs" remains me of a conversation I had with a friend about how female superheros are portrayed. We could not come up with one female superhero that was not wearing revealing clothing. Besides the ones Douglas mentions in the chapter--Buffy and Xenia--the list of sexy superheros goes on and on. These superheros are not only extremely sexy in television shows and movie, but such image also extend to comic books, video games, and other. It seems as the caricature of sexy women in power are endless; and this brings us back to Caroline's question--is it possible (or is society willing) to separate power and beauty?