Chapters three and four in Douglas’ book Enlightened Sexism explore the new wave of girly feminism and black women’s feminist movement in the media. Chapter three, “The New Girliness,” followed the entertainment trend to emphasize female’s increasing girliness in movies and television shows. The movie Clueless set the trend for chick flicks. It also set the tone in the post-feminist era with a “freedom to be feminine.” This ideology created a dynamic where girls and women were able to take advantage of their sexuality, while still demanding their equality and rights. The Spice Girls serve as a prime example of women who pranced around on stage in skimpy outfits, but preached the importance of girl power in their lyrics. Shows such as Ally McBeal showed the complexities of having an impressive career, but struggling to maintain a personal life. A lot of the shows at the time portrayed career women as making sacrifices at home. It was almost like women couldn’t have both and they must choose between their job and having a family. Douglas also mentions movies like Miss Congeniality and Legally Blonde where the main female characters preach true feminist values at some point during the movie, but by the end they tend to lose sight of those values. Overall, I agree with Douglas’ assessment of these movies and television shows. These media outlets tend to show women as vapid, materialistic, and over emotional. Even though some of the shows and movies display more masculine and career driven women, they make these women choose a one-sided life where they can’t have both a career and home life.
The next chapter, “You Go, Girl,” examines black women’s struggle to find their own voice in the modern feminist movement. Douglas demonstrates that black women are at an even greater disadvantage than white women. Their stereotypes only further put them at this disadvantage. Music videos and song lyrics, in particle, are responsible for these stereotypes. In the 1990’s there were several television shows and female singers/rappers that fought for women’s rights. People like Queen Latifah, Salt, and Pepper and shows like Living Single used the media for the feminist messages. The show Martin is brought up to show that black men even worked to bring down and criticize black women. Douglas also discusses Oprah’s influence over the white and black communities. In a lot of her arguments in this chapter, she explores the uses of White Speak verses Black Speak. It is here that I have the greatest issue with her argument. I don’t agree that the women who transition back and forth between the two “lingos” more easily influence people. I don’t think that because Oprah occasionally uses “ain’t” and “you go girl” that people are more receptive to her messages. I also disagree with her point that Oprah isn’t really a feminist because she asks women to look within themselves to find power, rather than demanding power from other people. I believe that Oprah’s dominance over the media and our nation has proven that black women can also make it to the top.
I just wanted to comment to when you said that you don't think that lingo and speech don't influence people and other women. I think that may not be true for you but it is true for a lot of other women. For example Kelly Ripa one morning on her talk show explains how she loved The Real Housewives of Atlanta's NeNe because she says "Lashes Poppin' Lips Bussin'". There are certain lines like that that are memorable in peoples minds and it makes them want to watch the person more. I myself am influenced more so by intelligent black women who can negotiate between the two "lingos" such as Tricia Rose did when she came to Campus to speak last year.
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