Essay Example about Women in the 21st Century

The 21st century. Where women give birth to human beings, work hard, be a part of civilization, and where women are killed and assaulted for being women: Sarah Everard, Lorena Benitez, and Josefa Ochoa to name a few. By using the media, society has given women the false sense that they have all their rights now. That there is no need for feminism. “For the record, feminism, by definition, is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities” -Emma Watson. This ideology that the era of feminism is over puts women’s rights at risk. If you believe that feminism is not a conscious belief system for all human beings. Tell that to every woman in the world that has a job and gets paid less than her male co-workers. Tell that to the Afghan women who are afraid to step outside of their houses. Tell that to all the women in the world who don’t live in the 10 countries that offer women full legal protection. Tell that to the 736 million women who suffer violence from their PARTNER each year. Tell that to the 12 MILLION girls who despite being under the age of 18, were forced to marry in 2018. If you think things are getting better for women, tell that to the 29,730,311 women living in Texas, who lost their rights to their bodies this year. How would you feel? Women have middle aged or older men making decisions on THEIR health care without any input.  Feminism has always been portrayed in a negative light by the media. Instead of informing how important feminism is, the media has been portraying what women should act, be and look like. 

From the 1800’s and before, women were treated differently. Back then, women were enslaved, adults or children, to their fathers or husbands and were confined to their houses. Problems women faced in the past were lack of rights over children, not being able to own property or a business, and no control of their wealth and wage. The first women's convention took place in 1848 at Seneca Falls, New York. Elizabeth Cady Stanton started the convention with the speech, “We are assembled to protest against a form of government, existing without the consent of the governed—to declare our right to be free as man is free, to be represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, to take the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and, in case of separation, the children of her love.” My grandmother grew up with the saying “Act like a lady,” and she despised it. She thought that a woman should be able to act however she wants, not the way society wants. 

The female stereotypes shown in the media have a powerful impact on how people view women, and more importantly, how women view themselves. Female stereotypes in the media undervalue and objectify women. Disney movies show slender and unrealistic curves with young women, who are dependent on men for survival and strength. The media stereotyping women as helpless beings, helps create a low expectation for girls. For the girls who dream of being an astronaut, a scientist or a CEO, this is simply not good enough! I hope to be a psychologist, so when I try to find psychologists to look up to, I am upset that the internet only highlights male psychologists. Many might say this is because women have not excelled in psychology, but women have helped change psychology, and even influenced successful male psychologists. 

The media’s portrayal of women affects the self-image of girls remarkably. Concepts of beauty are shown throughout movies, magazines, etc. When I am watching youtube, makeup ads show up and promote their makeup products. Those products are the reason for my insecurities. I have eyebags, I have pimples, I have brown skin. All of which, the makeup industry tells me to get rid of by using their products. Having to watch those ads affects me in a negative way. When there are not a number of diverse women shown in the media, the pressure to be thin and physically attractive, becomes severe. The pressure of it all can lead to women developing eating disorders, depression, anorexia, and anxiety. My friend had experienced this pressure and that led to her going on a water diet. Which meant that for 30 days she wasn’t allowed to consume anything but water (no fruit, no vegetables, no nuts, etc). I told her that she had to eat something, and she agreed to eat a small amount of food. On her 5th day, her appetite for food was strong, and she ended up eating more than she wanted to. Later in the day, she called me crying, saying that she was upset and mad at herself for eating. Eating! For the next 6 days, her entire mood was ruined. She barely talked to me, her other friends, and family. She would stay in her room all day and at school she didn’t talk. After a few days, she started socializing again and eating. I remember how happy I was when I saw her become herself again. From time to time, she does talk to me about going on a diet again and I remember what happened last time, so I do all that I can to persuade her to not bow to the media’s expectations for a girl. She was 11. Did you know that according to the National Institute of Media and Family, studies have found that the media’s focus on body image affects a child’s thinking?

As a result of the backlash against second-wave feminism, the misleading ‘post-feminism’ mentality has become mainstream. As the women’s movement of the sixties started fading out from everyone’s subconscious, a campaign against feminism started gaining momentum. Feminism was twisted into something unappealing, with the sixties activists shown to the young generation as angry battleaxes with hairy armpits. In the media, the term “feminism” is often opposed to family, meaning that feminists can’t be family women. Which is false. Other terms associated with feminism are “radicals” and “angries”.This backlash created widespread ignorance of what feminism is. In the eyes of society, the word feminism became equal to man-hating. 

Post-feminism supposes that women are able to make their decisions about their careers, power and family without retributions. If a woman drops out of her work, it is her “choice”, despite the other possible influences affecting her decision. These could be childcare costs, inflexible work hours, lack of support, the expectation that domestic duties are a female’s responsibility, or the fact that despite girls out-performing boys in academics, women still get paid less for the same amount of work they do compared to men. In some cases, women have to work twice as hard for half the pay. This thought has gained massive acceptance. Feminism is needed to challenge this logic and show light to the influences that prevent women’s decisions from being their own entirely. Post-feminism doctrine blames women. Post-feminism is anti-feminism in disguise, sabotaging any arguments that suggest obstacles in our society to prevent female success. It spreads the idea that women are now fully in control of their destiny, but cunningly uses it to blame women for the discrimination they receive. Society implies it is a woman's fault for the pay gap, the economic disadvantage, and the harassment they face. I remember when I was at school, I was walking with my friend through the hallway and a teacher had pulled us both aside. He told us that our skirts revealed too much skin and were too short. Yet the boy’s shorts were much shorter than our skirts. When I brought that up, I was “disrespectful”, “rude”, and needed to be taught proper manners. I was 11. 

My cousin had started working at McDonalds and she had noticed that her male coworkers were staring at her body when she walked past them. After 4 months of working there, she would hear the male coworkers comment on her body, her face, how she walks, talks etc. All of those comments made her feel insecure and uncomfortable. When she told her manager this, he didn’t believe her and said that “even if that did happen, just deal with it, boys will be boys”. That was the first time she realised how sexist people can be. She was 15. 

“I ask no favour for my sex. All that I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks”.