Thursday, January 5, 2012

Book Review: Enlightened Sexism

(Image from Bitch Magazine)

I chose to read this book after a classmate, Graicey (who has her own blog about feminism) couldn't  put it down while we were working on our English research papers last year. I asked for it for my birthday this past summer but got too bogged down to read it immediately, but when we were assigned over to read and review a book relevant to our blog, I knew exactly what I was doing.

Enlightened Sexism, by Susan J. Douglas, is based on the premise that women are shown as "having it all" in movies and TV shows, and therefore people think that feminism is outdated or unneeded. However, Douglas argues that the media overestimates how successful women are, and that people are ignoring the fact that sexism is still very much a real thing. "It's a powerful choke leash, letting women venture out, offering us fantasies of power, control, and love, and then pulling us back in" (17). The term "enlightened sexism" comes from the idea that people think they are somehow "above" or "past" sexism, so sexist jokes and stereotypes are being used as amusing or in a "wink wink, nudge nudge" way...when in fact, they're still sexist. It also examines the still-constant pressure that now along with powerful and accomplished, women still have to be beautiful. This is demonstrated through the exhaustive inspection of recent media, especially TV shows and occasionally magazines.

First off, you will find no argument from me about Douglas' ideas themselves; that should be obvious from the theme of this blog. She is also a very talented writer: able to be smart yet not condescending, not shying away from quoting or mocking vulgarities when the time calls for it, and switching effortlessly between colloquialisms and more academic writing. Overall, the style of her writing was an absolute pleasure to read.

However, it was how the ideas were presented that I had some issue with. Much of the book (the first half at least) was thus formatted– within each chapter, a TV show was introduced, summarized, and examined, and at the end the shows featured in the chapter were tied together and the "big ideas" were established. Many of the TV shows that Douglas talked about were from the 1990s. In the 90s, I was watching Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. Whereas an older viewer who might have been more familiar with the shows may have skimmed the summaries, I had to slow down and  comprehend every single TV show and character mentioned. After awhile, having to try and read summary after summary, plotline after plotline got a bit dull. In fairness to Douglas, she was straddling a fine line– though the constant explanations clogged up the book a little, at the same time, leaving these out would leave readers in the dark when they weren't familiar with the material. The second portion of the book was a  more palatable examination of news media, but again focuses on the early 2000s when this is less relevant for my life. It became clear to me that this book was perhaps not intended for a seventeen-year-old, that the pop culture references were not over my head but before my time.

Having said that, Douglas's book is an awesome resource for anyone who wants a hard look at media and who is willing to reconsider just what is "feminism" as we know it– or as it has been presented to us.