‘Are Women represented fairly in the media?’

What it means to be a feminist in the modern age.

BY MADELEINE HEAL

For what it takes to become a role model in a world were women are continuing to be oppressed by ‘traditional’ societal expectations - The noun ‘feminism’ still strikes negative connotations that automatically marginalise this ideology and sets it up to be seen as ‘anti-men’ and the classic belief that women are superior to men which inevitably places feminism with a red flag. Why are these beliefs still lingering? Could it be that women have been misrepresented in the media to the extent were a social-political movement that involves women’s rights is just looked upon as a way to gain power over all male supremacy? If that is the case, this myth needs to be addressed and needs to be modified. With the suffragette movement to the sexualisation of females in the film industry, from gender stereotypes to modern day feminists, how has the media represented women and how has it been represented throughout the years? Furthermore, would you call yourself a feminist in this modern age? Or is judgement still a common fear?

Let’s dwell into the brief history of feminism and uncover the genesis of how a movement defined the lives of so many women. Suffragette Millicent Fawcett famously stated "Courage calls to courage everywhere" after the death of Emily Davidson at the 1913 Derby Races who voluntarily ran out Infront of King George V's Horse with a ‘Votes for Women’ banner to bring awareness to all those attended. Her loyalty to her role as a suffragette is legendary but how was this portrayed at the time? A Report published by the Daily Express in June 1913 on the inquest into Davison’s death portrays Davison’s death as just an unlawful act of militancy with a lack of acknowledgement to her role as a suffragette. Adding to this, the coroner said, “It is exceedingly sad- so it seems to me- that an educated Lady should sacrifice her life in such as way.” As a woman myself, belittling women in spite of the fact that she is a woman is infuriating to comprehend. Fast forward to the present day, this act of resilience is better understood and to me, it’s great that this movement is remembered and is part of history education up and down the country. But is this all we can do? As women, is it our responsibility to make sure this influential part of History is never forgotten or looked over?

Later down the line, from a young age I was exposed to the over sexualisation of women. Now we can all name a few companies that are guilty of this but the biggest one is of course…Disney! From a young age, I remember thinking all of these Disney princesses are what a ‘beautiful women should look like’ to get a man to fall in love with them or comparing them to the evil antagonist. From Snow White to The Little Mermaid, Disney animations and overall story plot presents two different kinds of women. The pretty, skinny young girl and the old, cold, sinister spinster or widow. Being exposed to these two ideologies of women inevitably causes children to judge women by their appearances and make assumptions. Furthermore, sexualising these characters take away the true morals they present, kindness and personal resilience. When reading a study composed by Lara Descartes (analysing Disney films for years) concluded that Disney still produces films in which gender stereotypes are still frequent but are layered with more complexity. It was not until recently that I became aware that 96% of Disney directors where men until 2014 when Disney’s Frozen was released into cinemas.

"COULD IT BE THAT THE MALE GAZE HAD AN INFLUNCE ON THE APPEARANCE OF DISNEY PRINCESSES?"

But of cause let’s acknowledge the efforts made in animation to incorporate diversity in the recent years. whether it’s race, disabilities, ideal body shapes and appearances that represent the diverse world we live in, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Now let’s fast forward to the current day. With activists, role models and straight up feminists…yes, I’m talking about the F-word now. Feminism has never been more prominent.  When I think of feminism, I think of unity, and I think of strength. It takes courage to stand up to society especially when Feminism has an unjustified reputation that it is essentially just ‘man hating’ or just evolves around female empowerment. By definition, feminism is ‘the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. The theory of feminism just highlights how most societies are built according to the male perspective and because of this system, gender roles are hierarchised. An issue that is lead from this is the gender pay gap. Although the Equality Act 2010 now states that Men and Women now have the right to equal pay and entitlement to be paid the same for the same rate of work, unfortunately the gender pay gap still exists in the world. But what can we do raise awareness to this issue? Actress and proud feminist Emma Watson gave her viewpoint on the multiple issues within gender inequality in a speech made at the 2014 ‘HeForShe’ campaign. Watson stated that the word ‘feminism’ has become an unpopular word with women not being able to identify as feminists due to its misconceptions. Watson later announced that…

However, a foremost feminist that is all over the media in these recent years is the Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. Looking back at her history as an activist for women’s rights, we can see she has done her part into addressing sexism and becoming and advocate for women’s rights. Even from a young age, Markel picked up on sexism. Adding to this, a video has gone viral on YouTube with the young Duchess addressing the sexist stereotyping in a TV commercial for Kitchen Soap in 1993 at just age 11. In 2015, she became a U.N. Women's Advocate for Women's Political Participation and Leadership. However, Meghan caught the media’s attention in 2020 when she chatted with social political activist Gloria Steinem on Women’s rights, the Duchess discusses how Women shouldn’t be ranked but linked. Twitter users were quick to respond to this with tweets explaining how having a Royal title such as ‘Duchess’ is ranking, and therefore calling her out to be a hypocrite. Is this just to show that she is still a member of the British Royal Family? Or is it actually to show primacy? But nevertheless, I’m grateful for these women pathing the way for a better world where equality is a main priority in ever society.

To round up, would you personally identify yourself as a feminist? According to a Pan Macmillan article, studies showed that Women are ‘frequently mispresented’; with a statistic from Enders Analysis saying that Women are ‘frequently and erroneously portrayed as stereotypes. For example, forty-one per cent of advertising showed women in a housewife role and twenty-eight per cent in an office role. But eighty-two per cent of women are the decision-makers when buying a new family car’ (Enders, 2020). A main media outlet that may be one of the biggest issues with misrepresenting women is social media in general. With advance editing software and the ability to create a picture-perfect life, women, especially young women, feel pressured to express their femineity, be trendy and attractive causing others to idealise this particular woman. Everyone at some point wants to be admired but at what cost? Is it our role as women to conform to these standards? It is definitely time to change these set rules and dig the pathway for change and to represent women in a justified way that excludes stereotyping, sexualisation of the body and instead as Women with purpose and ambition. To read more, check out our empowerment section the Glamour UK website to read up on more female empowerment features.

But of cause let’s acknowledge the efforts made in animation to incorporate diversity in the recent years. whether it’s race, disabilities, ideal body shapes and appearances that represent the diverse world we live in, there is still a lot of work to be done.

Now let’s fast forward to the current day. With activists, role models and straight up feminists…yes, I’m talking about the F-word now. Feminism has never been more prominent.  When I think of feminism, I think of unity, and I think of strength. It takes courage to stand up to society especially when Feminism has an unjustified reputation that it is essentially just ‘man hating’ or just evolves around female empowerment. By definition, feminism is ‘the advocacy of women's rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes. The theory of feminism just highlights how most societies are built according to the male perspective and because of this system, gender roles are hierarchised. An issue that is lead from this is the gender pay gap. Although the Equality Act 2010 now states that Men and Women now have the right to equal pay and entitlement to be paid the same for the same rate of work, unfortunately the gender pay gap still exists in the world. But what can we do raise awareness to this issue? Actress and proud feminist Emma Watson gave her viewpoint on the multiple issues within gender inequality in a speech made at the 2014 ‘HeForShe’ campaign. Watson stated that the word ‘feminism’ has become an unpopular word with women not being able to identify as feminists due to its misconceptions. Watson later announced that…