Today's Feminism

I do not believe that young women today embrace feminism in the same way that women prior to 1970 did. Prior to 1970, women fought against male superiority for the right to be equal. They fought for constitutional rights such as voting, and discrimination in the workplace.  In today's society, women still fight for equality, but not against men or for constitutional rights, they fight for equality amongst themselves. As we talked about in class, today's media has created a model of what women should look like through the use of toys (barbie doll), magazines (SI Swimsuit and Playboy), as well as music (Beyonce). Instead of banding together to strive for common goals, feminism today consists of individual women striving to equal what society pegs as the "perfect woman."

I guess another way of putting it is that the cult of true womanhood has changed.  In the 19th century, this was the belief that "the perfect woman was the perfect mother," (Davis pg. 31) as described by Angela Davis.  These women fought to get out of this label, that confined them to their roles as housewives and mothers only.  Today, I would describe the cult of true womanhood as the belief that "the perfect woman is the perfect supermodel."  Instead of trying to eliminate this label of the perfect woman having the perfect body and being a sex symbol or whatever, young woman today fight to fit in to this role that the media and society have assigned to women. This leads to more serious consequences such as eating disorders and pregnancies/STDs.