Finally, in this blog post I will be able to talk about a
facet of social justice that I know well and is very close to my heart,
feminism. And what better way to do that then to discuss the news surrounding a series of newly released ads from UN Women that reveal how sexism still exists in our everyday society. In this post I will first attempt to use these ads to
point out the ways in which sexist and misogynistic attitudes still exist and
then I will discuss how education may be used to combat these attitudes.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the ads themselves
To anyone savvy enough with Google, we can see that these
ads consist of the most popular Google autocomplete results for certain phrases
involving women, all of which contain sexist and derogatory statements. Now, when
I first saw these images I thought the results had been fabricated in order to
emphasize the ads’ point. However, I was horrified to discover that all of
these results were, in fact, the most popular autocomplete searches for the 9th
of September, this year[2];
meaning that an extremely large quantity of people actually typed these phrases
into Google. And I realize that many of you are thinking “That was a month ago!
Surely more recent results are less sexist!”, so to combat this notion I took
it upon myself to type in similar phrases and see what the results were with my
own eyes.
Unsurprisingly the results are no better than what appeared
in the advertisements, and I believe this serves as a rather poignant example
of how sexism, a concept seen horrific by most reasonable people, still exists;
in spite of many people arguing that true “gender equality” has been achieved and
that sexism is no longer a problem. In fact, many people I have recently met
seem to hold on to this view, ignoring examples of large scale contemporary
sexism, such as the gender based wage gap[3]
and “rape culture”, in favour of focusing on “how far” women have come, and
congratulating the women’s rights movement for “doing its job”. Id assume that
such people would be very surprised to see such clear evidence of misogyny,
especially on the internet which is often regarded as a “Safe Haven” for social
justice movements. I believe that this signifies just how necessary it is to
educate as many people as possible about feminist issues for, as expressed in
the outlines of “post-structuralist”[4]
third and fourth wave feminism, the structure and beliefs surrounding a
patriarchal society are damaging to members of any gender.
As expressed by Arnot and Dillabough, the educational system
plays a tremendous role in shaping the views of women and gender in both the
lives of students and the wider societal context, “…schools, as local sites, play a significant role in the
nature of gender politics in society…”[5];
and I believe that is it essential for us, as teachers, to keep this in mind.
Apart from a variety of outside influences, such as home environment and
cultural context, teachers can be seen to hold a profound influence on the
developing morals and beliefs of their students. This has been proven explicitly
in terms of gender, as a single sex schooling experiment conducted at Flintridge
Elementary School saw how young boys, under the influence of overtly
masculinized modes of teaching and curriculum, began to develop “misogynistic
attitudes”[6],
and thus a wider understanding of gender within the classroom can be seen as necessary
to combat such ideas. It is thus evident how a focus on educating students
about feminist issues, and the dismantling of sexist stereotypes within the classroom,
has the potential to promote greater gender equality both within students and
within wider society.
And if
a feminist approach to schooling is pursued, perhaps such ads, revealing the
persistence and existence of sexism, will no longer be needed.
[1]
Ogilvy, M, Dubai, M, 2013, photograph, http://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2013/10/women-should-ads
[2] “Powerful
UN Women ads reveal horrifying sexism in Google autocomplete”, Daily Life, October 19, 2013, accessed
October 26, 2013, http://www.dailylife.com.au/dl-people/celebrity-news/powerful-un-women-ads-reveal-horrifying-sexism-in-google-autocomplete-20131019-2vt1h.html
[3] Australian
Bureau of Statistics, Gender Pay Gap
Statistics, pg. 3
[6] Broadley,
K. Success and Failure of Gender Reforms
in Primary School, pg. 1
Hi Bilynda,
ReplyDeleteI have read this blog and am intrigued by the notions you explored within it. Indeed in our current society notions of gender equality is highly perpetuated, to the extent that the average individual may not be aware of certain derogatory connotations that are still in existence today towards women. This issue i believe is made apparent in your post with the ads that are explicitly representing derogatory connotations towards women. Additionally i can personally reinforce that education does indeed play a major role in gender politics, growing up in a male only school with 95% of the teachers female meant that my perception of gender was highly equalised, as my fellow compatriots were male and my role models were female. As such i believe that through an equal approach that caters not only to females but also to men may be the best approach to gain gender equality. It is because if one side is favoured over the other, then that will itself contradict the very ideals of equality that such an approach may pursue, and that I believe is the difficult area on achieving true gender equality. Overall I was pleased to read about and understand the ideals represented in your post in relation to gender politics, and accordingly I believe, that a greater understanding of our society and culture, and the ideals represented within them (through education) is the key to a truly equal and prosperous future.
Emre Guden
I would have to agree on these points. I feel that this notion of gender equality that we have supposedly reached is a facade developed from the stark contrast of how things used to be. Having said this, progress must be noted. There has been a great development in regards to the role of women in society over the past century and this is extremely encouraging. It shows great insight as to what a civilisation can achieve if only they act as such.
ReplyDeleteIt’s true, we are far from true equality. However, I feel that in order to take a feminist approach to education we must first educate students and society alike in what true feminism actually is – treating women as equal to men. The negative connotations modern feminism is hindered by are brought on by the uneducated demographic that seem to also be the most outspoken in opposition on the matter.
Has this group done irreparable harm? I'm not sure. But perhaps if we worked on explaining feminism as a simple matter of women being treated as equals rather than the more extreme ‘burn the bra’ type images students tend to think of when faced with the term of ‘feminism’, then we would make the matter more accessible to those who may grow to oppose it.
I found this informal vlog video helpful to take us back to the basics of feminism (basically stating, if you’re not a feminist then you’re an idiot) and encourage all to focus on equality, if you’d like to take a look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6GdwptuP4k
A great article, insightful and well researched :)