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"If there’s anything that feminism has bequeathed to young women of means, it’s that power is their birthright. Visit an American college campus on a Monday morning and you’ll find any number of amazingly ambitious and talented young women wielding their brain power, determined not to let anything — including a relationship with some needy, dependent man — get in their way. Come back on a party night, and you’ll find many of these same girls (they stopped calling themselves “women” years ago) wielding their sexual power, dressed as provocatively as they dare, matching the guys drink for drink — and then hook up for hook up.
Lady Gaga idealizes this way of being in the world. But real young women, who, as has been well documented, are pressured to make themselves into boy toys at younger and younger ages, feel torn. They tell themselves a Gaga-esque story about what they’re doing. When they’re on their knees in front of a worked-up guy they just met at a party, they genuinely do feel powerful — sadistic, even. After all, though they don’t stand up and walk away, they in principle could. But the morning after, students routinely tell me, they are vulnerable to what I’ve come to call the “hook up hangover.” They’ll see the guy in the quad and cringe. Or they’ll find themselves wishing in vain for more — if not for a prince (or a vampire, maybe) to sweep them off their feet, at least for the guy actually to have programmed their number into his cell phone the night before. When the text doesn’t come, it’s off to the next party...."
The article goes on for a while, and really sheds new light on lady Gaga, as well as the development of "modern" feminism.
1 comment:
Great find, Sabrina.
I have been thinking a lot about the different types of Feminism that were discussed in last week’s class. I had a real "eye opening" moment on Thursday when Sharon described our generation as the "ME" generation and how it was a direct correlation to the "Post Feminist Feminism" movement.
I would describe our (my) generation, generally speaking, as individuals that look and make decisions about things on how they relate to themselves. Also our age band seems to be extremely open about their opinion and extremely willing to share, almost to the point of rudeness.
Moving forward I plan to make a more conscious effort to broaden my point-of-view from within my own tiny bubble and try to look at the extremely important issue of Women in Leadership from as many vantage points as possible.
Okay, now that I got that off my chest, I think that Lady Gaga is an excellent representation of post-feminist feminism. Lady Gaga views herself as an equal to both men and women in the music and art industry. She demands to be measured by her musical and artistic talent not by her gender, while at the same time not denying the fact that she is an attractive woman. I don’t know if the problem is her using her gender in a negative sexual way that is the issue. Look at any music video or magazine, men are exploiting themselves in the same sexual way as females.
What I took away from this article is that women can still embrace there femininity, while being a strong equal match to their male counterparts. I appreciate this idea and hope that more women will look at Gaga Feminism as an example of how to be yourself and still rise to the top of your profession. Go Gaga, Go!
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