Do you want to Laugh Out Loud? Yes Please!

A lot of people have been reading Amy Poehler’s book ‘Yes Please’ recently and since I had some time on my hands I thought I might too.

In many ways, I love Poehler’s work. She’s completely Laugh-Out-Loud funny, very honest and got enough life experience to have an insight into life’s tough moments.

‘Yes Please’ is very similar to her partner-in-crime Tina Fay’s book ‘Bossy Pants’. It’s also quite self indulgent which makes it also simular to Lena Dunham’s ‘Not That Kind of Girl’ although has a little more depth but, unlike Dunham, Poehler admits that ‘one of the things that I have learnt about me is that I am really onto myself’.

In true tradition, it is part memoir and part advice, with a few ‘essays’, old photos and quasi-motivational quotes. 

It is called ‘Yes Please’ because she loves saying it and it’s a response while being a request.

Having said this, there are so many things that I loved about this book.  I loved hearing about her journey into comedy and reading about her childhood. Her letter to the team that were going to deliver her baby made me laugh so much.

There was one idea that stayed with me and it was by no means a key thread of the story but it was her idea of currency.

After experiencing a break up she decided that ‘I would be that plain girl with tons of personality, and accepting it made it a lot easier. If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be. I decided early on that it was not going to be my looks.

I could relate to this as in many ways, choosing a currency was made for me and that, like Poehler, it wasn’t going to be my looks.

           

Accepting that I wasn’t going to be admired and liked for my loos does make life easier. It also makes it more exciting because you can move on and thing about other stuff rather than what you look like. I am so glad I don’t have the looks as I have saved so much time not worrying about the superficial exterior (maintenance of said exterior is super time consuming not to mention expensive) and focusing on having an interior life that brings peace and long term fulfilment.

If you are familiar with Amy Peohler’s work and even if you are not, ‘Yes Please’ is a funny read and guaranteed to make you LOL!!

Why popular culture is not always a girl’s best friend

I don’t really know where my slight fascination with pop culture comes from. It is not as I had great exposure to it as a child and it is not even as if I see people like me represented in any positive way the mainstream.

 

Maybe there was an element of voyeurism where I observed the mainstream from the sidelines.

But as I grew up, the interest in voyeurism decreased as I stopped being so captivated by the media’s portrayal of what was considered ‘normal’ and my attention shifted to more specific areas of popular culture.

Perhaps it had something to do with growing up and becoming more comfortable in my own skin and I became ok with not fitting in. Maybe it was when I realised that the media’s concept of “normal” did seen a little bland, shallow and boring. Perhaps it was when I saw pop culture offering up images and “standards” that are unrealistic and understood that they should not considered universal.

I learnt that I could still have a fulfilling life if I didn’t look like the girls in the magazines or have exactly the same life as the guys and gals on Home and Away. 

Things changed though I was in my first year at university and took Introduction to Cultural Studies with a super amazing lecturer who blew my 21year old mind and from that moment I was hooked!!

I soon became aware of the nuances of popular culture and developed a fascination into what was being said and portrayed and what wasn’t. I soon began to appreciate the media’s role in perpetuating cultural paradigms and how it frames the debates in our society. I also began to understand how pop culture has influences people’s lives, including how it creates communities as well as a window on how we view ourselves and each other. 

I also started being interested in the representation of women in the media, including the internalisation of the male gaze and the objectification/representation of women.

You can imagine my excitement when I stumbled on a book called Feminism and Popular Culture by Andi Zeisler (2008) as it discussed many of these issues and reminded me that pop culture isn’t always a girl’s best friend. The aim of the book is to see how pop culture influenced feminism and also how it depicted it. It showed me that pop culture is more than entertainment but a narrative of hopes, dreams, fears and often conflicting values played out in front of us.

Below are some of aspects of Zeisler’s book that I found particularly interesting.   

The power of the male gaze

Zeisler describes liberating Pop Culture from the power of the male gaze as one of feminism’s unfinished projects.

The media seems to be universally white and male. What we see in mainstream entertainment and films seems to be contracted around white, middle-class male values. Not forgetting news reporting and current affairs; all issues and their importance (or unimportance) seems to be viewed through the lens of male values.

As this process is so common and continues to be unquestioned, women tend to internalise the male gaze and view things from a man’s perspective. We almost see ourselves in third person - judge our bodies and choices in a way a man might. As Zeisler states, ‘Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at’.             

Women on TV

Zeisler argues that TV was the first place that women saw themselves and ‘for a long time they didn’t see much besides loving wives, dutiful daughters, gossiping girlfriends, fashion plates and the occasional dowdy maid, nanny or granny’.

Women on TV have had quite an interesting progression (it would make a really interesting PhD topic) as each decade has seen them portrayed in a different way. 

The 1970s saw women as more than just housewives and going out and participating in the public sphere which included work, getting divorced and owning property. It was during this decade that the famous talk show that led to women’s issues even if they were topics and solutions were totally mainstream.

Zeisler states that the 1980s saw ‘TV characters who seemed to be striving for feminist ideals, but for the most of them – as it was for women in the real world – it was almost impossible to be feminist super women in a world that was still stubbornly unequal.’  Zeisler also describes the ‘80s where women took on more powerful roles that challenged previously held stereotypes as well as a decade where feminism was a work in progress’.

This continued into the 1990s where Zeisler feels that ‘music was a primary site in which women were challenging the roles that the industry had contracted for them’. The late ‘90s saw the birth of very popular Sex and the City which showed for different women who were economically independent and weren’t reliant on men for anything except sex. Sex became a consumable and disposable.   

Women as consumers

Zeisler argues that ‘Pop culture has always been about commerce, and feminism and pop culture will always be uneasy bed fellows in a larger culture that remains conflicted (to say the very least) about how much power, agency, and autonomy women should have’.    

While advertising and products have changed overtime, a constant has been that it has reminded women of society’s expectations of them. As Zeisler asserts, ‘a significant chunk of the advertising industry has always been devoted to reaching women, and in most cases its message have instructed women to be on guard, lest they comprise their most important quality: their looks’. There is that male gaze again; can we ever get out from under its spell?         

There was one seminal period at the beginning of WWII where for the first time it wasn’t about a new face cream but encouraging women to go out and work as part of the war effort. Unfortunately when the war was over and the boys came home, women were, once more, relegated to the domestic sphere under the spell of the male gaze.

This is a brief look at the many issues that this book looks at. It covers many important aspects of contemporary life and gives you a good historical understanding of popular culture and feminism while changing how you consume pop culture now. On a practical level, it is short, easy to get through and well worth to read.  

There are might be more important things to overcome (such as domestic violence and the gender pay gap) than the representation of women in the media but I think that the value of discussing such issues as well as pop culture as a tool for social change is under appreciated.

Feminist Friday: Ensuring women have voice and agency makes good economic sense

For the next few Fridays I am going to try and review a book that discusses feminism or discuss some of the issues facing women.

Recently I heard a segment on the radio about a World Bank report called ‘Voice and Agency: Empowering Women for Shared Prosperity’ and as I listening I was reminded of how important it was for women to have an equal voice and valued place in society as well as control over their bodies, income and lifestyle.

This report looks into how important it is that women and girls are able to have control over their body, livelihood and lifestyle choices without fear of retribution, fear or violence. It focuses on four aspects: freedom from violence; control over sexual and reproductive health; control over land and housing and; women’s voices or role in the political sphere. 

Voice and Agency argues that gender equality is not a zero sum game; increasing the agency of women and girls does not decrease the ability of men to control over their lives. The authors state that men and boys also benefit from the social and economic empowerment of women and they provide many examples and interviews that back this up.

 

It also looks at how cultural norms can impact on increasing the voice and agency of women.

The influence of cultural norms

Technically, women have always had the same ability as men to do great things. However, cultural norms have often limited their scope to pursue the same opportunities as men.

Authors of Voice and Agency acknowledge the improvement in gender equality over the past few decades but argue that ‘yet even where gender gaps are narrowed, systematic differences often persist, including widespread gender-based violence and lack of voice’ (page 2). But these are an important start but true change will not happen unless there is cultural change.   

This argument is echoed elsewhere. Anne Summer author of ‘The Misogyny Factor’ argued that while there has great improvements with sex discrimination legislation, Affirmative Action and women getting the vote but is the wider culture that prevents women from getting truly respected and included.

While cultural norms are often the cause of female disempowerment, this report shows how these norms can change to improve both the lives of women but also the wider community.

Why is having Voice and Agency so important?

This report is based on the World Development Report 2012 that showed gender equality and economic development are linked but can’t happen independently of each other.  

Human life is complicated and every decision that humans make have consequences. So when people make decisions, for example about family planning, who to send to school (or not) and divisions of labour, it affects not only that family but also the wider community.    

Voice and Agency not only shows the negative monetary cost of violence but the positive impact that better educated women have on the wider society. It also shows how women who have a strong voice develop policies that are more family focused. Property ownership is also a big issue in this report as it enhances women’s standing in the community which intensifies their voice and bargaining power.   

 

The damaging influence of violence

This report argues that violence is worse in poorer and disempowered communities all around the world. Violence against women is a breach of Human Rights and diminishes their agency as individuals. 

There are many types of violence but sort of violence that is looked at in Voice and Agency is gender-based violence (GBV) which is scarily common, according to a 2013 WHO which states that over 35% of women world-wide have experienced physical or sexual violence.

     

Authors of Voice and Agency indentify the economic effects as being time off work, lower productivity and earnings. They also cite studies that have found that violence against women impact children. The flow on effects for these children are lower academic achievement and job performance (which translates into lower job stability and life time earning) but also they are  more likely to grow up to either be the perpetuators of violence or the victims of it. They also cite other studies that link GBV with lower infant mortality, infant birth weight and limited access to vaccinations.

According to the Voice and Agency report, the economy wide affects of GBV include service provision to support the victims, a decrease in earnings and productivity and a ‘negative effect on human capital formation’ (2014).         

Reproductive rights

As a right, it seems so basic. To be able to enter into a marriage at an age that you are physically, emotionally and mentally ready seems such common sense. But the ability to choose whom to marry, start a family and decide on the number of children you want to have should be human right but for so many, this right has been denied.

This report states that getting married later is associated with greater educational achievements and lower fertility, and which in turn is linked to better maternal and child health.

It also cites research that highlights the dangers of pregnancy among those who are under 18. This reports states that ‘each year, almost one in five women in the developing world get pregnant before the age of18 and 7.3 million girls under the age of 18 (2 million are under 15) give birth’ (page 106). The dangers of being pregnant at such young age often results in obstetric fistula and incontinence, which leads to social exclusion. 

This issue is complex and difficult to address. Voice and Agency argue that marriage choices and having family should be based on educated decisions and the life goals of women and girls should be fully supported.

Also, it  motherhood and marriage shouldn’t be seen as the only path for social mobility and societal recognition.

A room of one’s own

Even at the turn of last century, it was known the importance of women having an independent income and a room of their own. While Virginia Wolf wrote her seminal feminist text was a long time ago and maybe shouldn’t be taken literally, but the idea is important.

The Voice and Agency argues that money equals power and the more money women can call their own the more power they have and control where they live, thus reaping the benefits of land and home ownership. Owning land increases self-esteem, economic opportunities, mobility outside the home and decision making power (2014).

It also acts as insurance policy if women find themselves widowed or without a male provider. With better land ownership provisions, they are able to have access housing for themselves and their children.

The Voice and Agency report highlight many challenges to women accessing home and land ownership. They are as follows;

• Social norms, customary practices, inaccessible and weak institutions as well as poor understanding among women of their rights are the barriers to land ownership;
• Family law, inheritance law, and land law all affect a women’s ability to buy land, including poor gender sensitive administration of these laws.    

Strong women, loud voices 

To fully participate in society, the voices of women and their views must be fully respected. As the Voice and Agency report points out ‘to have voice means having the capacity to speak up and be heard and being present to shape and share in discussions, discourse and decisions…participation in decision making enables women to voice their needs and challenge gender norms in their community – individually and collectively’ (page 175).

It makes sense that if women make up 50% of the population that they should have more say about the things that influence themselves and their families. Developing the voice of women also increases the accountability of decision makers.

Women who actively participate in society have greater respect than their male counterparts as well as are good role models for many women and girls in their community.        

Why read this book?

This report how important it is for women to be educated and live lives free from violence as doing so benefits the wider community. It is an interesting report with a lot of great examples of positive change.   

List of references

Klugman, Jeni., Hanmer, Lucia., Twigg, Sarah., Hasan, Tazeen., McCleary – Slls and Santamaria, Judith. Voice and Agency: Empowering Women and Girls for Shared Prosperity (World Bank, Washington: 2014)

    

Summers, Anne. The Misogyny Factor (New South Publishing, Sydney: 2013)

Feminist Friday: What is The Misogyny Factor?

For the next few Fridays I am going to try and review a book that discusses feminism or discuss some of the issues facing women.

Often the smallest books seem to be the most powerful and this little book is no different.

At only 162 pages, Anne Summers’ book was based on two speeches that she gave at the University of Newcastle (Australia) in August 2012 on the defamation of Australia’s first Prime Minister, Julia Gillard.

It is not about all aspects about the lives of women and doesn’t cover such as health or birth control but focus on economic issues. Like many other books that look at gender issues, this book is aimed at both men and women. 

Same, same but different

Like so many recent books on this topic, this book does briefly cover the importance of economic independence in ensuring that women can have control over their own lives and be able to make their own choices. Economic independence prevents dependence on men and liberated women from traditional gender roles.

It is also not into ‘men bashing’ but looks how the patriarchal paradigm affects the lives of everyone.

In line with much of the feminist literature, this book criticises the double standards women face. ‘Men can be fulfilled as fathers and workers, yet we still argue the toss about whether women can ‘have it all’. And increasingly we conclude, no they can’t, and they shouldn’t and they had better not’.

This book also looks at the history of the women’s movement and takes it one step further by putting it a modern day context. to answer why women aren’t considered equal (just look at the pay gap)despite, government legislation and Affirmative Action policies, getting the vote, having reproductive rights, and graduating from university in greater numbers than ever before.

The answer that Anne Summers is ‘The Misogyny Factor’

Summers argues that there are three challenges that women face: inclusion, equality and respect. She maintains that while the structural factors are in place to support women, unless they are included, considered equal and treated with respect, nothing will change.  

What is ‘The Misogyny Factor’? 

Anne Summers argues that it’s more than just the hatred of women but a ‘set of attitudes and entrenched practices that are embedded in most of our major institutions (business, politics, the military, the media, church, academia) that stand in the way of women being included, treated equally and accorded respect’.      

It is the innate attitude that women only exist to fulfil a domestic role and ‘do not have a fundamental right to be part of society beyond the home’.

It’s common for among both men and women of certain ages and ideological persuasions to hold this view. Often they try and cover up their regressive thinking by pointing put that they have daughters and are supportive fathers but we know that this won’t automatically make an individual promote inclusion, equality and respect. 

Wait, the Prime Minister has rights?

Since the treatment of Australia’s first Prime Minister inspired this book, Summers cleverly devotes a chapter to analysing this treatment as if she was a normal employee, or more specifically, the CEO of Australia.

In her chapter entitled ‘Her Rights at Work’ (based on a highly successful trade union campaign called ‘Your Rights at Work’) she looks at what was said in the media and asks if she was a normal employee she would be able to take her employer to court under the Sexual Discrimination Act 1984, Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunity for Women) Act 1986 and the Fair Work Australia Act 2009 for bullying, sex discrimination, and sexual harassment.

There were many instances where personal attacks were made in regards to her gender. As Summers states ‘I came to the conclusion that these demining and offensive attacks are designed to undermine Julia Gillard’s authority as Prime Minister. They are an assault on her legitimacy and, because they rely on sexual and other gender-specific attacks for their potency, I have branded this campaign of vilification ‘misogynist.’

As the Youtube clip shows, these attacks were clearly aimed at her gender and a male prime minister has never been treated in this way.

What this clip shows is only a fraction of what happened. There were obscene emails that did the rounds and facebook pages that were just horrible. As Summers points out the images in the emails and on Facebook were ‘solely designed to demean and diminish her, humiliate and intimidate her’

It is not about agreeing with her politics. People might not agree with how she runs the country but it is unacceptable that she was treated this way.    

It is a shame that this sort of treatment is happening at the highest levels. I expect better from government as they should be an example and be setting the tone for the national conversation.        

    

Finally…..

Summers prompts us to say something if we get one of these vile emails or stumble on one of these Facebook pages and say ‘it stops with me’.

Anne Summer’s The Misogyny Factor might be a small book but it offers up a powerful analysis of the treatment of powerful women in Australia and the gender roles in the wider society.   

Feminist Friday: Unfinished Business: Sex, Freedom and Misogyny by Anna Goldsworthy

For the next few Fridays I am going to try and review a book that discusses feminism or discuss some of the issues facing women.

A lot of what Anne Goldworthy writes in her essay in The Quarterly is nothing new but it showed how much progress there still has to be made. When she says that ‘what men should do and what women should be remains a persistent bias of our culture even as it bears no resemblance to the actual divisions of labour’. 

Her article documents the gender issues surrounding the prime ministership of Julia Gillard and describes the state of play of the role of women in public life. It seems outrageous that what women do and look like is still important in 2014.

This essay covers everything from how language is used to degrade women as well as the concept of the gender card. Not only does she look at female politicians but also at women scholars, miners and novelists. 

There is also an interesting discussion on the female body as a unit of shame and hate as well as its role in popular culture.

Goldsworthy states that ‘the shame of the original sin was the shame of a woman. The psychology of shame is feminine: blushing, withdrawal. It prompts us to make ourselves smaller, through dieting or modesty of bearing. Shame underlines our compliance, our fixed grin, our need to please.’ From the moment we’re born we seemed to be conditioned to behave in a subservient way and is amazing to see how ingrained it is.    

Much of the essay looks at Gillard’s famous misogyny speech, where she points out that what caught people’s attention around the world was that it was more than Julia vs. Tony or Labor vs. Liberal but women vs. misogyny.

Her article made me sad, it made me angry that despite the progress that women have made that Australia’s first prime minister would be such a target of vitriolic abuse from shock jocks and “commentators” and have to deliver such a speech in order to be taken seriously.