Jezebel
In yesterday's Los Angeles Times, depression diarist turned Yale law student Elizabeth Wurtzel lamented the failure of feminism in the aughts. In her typically rambling-though-insightful style, Wurtzel careened from the Spitzer scandal to Girls Gone Wild to Entourage, concluding that women are still "left choosing between, yet again, the madonna or the whore." In today's paper however, gender studies professor Hugo Schwyzer rebuts Wurtzel, reminding her that, "suggesting that feminism has failed because it hasn't eradicated misogyny is like complaining that the Civil War was for naught because racism still endures." Although Schwyzer makes a good point (and calls out Wurtzel's ever-present self-absorption), the Prozac Nation author's op-ed did get me thinking - just how did we get from the riot grrls of the early 90s to the Girls Gone Wild?Or rather, when did female sexual emancipation become not about pleasing ourselves, but about pleasing men?
Here's where Wurtzel's self-absorption is most evident, but also where she makes her strongest argument. As one of the "third wavers" of feminism who included Katie Roiphe and Susan Faludi, Wurtzel says that she and her sisters promoted "Do Me" Feminism. "I appeared topless on the cover of one of my books, a decision I stand by still," she writes. "But I don't think the idea that you could own your own orgasm was ever intended to teach college coeds that it is a good idea to spend spring break in a shower with your roommate in a motel room in Daytona Beach having a lesbian encounter for the cameras of Girls Gone Wild. That's not feminism!"
As Dodai pointed out earlier this week, Wurtzel is right: those spring breakers are not embracing feminist principles when they lose their shirts. I am not of Elizabeth Wurtzel's generation — I am of the generation that Hugh Schwyzer praises for such "optimistic" feminists as Feministing's Jessica Valenti and Amanda Marcotte — but I agree with Wurtzel that things were better in the halcyon days of the 90s.
Take the Real World as a cultural barometer. When the show debuted in 1992, there were three women on the show, Julie, Becky and Heather. Each one had career aspirations: Julie wanted to be a dancer and took classes constantly; Becky was a musician who played at clubs in the city; Heather was a rapper. The women went on dates and had both relationships and hookups, but they were not getting wasted and competing with one another for male attention. None of the three were conventionally beautiful. Flash forward to Season 19 in Sydney, Australia. Besides the young Iranian woman, Parisa, who is derided about her looks by the other female cast members, the other ladies are interchangeable bleached blondes with fake tits or empty-headed brunettes with long, flowing hair. Kelly Ann got on the show because in her audition video she stripped down to her undies, on which she had written, "Make it Hott: Pick Me!" Shauvon left the show to get back with her boyfriend, whom she had originally broken up with because he was making her choose between him and her career.
Again, the question is: what's happened in the intervening 16 years? Is it the pornification of culture because of the internet? Did we become inured to the idea of women as objects because of the Starr report? Can we blame Britney for this one? Can't we have sexual freedom without flashing a camera?
Bitter Ashes Of Burned Brassieres [Los Angeles Times]
It's Not All About Wurtzel [Los Angeles Times]
Ashley Dupre In Girls Gone Wild Video [New York Post]
Related: Some Young Women Maybe Be Confusing Confidence With Carnality
The Real World: Female Empowerment Is A Stranger To The Seven Roommates
Comments
I wonder about this question all the time. Sadly, the only answer I have is that the end of the world is near.
having a lesbian encounter for the cameras of Girls Gone Wild. That's not feminism!"
But if you do it without the cameras, it totally is! EVERYONE GET OVER HERE.
Is it the pornification of culture because of the internet?
Yes, I think this has had the biggest impact, myself. I've accepted that I sometimes enjoy being sexually objectified. Not that I would ever participate in a GGW encounter, but still.
I hate when girls say they dress skanky/wear a lot of makeup/fuck a lot of guys because they're "owning their sexuality." I've seen many of these girls in action. 99% are not "owning their sexuality" and they're certainly not feminists. They're dressing/acting like this to get attention of douchey guys who just want to fuck them.
After seeing college boys in action, I could NEVER understand why ANYONE would try so hard to impress them.
"when did female sexual emancipation become not about pleasing ourselves, but about pleasing men?" For some girls it's always about pleasing others and attention, wrapping it up in feminist packaging just gives them a barricade to stand behind, when the insults start flying.
They called it Girls With Low Self Esteem for a reason.
Too depressing.
Honestly, I think a lot of this has to do with MTV and other media outlets who basically created this hybrid woman who is only interested in fake tans, boobs and hair. Real World Las Vegas and Britney coincided and Las Vegas was where it all went downhill. MTV realized they got more ratings with chicks making out then they did with "true stories". Insert frat culture, where girls are not only encouraged but expected to "experiment" sexually for the enjoyment of males and you have girls now looking up to Heidi Montag and the Olly chicks. GGW videos are just another version of exploitation and its not feminism if you are being exploited.
Last night, I saw a flash of a quote from Tori Amos when Britney's video for "Hit me baby one more time" came out.
"That was the end of the female singer songwriter's."
Before her there was Sarah Mclachlin (i don't know how to spell that) Tori Amos, Liz Phair, and a host of other powerful women. I don't want to blame Britney on what is happening with this generation but at the same time that was a clear demarcation of the changing times of how women perceive themselves and what they are putting out in the world.
I'm seriously at a loss when it comes to how my peers 'own' their sexuality (not that I don't struggle with the concept myself).
All college-aged girls should have to read Naomi Wolf's Promiscuities and take a test on it after.
I think it's all a game of who can be the cattiest, most sexalicious girl in the group. It all comes down to an increased focus on turning EVERYTHING into a competition. I blame reality TV.
@ghanima: But "Families with Low Self Esteem?" Total rip.
For shame. For shame. *hangs head*
@misssgolightly: I have to amiably disagree with you here. I would say i (maybe more in the past few years than now) dress what you probably consicer 'skanky,' and i LOVE makeup so much that if i didn't want the career i have now i would have become a makeup artist, and i have certainly 'fucked' more guys than i can count on both hands and toes. And i am still in control of ME. I never felt that i allowed myself to be objectified, and if any situation ever felt like that i walked away from it (giving a serious piece of my mind in the process). I don't think your percentages are accurate and i resent them, to be honest.
Helen Mirren gave such a good summary in that interview you posted a couple of days ago:
"Being a sexual object is mortifying and irritating, yet it's giving you power--an awful power that you've done nothing to deserve, a powerless power. I think some young women fall in love with that power, and it's really objectifying."
When you first get boobs you notice the power, but it takes a lot longer for some people to figure out what a powerless power it is.
@Archetype: Brings me back to Avenue Q: "The internet is for PORN"
Truer words have never been sung by muppets on Broadway.
Oh heck, isn't it just going to take a long time to undo centuries (millenia?) of misogyny? Not that this isn't depressing.
It might be "owning your sexuality" but it's "losing your self-esteem" at the same time. It's your choice to act like a slut, but your choice can come back to haunt you, not just on DVD, but when you wonder why you can't meet men who respect you.
@SoleilMoonPie: me too. and i think the answer to most of jezebel jessica's questions is yes.
@misssgolightly: Dude, even when I was an 18-year-old girl in college hanging out with fraternity boys, I didn't get it either.
All this stuff makes me glad I was a teenager in the 1990s. It seems way too hard to be a teenage girl in today's cultural climate, when you are expected to be pornolicious before you've even had your period.
Although to be fair, the men MTV casts on the Real World today have experienced a similar decline. What I wouldn't for another Norman.
@Artful Slinger: No. It exists regardless of MTV and the other outlets. What they've done is give it an outlet.
I was talking about this with my bf the other day, basically, around the time when Britney Spears came out, everything started to go downhill.
Before Britney women in music actually played instruments, were talented and had something to say. You could turn on MTV and see Shirley Manson or Sarah McLachlan or Fiona Apple or whatever then Britney came out and it was all lifeless pop. We never recuperated from that one.
Ok maybe that example is a little too music-centric. But it's the truth. Obviously I am not saying Britney herself is at fault, but to me, she was what changed everything.
Now there's Kurt Cobain lyrics on converse being sold in stores and all I can think is that Revolution Girl Style Now is over and we lost.
Stupid Spoiled Whore Playset. Again, Trey Parker is a genius.
I blame the Britney/Christina/whoever else pop tarts for confusing a whole generation of young women about power and beauty. AND George W. Bush for confusing them about sex and virginity with all this abstinance B.S.
I am constantly using the Real World as a barometer for feminism, if not society as a whole. I remember awesome girls from seasons like Seattle (Janet! Lindsey!), and when I watched the very first episode of Vegas, I was sick to my stomach. There is definitely a generation of women missing that vital piece of self-love...or something. I wish I could put my finger on it, but the thought of raising a daughter someday into this kind of situation makes me frightened.
@elusya: we're on the same page, evidently.
I blame the parents of the girls who are taking it all off for the cameras, letting their kids watch these girls take it off and posting raunchy Myspace pics. As a parent, you should be on top of that sh*t.
First off, Entourage sucks and will be off the air soon, so bad example of how feminism has "failed," not that there's a "good" example.
Everyone wants to be a fucking celebrity, and we acknowledge that the best way to have a famous career is to be stunningly hot. So instead of reading some bell hooks or Betty Friedan, some girls go to the tanning salon or "work on their fitness" whilst the gym tv shows "Rock of Love."
But can I stress that this is SOME girls, as well as SOME guys. They represent the end of times and all that is shit in this world, so the media likes to concentrate on that.
@jewess: I was referencing the girls I've seen, obviously not all women.
I think you all have a point, but i also think that your perception is skewed. Where are you getting your facts from? 'The Real World' then as opposed to now? GGW?! Zoey 101?!?! Did 'The Real World' ever really represent you? It's television, people. GGW is a product to be sold, just like every single thing you see on tv. Stop looking at the TV and start meeting ACTUAL girls. I had the pleasure of speaking to a class of female college students recently and i thought they were all lovely girls-- sure some were dressed in 'provocative' clothing... but so was I, I suppose! The 'things aren't what they used to be' argument has been done so many times it's a parody of itself at this point.
@peliroja: The last great Real World was Boston. Remember Montana? God that chick was awesome.
@JessicaLovejoy: Backstairsly: But if you do it without the cameras, it totally is! EVERYONE GET OVER HERE."
You know you're one of my heroines, right? You've earned that star.
I have no easy answer for this question.
The whole thing makes me feel really old, though.
We can't blame Britney either. Before her, there was Madonna, Stacy Q, Samantha Fox, the girl in the Warrant video...
I'll take the internet for $400, Alex.
Maybe it's a backlash from the serious, sensitive "90s" persona that people were supposed to take hold of. I think a lot of males and females found that to be difficult, and challenges, and so the media, and the consumer/citizen chose an easier route. That involves less brains, and more boobs.
Britney is a big part of it. That, and the fact that you can't even buy clothing for 5 year olds nowadays that doesn't include stupid suggestive messages or belly crop-cuts. We start them early, and then wonder why they are fucked up at 19.
@AthertonMerriweather: Yeah, but alongside those, we had the Go Go's, The Bangles, Lita Ford, Joan Jett, Blondie, Talking Heads, SHeila E etc etc. There was always a yin to the yang.
@pooradley: oh norman. *laments* i miss him.
@Lady Skittlehattington, Worsties Guild President: when richard hatch from the 1st season of survivor brought the word 'alliance' into the mainstream media lexicon, it was over. it became competitive and political at the same time. and ain't it funny? that asshole is now in jail for tax evasion. where's your alliance now, richard hatch!?
@AthertonMerriweather: Hehehe, the Warrant video.
@ineffable.me: I think of it in a more cyclical manner, myself. Processed cheese MUST be on the decline, especially as the music industry is shifting. Right?
I actually resent someone saying "that is NOT feminism." I hate GGW, don't get me wrong, and the behavior makes me uncomfortable. But in large part I think of feminism as fluid and personal.
Also, I would never never NEVER say that 'this is the world that feminism has wrought'. Ever. It's a world that feminisim has been determinedly chipping away at and trying to change. And that is NOT the same thing.
I hate articles that say 'feminism has failed'. It ain't even started yet, baby! Look at today's news in Saudi Arabia, for pete's sake.
@frozenblueberries: Me too. I feel old as dirt.
It really fucking bothers me, though, to see young girls, teenagers, women throwing themselves at men in skanked-out clothing (or no clothing) or on these stupid video commercials, or making out with their girlfriends because it's what they think guys want to see. If this is how you own your sexuality, I don't want to own mine. I will sell it on eBay.
@AthertonMerriweather: Yes, but Britney's bullshit "virgin" nonsense made her acceptable to America, because she was "pure" in the eyes of the public (bullshit) and therefore, everyone's daughter's could be overtly sexual but still virginal and everyone would be happy.
TheGuvnah can say this better that I can, but it's about girl power versus feminism. At some point, the interpretation became that surgery and Girls Gone Wild was the only way you could own your sexuality; and it was justified as being about self confidence. In reality, it's not. It's still commodifying yourself for the male gaze.
And the cast of The Real World absolutely represents that.
i grew up watching "the real world" and being exposed to the realities of everything from race relations to abortion to HIV/AIDS. it's sad that somewhere between ruthie's battle with alcoholism in hawaii and the las vegas season's sexcapades, i completely lost interest along with the country's innocence.