Tuesday 20 April 2010

"enlightened sexism"

and yet another cracker interview by kathryn ryan (nine to noon, 9.40am). this time she's talking to susan j douglas of the university of michigan about the latter's new book entitled "enlightened sexism". it's a good discussion of the portrayal of women on television and the media.

because i'm at work and busy, i'll just copy the blurb from the radio nz page:

Susan J Douglas, professor of Communications at the University of Michigan, columnist and author. She argues that the media is increasingly resurrecting sexist stereotypes of girls and women because of an assumption that feminism's work has been done. She calls this "enlightened sexism" - which she says is a new subtle form of bias, that brings back sexist and shallow images of women in the media, all with a wink and a laugh.

Susan J Douglas' latest book points out that women in general are still paid much less than men, and still battle that glass ceiling which still sees men in most of the top jobs: Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message That Feminism's Work is Done (2010)

3 comments:

AnneE said...

For a truly appalling example of how happy the media are to promo crippling new forms of femininity, see my new Elsewoman post on the SST article about botoxing to reduce leg muscles.

Violet said...

They also call it post-feminism, which sounds way cooler than it is eh?

Megan said...

There was also the Kim Hill interview with Natasha Walter on Saturday: http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/20100417