The soft war against women

[seabeyond]

We stand today at a crossroads. In a time of economic crisis, with men fearful for their jobs, with an aging population that will need the care that women have traditionally given, with a popular culture and its new technology sexualizing women to a degree perhaps never seen before, and with female political candidates who oppose many of the rights women have fought for gaining political acceptance, it is a dangerous time. Beneath the shiny veneer of the “You Go Girl!” message is a more sinister reality. The culture is becoming extremely hostile to feminism’s goal of equality between the sexes. The new “soft” war against women is less a frontal assault than an ongoing, and very effective, guerrilla movement. Under a veneer of success, women are losing ground in a myriad of ways. While some high-profile women in politics or in corporate America are touted as “proof” of women’s power, across the board women are slipping backward. Women’s progress has not just stalled, in many ways it is being jammed into reverse. Once we thought that when women achieved a “critical mass” in the job market, when there were enough of them to make a difference, the whole work environment would improve. But progress has been slow. Some social scientists now believe that, in fact, “critical mass” is working the other way. Too many women are competition for men, and there’s a major pushback.

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But the mass media these days are totally uninterested in women’s problems. Men are the big story — and how women are harming them is nearly always the subtext. In fact, argues Andrew Hacker (in his book “Mismatch: The Growing Gulf Between Women and Men”), women’s achievements may diminish men’s self-confidence and even their masculinity. “We will soon see … how far self assurance associated with manliness can survive when each year sees more appointments and promotions going to the other sex.” Society is falling apart, the message goes, and you women, because of your unique caring natures, have to put it together again. Smart young women should desert high-paying jobs, and choose, instead, to concentrate on being the perfect mother, a hard job that will occupy all your time. If you do work, take a job that requires caring and helping, because that’s what you are good at. You are not made for risk or high-level leadership. You are naturally uncomfortable with power. (As Fortune asked rhetorically on its cover: “Power: Do Women really Want it?” The answer, according to many, is no. Women are happier in more traditional roles.

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A continuing hyper-sexualization of women and girls dominates the media and the culture. As critic Gail Dines notes, “Something has shifted so profoundly in our society that the idealized, pop culture image of women in today’s pornified world is no longer a Stepford Wife but rather a plasticized, scripted, hyper-sexualized, surgically enhanced young woman. The media world we live in today has replaced the stereotyped Stepford Wife with the equally limiting and controlling stereotype of a Stepford Slut.”

In October of 2010, Fraternity pledges at Yale chanted as they marched across the campus. This is what they shouted:

My name is Jack

I’m a necrophiliac

I fuck dead women

And fill them with my semen

No means yes

Yes means anal

(repeated)

Fuck al-Qaeda

Fuck al-Qaeda

(repeated)

Fucking sluts

Fucking sluts

(repeated)

USA

USA

So not even women at one of the nation’s most elite campuses can escape the growing contempt and threat of violence directed against females. The message of these chants is that women must be available to any male demand (even when they are dead) and that they are sluts who are equated with murdering terrorists in the eyes of their male fellow students. Some future media historian may refer to the present era as the Age of Pornography. Never before have there been so many images of women in sexual poses that are demeaning, violent and subservient. Clothing marketed to young teens today would only have been seen in the past on hookers or strippers. This hyper-sexualization of young women is taking a major toll, leading to severe mental and physical health problems. Some of these include risky sexual behavior, high rates of eating disorders, depression, low self-esteem, and reduced academic performance. In a 2007 major report on girls, the American Psychological Association found the media emphasizing young women’s sexuality “to a stunning degree.”

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According to the report, if girls learn that behaving like sexual objects earns them approval from society and from people whose opinions they respect, they may begin to “self-sexualize”; in fact, to become their own worst enemies as far as their health and well-being are concerned. Unfortunately, too many young women are unaware of this backsliding. Today, the battle for women’s rights has largely shifted from the legal, legislative area to a struggle for hearts and minds. Though legal battles remain, the messages that are creeping into women’s heads may be the most damaging. We are being persuaded to be our own worst enemies. The “soft war” is disturbing and pervasive but too little noticed. The many ways and the many arenas in which women are slipping behind are obscured by narratives about men failing (which some of them are, but not elite white men) and about the ways in which achievement can only bring women misery and pain. (And, by the way, destroy society in the process.)

http://www.salon.com/2010/11/07/caryl_rivers_soft_war/