Feminism

Feminism is a movement that has been hugely important in advancing our society to point now where we are closer to equality than ever before. In its essence, feminism is simply the fight for women’s equality. However, feminism can arm us with tools needed to help make the world more equitable. Learning about feminism and its values allows us to adopt a more critical lens while interacting with others in day to day life and when viewing media. Feminist scholars have studied how movies have increasingly shown women in a sexual manner and how higher ratings unfortunately seem to reflect this trend. This school of thinking has also helped to identify how media has reinforced stereotypical gender roles, which we are now easily able to identify and denounce today. Through feminism, black, female activists such as Jaqueline Bobo have been able to find a voice and discuss how black women in particular have been stereotyped and taken advantage of in media. Modern feminism has created a movement for media that has women in significant, leading roles which is certainly a change that is necessary to truly move toward equality.