I Don't Have Cable.

Being a financially struggling college student, I do not have the luxury of entertainment that cable TV provides, even so, I was unable to escape the influx of social media’s response to this years Oscars, also known as the #FeministOscars.

Reece Witherspoon showed her support of the #AskHerMore campaign, which aims to encourage journalists to ask female celebrities questions beyond just what they are wearing, as they would with any male celebrity.  Steve Carell and Jake McDorman wore #HeForShe cufflinks, which is a campaign started by Emma Watson to promote gender equality. Patricia Arquette used her acceptance speech to say, “It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the United States of America.”  In immediate response to Arquette, Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez loudly cheered her on in agreement.

Typically, I tend not to give much thought to these events, but having read Chapter 6 of Staiger’s Bad Women, there seems to be somewhat of a connection.  In Chapter 6, Staiger talks about the 1915 film, A Fool There Was. Although Elinor was not as intriguing as the Vamp to moviegoers back in 1915, I found Staiger’s discussion of her role the most inspiring. In the film, Elinor is seen as representing the New Woman’s position as opposed to the Traditional Victorian women.  She advocates that Kate divorce her husband, as well as calls out the two leading male roles for their double standards on women. In other words, she doesn’t take crap from men. Having a character advocate such progressive ideas in 1915 is shocking to me and I was confused as to what the director’s intentions were with such a character. Then I remembered a quote from Chapter 4 by Alice Guy Blaché that I believe does a nice job at explaining why it was important that this character be in the film.  Blaché says, “by shutting our eyes against the evils that exist in this world, we will not succeed in eliminating those evils. They exist and will exist, and the more we talk about them, the more they are discussed, the more apt are we to correct them. Hypocrites and the ‘I am holier than thou’ element are not the kind who help society.” I completely agree with Blaché.  Exposure plays a huge roll in acceptance and tolerance, and when there is no exposure, society cannot progress towards a greater good.  Therefore, the presence of Elinor in the film exposed the audience to a new way of thinking about the role of women in marriage, even if it wasn’t the accepted version at the time. The use of media, I strongly believe, is the number one way to expose a significant amount of people to an issue within society, and get them talking. Case in point, the Oscars. These female and male actors took it upon themselves to use their fame and the event to address an issue lurking in society, equality for women. Their actions have sparked the discussion of equality, which, like Blaché stated, will cause society to become more willing to make changes in the, hopefully near, future.

Even though I do not think that all forms of media need to address or expose a particular issue, I am left wondering if those that do, stand out better than those that do not?