Feminism is an issue that has been around for a long time. When talking about the health and awareness of how women are perceived, it has certainly shifted over the years, but the physical emphasis remains. Women are still seen as no more important than their physical attributes. The prettier, the more leverage they have in the world, or so the media makes it seem.
Although this is portrayed more often than not, there is also an intellectual aspect that is often overlooked. Thinking about the iconic Hermione Granger from Harry Potter, she is very knowledgeable and gets her trusty pals Harry and Ron out of some sticky situations because of what she knows. Although she is clearly the smartest in any situation, she is also portrayed as a know-it-all and can come off as annoying. Because of this, it has a bad connotation as the only girl in the trio of friends.
This is also clear in the classic Scooby-Doo cartoons. There is Velma, who is witty and knows a lot about what is going on. She is the one who crunches the numbers and creates the best plan for the group. She sports an orange sweater that hides her features and big black glasses. Neither of which is the normal “hot girl” look. In comparison to Daphne, her outfits complement her features well, and she is known as the pretty one of the group. She is also the one who has a boyfriend, Fred. Not Velma, who is the knowledgeable one, but Daphne, who is the pretty one. This is showing younger girls that being pretty is more important than being intelligent because being pretty gets the reward of a man.
As explained in Sellnow’s Feminist Perspectives chapter, “Popular culture critics who examine how mediated texts negatively stereotype men with feminine traits and women with masculine traits.” In Scooby Doo and Harry Potter, the smarts attribute is given to the women as described. Although there are many movies with smart men, they often come in a nerdy fashion, such as Person of Interest, Finch, who is the brainiac with glasses and a limp, and is not seen in a more masculine role, such as Mr. Reese, who is the muscle of the operation.
In both Harry Potter and Scooby Doo, the ones deemed smart are also attributed to women's roles. There is something to be said that this is not an unusual thing for a woman to be the voice of reason or the smartest and calmest in a situation.
A question to ponder on is, how can the awareness of feminism and the effect it is having on the youth of today be increased, and is there any hope for this new generation to create more equality both in the media and in real life?
Your blog makes a good point about how smart females characters are often treated diffrently than pretty ones. I like how you used Hermione from Harry Potter and Velma from Scooby-Doo as examples. Both characters are clearly the smartest in their groups and often solve the biggest problems yet they are labeled as annoying or overlooked because of it. Meanwhile, charachter like Daphne are rewarded more for their looks than their intelligence, which sends a message that being pretty matters more than being smart.
ReplyDeleteYour point connects well to feminist ideas about how media values women. Even when women are shown as intelligent, that trait often comes with social downsides. This can affect how young viewers see themselves and what they think is important.
One question your post raised for me is: how can media show smart women as both respected and likable without turning intelligence into a flaw?