THE DEMONIZATION OF FEMININITY ON THE MEDIA

Women as they grow out of their childhood are introduced to the idea of femininity in a positive light. Let that be through princesses, fairies, dolls, etc., but they have always taught us the same. Be feminine, and society will like you. That's until women grow to be teenagers and femininity starts to take a turn in the media. A few examples that come to mind are Regina George in Mean Girls, Sharpay Evans from High School Musical, Bianca from 10 Things I Hate About You, and Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl. What these characters have in common is that they often push one of these four storylines.

The first is the one where they are the mean girl, because society struggles to believe that two women who fit the beauty standards, are successful, and popular can co-exist without hating each other and it being a competition. Or worse, where they are depicted to be an airhead, because again, people have this idea that femininity can't be multifaceted, for some reason makeup and fashion cancels out math and science. Then there's the storyline where the character really doesn't have one, where she is a background character to the more appealing to boys and who could easily be “one of the boys” character. The last one, is the one where the character terrorizes the lives of men, and uses their femininity to lure people in, because again the media believes, that femininity is a weapon, and someone who is ‘good’, successful, and smart can’t like the color pink; pink in the media means weak, vulnerable, dumb, and often is associated with a lack of substance.

And while I'm not implying that there shouldn’t be the representation of women who aren’t as connected to their femininity, I think it's important to show that femininity does not make you weak or dumb, or any image that the media portrays. And even when the media shows strong characters who show femininity they downplay it by making the character be involved in a romantic storyline or be attractive in a way that's desirable for men, a clear example of this is Scarlet Johanson as Black Widow in almost every Avengers movie, or Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

This is just a quick glimpse into how hard it is for a woman to be socially accepted, because even when she is a tomboy, likes sports, and is involved in commonly “boyish” activities, if she wants to be loved, she has to suddenly become feminine, an example of this is Anne Hathaway in the Princes Diaries or Hillary Duff in A Cinderella Story.

There is no doubt that there is a double standard for women, but when you start to analyze how this applies to Hollywood, where women have to be pretty, but they are shallow if they care about their appearance, they have to be strong but are ‘bossy’ if they raise their voice, have a romantic life to be seen as stable but ‘emotional’ if they suffer heartbreak. And if a character is ultra-feminine they have to be evil and power-obsessed to somehow earn the respect of her peers.

The release of Barbie (2023) was so well received among women because they are not used to seeing someone on the screen who is feminine, but has drive and passion and is career-oriented, someone who can do things to make herself feel attractive and not be called shallow, someone who can be emotional and vulnerable without being called delicate. And there are movies and other content that show real femininity like Little Women where a woman can choose marriage and take care of her family and still be respected or a woman who chooses to pursue a career and not be isolated from love, or Legally Blonde (2001) where the ideology of being respected and have a career doesn't have to do at all with if you like the color pink or not. But just because there are a few movies that did a great job dismantling the misogynistic and stereotypical view of ultra-femininity doesn't mean that it should be allowed for other media to continue to be ignorant.