I woke up this this
By Faith Taylor
In the media, women are portrayed as the weak ones, the ones who aren’t as good as men, and the ones who use their looks instead of talent to get farther. Even if a woman does not have one of those labels, she probably has one that is used because people can’t admit that she is talented and successful. But those assumptions are wrong, and most women are realizing it. More women are starting to speak out about feminism and how women should be treated equally.
Beyoncé is one of the most powerful women in the media today; her music empowers women of all ages around the world. Her fifth album Beyoncé includes many tracks that explain how society wants us to be and how society wants us to act a certain way but it is more important to love who we are. “Flawless”, the eleventh track on the album, includes a piece of the feminist speech by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that points out how men get treated more fairly when it comes to relationships and jobs. Women get paid less than men and they tend to be respected less. Women earn only 77 cents for every dollar that men earn, African American women earn 68 cents, and Latinas only earn 58 cents (Huffington Post). People can sometimes think that a woman having a high position is a joke, saying things like, “women are too emotional and weak”.
When women performers become very popular they get the excuses such as, “they are only popular because of their looks/their boyfriend/their family”. Even if a woman got her start because of an advantage, talent is still a main factor in her success. If a woman is popular and flaunts her body and is comfortable with her sexuality, she’s a slut. Slut-shaming is used to belittle any woman who is comfortable with her sexuality, but if a woman isn’t comfortable people will call her a prude.
People would rather read articles in magazines about girls fighting rather than supporting each other. Most of these fights are rumored to be over males and not topics such as album sales or movie roles. Recently, Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift are rumored to have stopped being best friends because Selena is dating Justin Bieber again. Even if two women are fighting, those articles shouldn’t overpower positive articles about women. One of the newest animated Disney movies Frozen has a strong female friendship unlike what most viewers are used to. With that movie Disney has changed the way people view female friendships, changing them from obsessing over boys to caring about each other’s feelings.
Instead of singing the clichéd pop songs, the UK girl group Little Mix sings about empowering younger women and being confident in oneself. The girls inspire teenagers and provide them with appropriate role models. Women shouldn’t be portrayed the stereotypical way they are in the media today, they should be portrayed as the individual, strong women that they really are.