Teaching the Conflicts: (Re)Engaging Students with
Feminism in a Postfeminist World
by Meredith A. Love and Brenda M. Helmbrecht
What happened to the dreams of a girl president
She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent
They travel in packs of two or three
With their itsy bitsy doggies and their teeny-weeny tees
Where, oh where, have the smart people gone?
Maybe if I act like that, that guy will call me back
Porno Paparazzi girl, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
Baby if I act like that, flipping my blond hair back
Push up my bra like that, I don't wanna be a stupid girl
—Pink, "Stupid Girls"
If representational visibility equals power, then almost-naked young white
women should be running Western culture.
—Peggy Phelan, Unmarked
There is no question that the work of feminists has benefited the daily
lives, health, and financial status of many American women. In fact, some
women's lives have been so improved that today's younger generation of
women may not even know that "we've come a long way, baby" and, perhaps
even more importantly, that we still have a long way to go. Even pop culture
icons themselves, such as the musician Pink, recognize the current state
of gender politics, lamenting the fact that young women today are more
concerned with what they need to do and buy to maintain their image than
they are with the positions of power they could someday hold.
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