• Question: as a feminsist how do you think the media is affecting young women and girls? what do you think we can do about it?

    Asked by anon-215925 to Bogdana on 12 Jun 2019.
    • Photo: Bogdana Huma

      Bogdana Huma answered on 12 Jun 2019:


      That’s an excellent question. I think, broadly, we can see the media as having both positive and negative effects on young women and girls.

      On the one hand, the media are perpetuating gender inequality that is already existing in society. They offer a platform for sexism, misogynism, the objectifying of women and their bodies etc. So media can work as tool that reinforces and consolidates patriarchal structures (that is, relationships between genders whereby men are considered to be superior to women and thus have more power).

      On the other hand, media can provide a platform for us from where we can expose, and challenge these inequalities and ultimately change the society we live in. Take for instance websites like Everyday sexism or podcasts like The Guilty Feminist. These are spaces for women’s voices that we wouldn’t have been able to hear otherwise. Take the movement against sexual violence which gained visibility, materiality and a virtual space through hashtags such #metoo and #timesup. So there are ways in which media can help shed light onto the problems young women and girls are facing everyday.

      Now to your second question: what can we do about it? First, I think (and I hope I don’t sound like a pessimist) that there is no one-step solution. Changing society is a marathon not a sprint. I think it’s important to know that because, when we see that women still earn less than men, when we hear in the news about what’s happening in the US at the moment (women’t rights to decide about their own bodies are being rolled back) we might feel that there’s not way forward. So, I think what we can do, as individuals, is find one aspect that we can affect though our behaviour, one cause we strongly believe in, and work towards that. It might be intervening when our friends say something sexist, volunteering at a women’s shelter, giving money to a women’s charity, joining a women’s march, educating oneself and others about feminism. Every little step forward counts.

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