Media Literacy and Feminism

Media Literacy and Feminism

Today we have more access to information than ever before. Advertising and media are constantly in the process of promoting and broadcasting information, products, and ideas. The influence television has on people all around the world is unimaginable. It has transformed popular culture and has been used in the last fifty years to broadcast ideas that have molded the way society thinks and acts. People are in a constant risk of receiving inaccurate information. Many female activist groups have expressed their concern and are addressing this issue by promoting media literacy in young women. But mature women are also at risk of receiving distorted information, and that is why it is important for them to be aware of the fact that media doesn’t always show things as they really are.

Television shows set in the 1950’s and 1960’s have become very popular in the last few years, especially with the success of the AMC’s Mad Men. ABC network decided to launch its own retro-show directed to a female audience, which aired on September 26th. This new series is called Pan Am, and it revolves around the iconic Pan American World Airways, which was the main international airline of the United States until its bankruptcy in 1991. The plot is set on the 1960’s during the so-called golden age of aviation, when flying and traveling was associated with luxury and power. The show talks about the lives of a group of flight attendants, referred to as stewardesses. It is currently a huge hit. The day it aired more than 11 million Americans watched

it.

In the video, the Pan Am stewardesses are shown as revolutionary and independent, they are even said to be a new breed of women. According to the show, these women were empowered and liberated because they decided not to get married and travel around the world instead. With just a quick look at the trailer of the show one can say that these women were true representations of feminism, but this is absolutely false. Being a stewardess in the 1960’s was one of the most sexist jobs of that time and the show addresses this topic poorly. Back then, stewardesses were simply paid to flirt and serve men. They had to be attractive, well educated, and unmarried. These women were even forced to resign if they ever got married or turned 32.

There are certain historical aspects that women need to be aware of when watching this show to prevent missinformation. This decade was tremendously important for feminist movements in the United States. In the late 1950’s, a new wave of feminism appeared, more commonly known as second-wave feminism. As Andi Zeisler indicates in her book Feminism and Pop Culture, feminist groups in those years “lobbied to change a patriarchal system by way of antidiscrimination laws, pay equity, and the election of women to public office” (49). Feminists stood against sexist jobs, pay gaps, and stereotypes. What the TV series presents to us as revolutionary and feminist was in fact everything that the feminist movement stood against. Many feminists held strong opposition to the requisites airlines like Pan American had for stewardesses. The National Organization for Women (NOW), which is one of the largest feminist organizations in America, made strong protests against all these airline policies. Important figures such as Betty Friedan, writer of The Feminine Mystique (fundamental element of second-wave feminism), got really involved in the fight against employment inequality in airlines.

Being critical about the information we receive from media is very important to avoid adopting and believing false things. In the last two decades, broadcasting companies and advertisers became aware of the power of feminism for attracting female public. Today, many ads, TV shows and movies are presented as feminist with the purpose of making money. Women need to be aware of these intentions and not believe everything they see. ABC’s Pan Am is an example of this phenomenon. We cannot forget that this TV network has also presented several shows recently that are considered anti-feminist, such as The Bachelor and Extreme Makeover, which makes no coherence at all with the way they are advertising Pan Am. TV has played an important role in feminism; it helped expand its ideals and reach a much broader public. But women today need to understand that many of the things presented by media as historical and feminist are actually not and that being well informed about these topics is critical. This doesn’t mean that true feminism has disappeared. Real feminism is still around and will be around for quite a while.

Geer, John G., Wendy J. Schiller, and Jeffrey A. Segal. "Civil Rights." Gateways To Democracy. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 136- 171. Print.

"Pan Am- Trailer-YouTube." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 17 May 2011. Web. 10 Oct. 2011.

< http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oVdLIvcNRE >

Zeisler, Andi. "Chapter 2: American Dreams, Stifled Realities." Feminism and Pop Culture. Berkeley: Seal, 2008. 49. Print.