For decades, movies like “Mean Girls” and “Barbie” have been trying to capture the reality of being a woman while showing feminism in a positive light. Unfortunately, many times feminism as a whole is misrepresented. As a result, many students have noticed the rise of harmful stereotypes toward feminism and how the definition of feminism has continued to evolve, especially through popular movies and the media.
Junior Jo Ann Smith believes that categorizing people as feminists misrepresent the people and their cause.
“I think it (words meant to describe feminists) makes a lot of feminists sound really angry, and it gives them a bad rap for being very aggressive, like believing that women are the best when it’s not like that,” Smith said. “The truth is, feminists are just there to support themselves and each other. It’s not like we’re going against men because that’s what a lot of people twist it into.”
According to Yahoo Entertainment, 19% of the “Barbie” movie viewers say the movie will negatively impact girls, while 27% say it will positively impact both girls and women because of the way feminists are portrayed throughout the movie. Senior Rianna Neimann expressed that the negative connotations around being a feminist are caused by people being uncomfortable with change and not fully understanding what the word entails.
“I think that obviously it goes back to the patriarchy and the deep history of women in America just being in a lower class and men being the providers and everything and now women wanting to have a seat at the table and to be seen as equals in the workforce, for example,” Neimann said. “It threatens a lot of men and people in general just because it’s something that they haven’t seen before, and we can see with history that anything that’s new and different scares people.”
The “Barbie” movie’s main themes revolve around a woman’s assigned place in the world, how the patriarchy forces women into stereotyped boxes and the importance of women fighting against the stereotypes.
Smith added that an open mind is crucial when watching movies with themes of feminism, like “Barbie,” because otherwise, viewers will not see the positive messages.
“I think if you start out against feminism and then you go watch ‘Barbie,’ you’re obviously going to think like, ‘Oh, all these man haters, they just want to take down the male reputation and they don’t want equality. They want women on top,’ when that’s not the case,” Smith said.
Smith feels that it will be difficult for movies to be able to capture today’s idea of feminism because it has taken on so many new meanings, and everyone has a different perspective and opinions on what feminism is or should be.
“I think it’s a hard thing to capture the whole idea of because everyone has their own voices and their own opinions, and there’s so many aspects that go into feminism, like abortions and the pink tax. When a feminist is talking about that, they take it as a whole political topic when it shouldn’t be political. It should be about equality,” Smith said.
Neimann added that even though it is difficult for movies to capture feminism and what it is like to be a woman in today’s society, it is still important for younger girls to begin to understand who they are by seeing themselves represented.
“We can see in psychological studies, it’s very important for people to see themselves in media and feel represented so that they have more self-confidence, and they feel like they do belong in different areas,” Neimann said.
Neimann understands that education in movies directed toward feminism is important, and she feels that it will help erase harmful stereotypes and beliefs about feminists, especially through popular movies that many young girls and women alike can watch and relate to in some way.
“Education towards feminism is a big part of it,” Neimann said. “A big piece of misinformation that’s found is that women are trying or feminism is trying to have women be above men, which isn’t the case. We’re just trying to fight for equality with feminism.”