April 1, 2005
Today's Fair Game
by Kelly Hicks
Despite the women's liberation movement and decades of feminist thought, the image of women in the media STILL holds up the mirror of legend and fairy tale -- the preoccupation with fairest of them all. Perhaps the most obvious example is the TV reality series presented by FOX last year, "The Swan," which fused make over with consumer make believe: given enough nip, tuck and plastic, even the ugliest stepsister can be crowned queen of the ball.
Embodying female flesh in these ways is disheartening and exploitative. Women's problems with body, food and desirability are an insidious outcome of message that dictates boundaries of flesh. But what imagery would woman adopt for herself?
This season we have the reality of "Wife Swap" and "Desperate Housewives;" neither do much to uphold higher ideals for the "fairest in the land." So, where has the collective female audience placed its "Mirror, mirror on the wall" as we turn over our adolescent daughters to Paris Hilton and or the Bachelorette for society's instruction?
A recent TV advertisement for a razor promises that a woman can become a goddess by using its product. However, I believe there is more to emergent femininity than a divine shave. The consciousness of the Goddesses that I adore has a lot to do with women taking back their constituent power as consumers.
The Founding Fathers expressed a consistent concern for the "uneducated masses" as they decided this country's constitutional values. Many of them subscribed to the doctrine of paternal command and believed that the only people fit to rule were white, male, elite and propertied "gentle men." While the privilege to vote has been extended to include minorities and "gentle women", how fair do we look as an engaged citizenry?
Can it really be true that several million single women didn't bother to vote in the presidential election of 2004 because they weren't even registered? While their fellow minority brothers and sisters waited in line for hours to do their civic duty because of the shortage of voting booths to accommodate them?
In today's moneyed political imagery, we are entrained to choose political leaders in the same way we await some supernatural occurrence to cleanse humans of their sins. Similarly, all the reality programming from tribal council, boardroom or stage is a direct assault on human integrity. All this emphasis on surviving and making-over depends on a profound mistrust of the flesh. But I believe another world is possible, AND a world where the divine feminine might want to return.
It's a world where we see life as inter-connected. Where we have learned to honor our bodies and the process of creation. It would be a world where both men and women find pleasure in healthy ways. A world based more on individual worth than the ethos of consumption. Where diverse ways are modeled and respected, and all men and women are seen as the remarkable species we are.
Kelly Hicks advocates for societal mental health. She is the author of the feminist novel, If She Were A Woman, available through AuthorHouse.com.