From the beginning of time, sexism has become a prominent social justice issue. With this, became the rise of the feminist movement. Beginning in the early 1970s, feminist movements were tackling things such as job discrimination, women's acceptance into academia, and beginning the initial stages of challenging the status quo on gender relations. With the efforts of those women before us society has come a long way, however, the sexism still is thriving. Instead of sexism being eradicated as most presume, it has camouflaged itself in our society. This new breed of sexism, enlightened sexism, is a term developed by author Susan Douglas in her book The Rise of Enlightened Sexism. Enlightened sexism simply means women are presented with a false sense of choice and power. This misconception is a modern way not only to profit off of young girls and women but to reinforce gender norms and discrimination in new ways. Enlightened sexism, which is greatly embedded by our media, is hard to escape and disguises itself as progressive, when in fact it is digressive. This book by Douglas, as well as the book Pushout by Monique Morris, have demonstrated and analyzed many examples of enlightened sexism that faces young girls and women. Enlightened sexism has taken over media in the form of the television show Beverly Hills 90210, amongst black female rappers, in rap songs danced to at high school homecomings, and in the daily lives of young sex workers.
Enlightened sexism has been able to thrive because of the growing importance of the media in our society. With the widespread influence of the latter, the former is able to grow alongside it. Douglas describes that the enlightened sexism phenomenon has started to demonstrate its importance only recently, since the early nineties. This began with the television show, Beverly Hills: 90210. The show captured the lives of rich white teenagers in Beverly Hills and their shenanigans. However, this show is a profound example of enlightened sexism because of the way it depicts success for young girls. Douglas explains this in her book by saying: “So 90210 was an important early building block of enlightened sexism because it insisted that the true, gratifying pleasures for girls and their real source of power came from consumerism, girliness, and the approval of guys” (Douglas 60). The show was extremely important in jumpstarting a false sense of power and choice in young female viewers. The show 90210 had female characters that had immense wealth and conformed well to society's beauty standards of whiteness, ultra-femininity, and barely natural body shapes. The competition amongst the female characters for male attention would then give the official “approval stamp” to these characteristics of enlightened sexism. 90210 then gave its viewers the notion that power is directly influenced by the amount of wealth one has and how pretty one is according to male standards of beauty. Since the characters in the show achieved all of these “necessary” requirements to be powerful, the show also depicted a false sense of feminism. However, when the viewers begin to emulate the characters of 90210, they are participating in everything opposite of feminism. The notion that in order to have power, a woman must have money and follow the strict rules to be beautiful only oppresses women, thus making it enlightened sexism. The shows impressionable audience believes that achieving these goals will free them of sexism and promote power amongst other women when it really is the exact opposite. The only people who benefit from this are people who benefit off of consumerism and men, even though these two groups often will intertwine with each other. While these people gain more power and money, women are applying more pressure on themselves to become free women, when in reality they become a figment of enlightened sexism.
Enlightened sexism is also very prevalent in the music that we listen to every day. Although all women are subject to being objectified by lyrics, black women seem to be brunt of the harsh words said in rap and hip-hop songs. Throughout the history of music, black women and their bodies have been exploited by rap culture. While rappers talk endlessly in their songs about “hoes and bitches”, there is almost always one or more black women in the music video dancing alongside him half naked. However, the nineties brought a wave of black female rappers trying to reclaim the profanities that objectified them. Douglas comments on this in her book by saying: “In one of her more talked about photos, Lil’ Kim appeared on the cover of Interview magazine in 1999 wearing nothing but a Louis Vuitton leather hat and Vuitton insignia stamped all over her body. You say we’re obsessed with high-end consumer goods and sex? Well, here you go, in your face” (Douglas 180). Black female rappers acknowledged the fact that they are sexual beings that loved living the glamorous lifestyle. So the logic goes as: if you can say it, why can’t I? Black female rappers were trying to make a statement about their sexual identity and also trying to show that it is ok to be a sexual being. Sexually charged lyrics coming from their songs presented itself as empowerment because female rappers now had the “choice: to say what they want and become comfortable in their own skin. However, at what cost for black women? The debate over enlightened sexism, in this case, is not necessarily targeting Lil Kim or other black rappers in general, but their black audiences. When these female rappers become oversexualized gems, instead of promoting empowerment, they promote the very stereotype they are trying to protest. This just furthers the degrading narrative of rap lyrics about black women. In addition to this, young black girls idolizing a false notion of sexual freedom. These young girls are being taught by rap culture that it is ok to be extremely sexual and to be your man’s “bitch”. They are being taught what is a sexy way to behave and dress in bed instead of being taught important things about sex, such as sexual agency. This phenomenon is also an example of enlightened sexism because young black girls are being presented reasons why it is ok to fulfill stereotypes of sexualization as if it is a choice or sense of empowerment. However, this only hinders black girls by digging them deeper into a hole of sexual generalizations.
The objectification of black women does not solely just come from rap culture, but many other societal influences as well. These many societal influences that pressure black women to be evolved sexual beings from a young age drive many young black girls into the sex industry. This is very common amongst young black girls coming from poor areas, who feel that using their body is an easy and fast way to finance their way out of a bad situation. The testimonies of young black girls who become sex workers are well documented in the book Pushout by Monique Morris. Many of these girls come from areas whose school districts do not adequately take into consideration the circumstances of their students and punish them for it. As a result, school becomes a goal too far away and using something like sex, becomes a skill used to financially support themselves. In the book Pushout, young girls explained why they turned to sex work instead of attending school. The book details this decision by saying: “Along with “working” came an immediate gratification of material goods that otherwise seemed far out of reach–hair and nails done, new shoes or clothes, and in some cases a much better learning environment. Staying in school, even if it could produce these things later in life, required a longer investment of time in order to reap these sort of benefits” (Morris 98). Again, these girls believed that they felt the power to use their bodies for transactional purposes. They felt like the decision they were making was beneficial and solely was based around their “power” in the situation. Since the girls are not in school, they have more time to work, which then gives them monetary power that they would not have if they are going to school. However, like the other examples, this choice does not stem from the power within like the girls believe it does. Instead, the choice to sell their bodies is hindering the girls in their potential for success. Although sex work is an instant relief of the financial burden, it is something that the girls cannot do forever. Also, the girls are exposed to diseases and unhealthy relationships with their “pimps” and other men they are working for. The false power high is only in that moment, while the degradation of character will continue. This is an example of enlightened sexism because this choice exposes them to a harmful future, despite the instant gratification. The choice to engage in sex work and not go to school complicates their path to a steady and healthy lifestyle. Society puts external pressures on the girls to pursue materialistic goods, while they cannot afford to do so with their financial circumstances. So, in order to achieve this “ideal” lifestyle, the girls sacrifice school to eradicate the financial burden. Thus, the decision the girls make only benefits a patriarchal society, and not themselves. The men that are their pimps are able to keep a hold on the girls and control their money, while the men they work for can fulfill their fetishes when they take advantage of these, young girls. To add to this, those at the top of these companies who chose what's in style also benefit greatly by forcing materialism to be a priority over education. In the end, enlightened sexism has plagued the lives of these young girls greatly, and has further enforced the role of patriarchy in young girls lives.
Although enlightened sexism has been described well in the books; The Rise of Enlightened Sexism and Pushout, I have seen examples of enlightened sexism in my work with high school girls through the Gender Consciousness Program. For this specific session, I wanted the group to focus on ways we participate in our own oppression, not just analyzing oppression as outsiders. This was around the time of homecoming, so I asked the girls what are some songs that everyone got excited about at the dance. In my experience, the songs that everyone would get most excited about were the most vulgar ones because they would expect the adults to ban the song. However, there would always be one song that would slip through the cracks. We made a list of many songs, and we chose to dissect the most popular one: I’ll Take Yo Man by the City Girls. The City Girls are an up and coming rap duo that combines Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown’s sexuality and vulgarity and maximizes that by one thousand. The song talks about how other women should not mess with The City Girls because the punishment will be that “they will take your man”. They justified this notion by exclaiming how their sexual appeal was superior and that they would be willing to fight if you had a problem with that. In our session, we took away the catchy beat and had the girls read the lyrics word for word as if they were reading a story aloud. Many of the girls felt so uncomfortable and embarrassed with reading the lyrics out loud, but all of them had sung this song before. We identified the many problematic elements of the song such as the use of the word hoe, the strong implication of violence, and the concept of competition over men. We all were able to identify how these were wrong and set back the unity of women, and also could provide examples of these concepts in our everyday life. Pleased with the progression of the girls thinking, I asked them would the still sing the song after today’s discussion, and all of the girls said yes. Even after all of the negative connotations we discussed, the girls felt that because they are “not like” The City Girls, and that they would never actually do those kinds of things, that they are not actually fulfilling the stereotypes discussed in the song. The believed that because they were above that behavior, that they had a choice to sing it. They told me how when the song comes on and they are with their friends, its fun to dance to the beat and vibe to the catchy lyrics of the song. Despite their now raised consciousness on the lyrics, the song was still catchy and the beat was still funky, so it was still worth singing along to. Due to their personal beliefs and values, they felt that they were superior to other women. So, since they did not let the lyrics define who they were, they did not understand how they were participating in their own oppression. This was difficult for me to address because I too know the song, its problematic lyrics, and have sung it at parties. I believe that even though I would like to think that I am free from my own oppression, I still subconsciously participate in my own oppression by endorsing these songs as acceptable. At that moment, I was skating on thin ice with being a hypocrite but also trying to teach the girls how endorsing the song was damaging to the feminist movement. This is also an example of enlightened sexism because the girls felt like that because they were not “combative” or “sexual” like The City Girls portrayed themselves to be, they had the power to sing the song and it has no effect on them. However, this logic is completely the opposite of feminism. First, the fact that the girls felt that they obtained some form of power by not acting a certain way is degrading towards the artists of the song because it establishes a notion that there is only one way that a woman can act. The feminist movement becomes lost when women become competitors instead of sisters. Secondly, even though the lyrics might not affect their behavior in a certain way, they still endorse the problematic message of the song by playing it and hyping it up to be acceptable. Once we start singing songs like this and making them popular, we make it socially acceptable for others to say such hurtful things to and about women. Also, we further contribute to the success of the people who write, produce, and sing these songs. The more we eat up such sexist rhetoric, the more the media will continue to make sexist content. Thus, the girls don’t really have such power to pick what makes them oppressed when they feel like it. This makes them complicit to the enlightened sexism phenomenon.
As both books have demonstrated, enlightened sexism is all around us and it can be hard to recognize. From television shows, music, and everyday life choices enlightened sexism is manufactured to resemble a sense of power for women. Due to this, women might feel as though they are free from the threat of sexism when really the choices we make set back the feminist movement. We see this example with the television show Beverly Hills: 90210, where it is expressed that female power comes from the things you have and how pretty you are based on society's standards. This is also shown with female rappers like Lil Kim, who decide to embrace the vulgar stereotypes embraced on black women. This might seem to be liberating for black women, but it is just furthering the harmful stereotypes the black women are subjected to. In addition to this, young girls in underdeveloped communities turn to sex work because they feel empowered by the short-term monetary gain. However, this is really more harmful to these young girls because their future is damaged. Lastly, we unconsciously participate in enlightened sexism by endorsing degrading media because it is “catchy or fun”. Sexism is an issue that has faced women for years, and it had morphed into something hard to point out. How can we combat this?