From my perspective, a male high school student in New Jersey, I’ve seen over shadowed by male power used for comedy. In the newspapers, almost all the businesses receive publicity have strong male leaders at the helm. This may because women are put at a disadvantage in society from the very start, for everything that surrounds them pounds the idea that any powerful position in this world is reserved for a man; however, people such as Hillary Clinton are making a major push to resurrect the pre-mentioned stereotype. Hillary Clinton is just one of the fixtures creating a drastic effect in society, but believe it or not there are feminists out there, unknowingly destroying everything Clinton has worked for.
If you looked at the activity of feminism today, many see a great decline in from what it had recently been. Since the beginning of time women were seen as inferior to men, and it couldn’t be more obvious from the writings in the earliest literature. The majority of women accepted this discrimination up until the early 1990’s century, when the 19th amendment was passed. This is arguably the single most important event for women (at least American women), for since that moment on they had the right to vote and equal rights. Unfortunately for women, equal never truly developed. Finally in the 1970’s women pushed for “real” equal rights. They were sick and tired of the discrimination and since the 70’s there has been a drastic change in how they are treated. So it’s not true that feminism is dying, it’s more that women have no other major accomplishments on the horizon, which in turn makes it appear that feminism is stagnant. look at this year’s presidential election, Hillary Clinton is the closest an American woman has ever come to working in the oval office.
Although they may be trying to make sure that women get in the news and remain equal to males, celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears are a train wreck headed off a cliff. As Hillary Clinton stands as a great role model for women today with all the she stands for, Paris and Britney couldn’t be any more different. They are always out late partying in skimpy outfits, quoted sounding like they have the education of an elementary school student, and constantly finding ways to run into trouble with the law. It almost seems as if T.V. hosts and comedians are paying them to do these things and create material to build their audiences. They send a message to the American public that says “Women need as much attention as men, and we will do what ever it takes to ensure equality remains!” (except there wouldn’t be a comma and a F.A.N.B.O.Y. in there since they surely both bombed English in high school and would consider a F.A.N.B.O.Y. to be a man who follows them around all day, and there is no way in hell that “ensure” exists in either of their vocabularies.) Barring the dreadful role models out there, there are obvious improvements in women’s lives from the influential feminist movement.
Macbeth: When Shakespeare wrote Macbeth, feminism was far from a powerful movement, for women were socially inferior to men and that role was accepted. Macbeth was a rarity as it puts a woman, Lady Macbeth, in a position of power. She is extremely influential in Macbeth’s actions; she wants to be the royal family so badly that in turn she convinces Macbeth to go on a killing spree. People who lived when this play was originally created must have said, “Man instructed by a woman!?! Be it a joke… Shakespeare a comedian?” (that’s my best impersonation of how people would talk then). The fact that PLAY contains something that was never introduced before makes this play that much greater and makes Shakespeare that much more of a legend.
References:
http://2facts.com/ICOF/temp/29882tempib501230.asp?DBType=ICOF
http://lostintheunknown.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/feminists-now-and-then/
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