Does This Bike Come in Pink?

Thank you, Tonya Krouse, for participating in our blog. Your straightforward description of the stages of Feminist theory cleared up many misunderstandings concerning the theory.

Originally, I would never consider myself a feminist. This is not due to stereotypes. I would not consider myself a feminist because although I often analyze media and art in the feminist criticism I do not attempt to politically change cultural and social ideas surrounding gender. I am concerned with the way women are portrayed in the media but do not protest the media as a result of my concern. I suppose I would consider myself a feminist if it were to follow the general definition of what it is to be a feminist: someone who believes women should have equal rights.

As far as the question of who can “do” feminist theory, I believe any person has the ability to participate in the theory. To do feminist theory “is to embrace a certain kind of identity as a thinker” (Krouse). This to me means someone who watches the Real Housewives of Orange County while realizing the ways in which the role of women play out in relation to their husbands. Instead of watching this T.V. show with a certain kind of blindness only for entertainment, the feminist critic would be concerned with the implications of the role of women according to Bravo and the producers of the show and the negative impacts those implications would result in in the viewer’s lives.

Postfeminism offers a different interpretation of The Real Housewives of Orange County. Instead of becoming concerned about the role these women play in the show (dramatic women who shop with their husbands credit cards for a living,) Postfeminists relish in the “new” version of the housewife, a sassy woman empowered through her acquired fortune who can decide to order take-out instead of slaving over the oven all day.

Unfortunately, I feel that this is the way the media is being portrayed lately. After watching the first five minutes of The Real Housewives last night, I had to leave my house because I was disgusted when a wife asked a salesman if a particular Harley Davidson motorcycle model her elderly husband was buying her was a “girlie” bike. Let’s just say that after watching it I couldn’t breathe another minute near the television.