No matter how many protests they had or how many new laws were enacted, women could not win the battle for equal rights. In the 1960s and 1970s, women still struggled to break free from their traditional roles in society. Most would view women as objects, and inferior to men in every way. For that reason, the Women's Liberation Movement used the Miss America Pageant to protest male oppression and racism. They viewed the contestants in the pageant to be perfect examples of women being treated at "things." They also fought for the rights of other races because the pageant had discouraged nonwhite contestants from entering. The women tried to prove their point when, "They threw away bras and girdles, tore up an issue of Playboy magazine, and shouted 'Liberation Now!'"(Women's Liberation Movement). By throwing their undergarments away, I believe they were showing their strength in that they weren't just there to look a certain way. They wanted to be noticed for their feelings and opinions, so they were throwing away the objects that enhanced their physical appearance. Along with that, ripping up pictures in the Playboy magazine demonstrates the same idea as women being seen as objects, not humans. It shows women acting a certain way in order to please others-typically men. They were not allowing the ideas of the female be heard, but just being used for their physical attraction. By ripping up the magazine they are making it away that they will not be used for entertainment, but to finally let their voice be heard throughout their whole community. During this time, government hired very few women as professionals. At Universitites, only ten percent of the faculty included women, and although women mainly made up most of the staff at elementary schools, very few were the principal or superitendent.
Berkeley, Kathleen C., The Women's Liberation Movement in America, 1999; Hoff, Mark, Gloria Steinem: The Women's Movement, 1991; McQuiston, Liz, Suffragettes to She-devils: Women's Liberation and Beyond, 1997.
Women's Liberation Movement
I thought it was intersting to see how pageants showed that women and men were not equal. Women showed a strong character when they threw away their bras because it shows as you said, that women did not want to be identified by their appereance, but their feelings and thoughts and did not want to be seen as objects, but as humans. I thought that what you wrote about was very interesting and it shows how men and women were obviously not treated fairly.
ReplyDelete