Intersectionality in Bamboozled Sloane Hopkins (assistant) Marginalized by being both black AND a...

Intersectionality in Bamboozled

• Sloane Hopkins (assistant)• Marginalized by being both black AND a woman• Had to sleep with Delacroix to get her job• Not takes seriously in meetings• Thomas Dunwitty white boss)ignores her pleas• Voice of reason in film

Angela Davis (Former Black Panther)

“Black teenage girls do not create poverty by having babies. Quite the contrary, they have babies at such a young age precisely because they are poor -- because they do not have the opportunity to acquire an education, because meaningful, well-paying jobs and creative forms of recreation are not accessible to them... because safe, effective forms of contraception are not available to them.”

Sexual Stratification• Intersectionality - the view that women experience

oppression in varying configurations and in varying degrees of intensity" (Ritzer, 2007, pg. 204).

• intersectionality experience within black women is more powerful than the sum of their race and sex (Kimberlé Crenshaw, 1989)

• ''Every time I embrace a black woman I'm embracing slavery, and when I put my arms around a white woman, well, I'm hugging freedom” Eldridge Cleaver (Soul on Ice. 1968)

Privilege• Unearned advantage

• Thomas Dunwitty -white man acts and talks like an urban black man

• Uses the word "nigger" repeatedly • Proclaims that he is more black than Delacroix and

that he can use nigger since he is married to a black woman.

• Almost all writers for a “black” show are white

Inequality reproduced• Media• White writers perpetuate myths • Show what whites want blacks to look like• Stereotypes include – wise cracking large

black women• Wise foolishcracking male http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ciwhh3fB6vE

• Gangsta Rapper http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7-TTWgiYL4

• What else? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C45g3YP7JOk

More examples• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcxYwwIL5zQ• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v19PpD5uqL0• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUYqwR1vc5Q

Social Stratification

• The representations of each class in characters

• Hierarchy in TV station: Sloan subordinate to Delacroix , Delacroix to Dunwitty and Dunwitty to “the boys upstairs”

• Inability to break from those roles – Delacroix has to get himself fired to break free

Oppression

• Raid by police of Mat-Tan’s home• Sleep and eat & Man-Tan not being allowed

into Delecroix’ office• Sloan being treated as unimportant• Eventual shooting of Mau Maus

Media’s role in stratification

• The Minstrel show itself• The fact all of the writers are white• Even the Mau – Mau’s don’t realize they are

being stereotypes

Social mobility

• Man-Tan & Sleep and Eat’s upward mobility is short lives and based on their willingness to ridicule themselves, become buffoons

• Sloan’s upward mobility based on sleeping with Delecroix

• Overlying message that Man-Tan & Sleep and Eat have “overstepped” their place and return to norm in tragic terms

Class Inequality

• The repetitions of each class• Lower (Man-tan, Sleep and eat squatting in

slum and dancing for change• Middle – Sloan’s reasonably small apartment• Upper – Delecroix’ outlandish loft

Stratification by gender (Gender inequality)

• Sloane Hopkins (again)• Compare her apartment to Delacroix• Started as INTERN (low paying – learn on the job)• For a woman to get half as much credit as a man,

she has to work twice as hard, and be twice as smart. (Charlotte Whitton)

• “Glass ceiling”

• “Men often perceive an attractive young lady as having to sleep with somebody in order to get to the top," (Sloan)

• Sloan: "It doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I'm intelligent maybe? Or have anything to do with the fact that I have drive?“

• Message of that scene, when coupled with her earlier argument with her brother, is that whether a black person is perceived as an upstanding "house nigger" or a scheming "field nigger" doesn't matter.

• Message of that scene, when coupled with her earlier argument with her brother, is that whether a black person is perceived as an upstanding "house nigger" or a scheming "field nigger" doesn't matter.

Racial inequality

• The entire context for the film:• Blacks only way out is by entertaining whites• Sports, music, entertainment industry and evnn in

those cases, they must play the role of the “good” blacks (look what happened to Ali)

• whitewashed shows that Delacroix was making before Mantan, to present very positive images of blackness (Bellamy, 2012)

• montage of stereotyped movie moments

Feminism

• Belief in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes.

• The movement organized around this belief.

Relevancy

• Feminism can be defined as a social movement and an ideology in support of the idea that a larger share of scarce resources should be allocated to women.

• Feminist believe that women should enjoy the same rights in society as men and that should share equity in society’s opportunities.

Feminism

• Feminist Theory is an outgrowth of the general movement to empower women worldwide.

• Feminism can be defined as a recognition and critique of male supremacy combined with efforts to change it.

Feminism

• The goals of feminism are:– To demonstrate the importance of women– To reveal that historically women have been

subordinate to men– To bring about gender equity.

Feminism• Feminists fight for the equality of women

and argue that women should share equally in society’s opportunities and scare resources.

History

• First wave feminism (1830 – 1930) - suffrage movements promoting women's right to vote

• Second Wave – Legal and social equality (Bette Friedan)

• Third Wave - women and girls as assertive, powerful, and in control of their own sexuality

First wave

• Suffrage movement (women should vote)• Often conservative Christians• Fought for right to divorce (men could/women couldn’t)• Blacks not permitted

History• 1917 Canada allows women to vote• 1920 U.S. women won the right to

vote. • Quebec 1940• Women still cannot vote in Saudi Arabia,

UAE, Brunei, Bhutan and Lebanon

Weber• Weber thought that women should be treated

equally in the social institution of marriage, along with all the other social institutions.

Second Wave• The contemporary feminism movement began in the

1960’s. – Free love helped escape the sexual double standard.– Divorce became commonplace– Women were “happy housewives” no more– Higher level employment and fulfillment outside the home

were becoming the norm

Second Wave• 1957, Friedan was asked to conduct a

survey of her former Smith College classmates

• Found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives

• Research for The Feminine Mystique, conducting interviews with other suburban housewives

Liberal Feminism• All people are created equal and should not

be denied equality of opportunity because of gender

• Liberal Feminists focus their efforts on social change through the construction of legislation and regulation of employment practices

• Inequality stems from the denial of equal rights.

Marxist Feminism

• Division of labor is related to gender role expectations.

• Bourgeoisie (bosses) =Men• Proletariat (workers/peons)=Women• All jobs became equal in communist states

Radical Feminism

• Sexism is the ultimate tool used by men to keep women oppressed

• Women are the first oppressed group• Women's oppression is the most widespread• Women’s oppression is the deepest

Radical Feminism

• Men control the norms of acceptable sexual behavior

• Refusing to reproduce is ultimate act• Do not take husbands name• Do not try to look good (for men)

Socialist Feminism• Views women’s oppression as stemming

from their work in the family and the economy (all about jobs)– An increased emphasis on the private sphere

and the role of women in the household– Equal opportunities for women in the public

sphere

• “Radical feminism argues women must create, at least initially, their own media environments where they can learn to speak freely and openly in their own language. Liberal feminism assumes specific changes within the existing system ultimately can achieve freedom of expression and equity for women.” (Steeves, 1987: p. 98)

Third wave

• Attempts to criticize order.• About reproductive rights, rape, sexism, AIDS • Rejects claim that only rational, scientific methodology

can lead to valid knowledge (using “I” in essays, informal, friendly academic writings).

• Realization that women are of "many colors, ethnicities, nationalities, religions and cultural backgrounds“ (2nd wave white middle-class women).

Third Wave• Looking to the past is no longer the way to

go. • We are a global economic world by

technology.• “Girl Power”

http://g4gyourebeautiful.blogspot.com/2012/01/girl-power.html

• Meant for girls to take charge of their sexuality• Mixed messages of hyper-sexuality• Media movement - Spice Girls• Co-opted by media (girl bands)• Little girls can be anything they want when they grow

up (Barbie)• Gets politicized – adapted by punks• Also associated to Riot Grrrl (video)

RIot

Grrrl

•Born out of Punk movement•Do It Yourself•Started in music•Went on to ZINES and then WEB-ZINES

•2nd wave challenged double standard: promiscuous man = stud – woman = slut•Take control of body:•2nd wave concerned abortion and birth control•3rd wave concerns rape, sexuality and sex as a tool

Backlash:Girls taught to flaunt sexuality at younger and younger age?

Recap

Porn and sex workers

• Some feminists FOR sex work as empowering• Some Against• Actual attitudes vary greatly – as individual as

people (no right answer)• Get into groups and come up with three reasons

FOR right to work unharrased and three against

• Good topic for Sociological study

Media affects women's perceptions

• Douglas Rushkoff‟s Merchants of Cool (1999): mass media seeks out an image of society which it in turn portrays as an image of society

• Pierre Bourdieu‟s (1993) notion of “Normative Reflexivity.” We live and learn our behaviour through the media

• Johansson (2007) we find gender relations and expectations through our negotiations with media representations

Dorothy E. SmithSchooling

• Lack of issues concerning girls and women in schooling

• Universities and colleges have incorporated successful programs, but public schools have not

• Would like to see a change to allow girls a larger say in school dynamics

Patricia Hill CollinsBlack Feminism

• Outside within status of black slaves• Black feminism by black women clarifying

standpoint for and of black women• Three key themes in black feminism:– The Meaning of Self-Definition– The Interlocking Nature of Oppression– The Importance of African-American Women’s

Culture–Gender, race, and class are interconnected– Society has attempted to teach black women

that racism, sexism, and poverty are inevitable

Carol GilliganSocial PsychologyDevelopmental Theory

• Masculine bias is everywhere• Human moral development comes in stages:• Orientation to Individual Survival (young children)• Goodness as Self-Sacrifice (Conventional Morality)– Defined by ability to care for others

• Responsibility for Consequences of Choice– Choice and willingness to take responsibility for that

choice = moral decision

Joan Jacobs Brumberg

Females Bodies and Self-image

• In contemporary Western society there is an obsession with female body.

• The mass media, as an agent of culture, has reinforced an ideal image that girls are to strive for and attain; therefore placing more emphasis on good looks than on good works.

• Women today enjoy greater freedom and more opportunities than their counterparts of the past, they are under more cultural pressure to look good.

Gender Differences

• Girls begin to suffer bouts of clinical depression form the frustration they experience when their bodies changes.

• Girls are more vulnerable to eating disorders, substance abuse, and dropping out of school.

• Body is at heart of the crisis of confidence for adolescent girls.

• By the age thirteen, 53 percent of American girls are unhappy with their bodies; by the age of seventeen, 78 percent are dissatisfied.

Media Influence• Fashion and the film industry are two huge

influences on societal expectations that women display their bodies sexually.

• The sexual revolution liberated women from the Victorian of modesty but also demanded a commitment to diet and beauty.

Lauzon (2006, 2011)• Girls compromise 50 percent of students in high school computer

class but only17 percent of the computer science students• Although women outnumbered men in Canadian universities in

general (61%), the number of women entering ICT at the university level has declined by 18.2% past 10 years

• Females accounted for only 11.5% of workers in the Game Development Industry

• • Women comprised only 20% of all TV creators, executive producers, producers, directors, writers, editors, and directors of photography

Kearney (2006)• Media production reinforces traditional gender

patterns in a variety of ways • world of media production has become “yet

another boys’ club”• study of “digital girls” is an extension of her girls‟

zine section, with focus on the empowerment of women creating a business

• women made up only 36 percent of all incoming students to film school

Rosalind Gill (2009)• Gender and the Media • visions of women in media rather than women’s

productions• Downplays the importance of zines to women – “only

seen/consumed by a small number• women-only media spaces only harms women• critiqued those who purposefully attempt to disguise

put-downs of women as post-modernist humour: Family Guy, American Dad

• You just don’t get the joke‟ line of defence.

Donna Haraway• argues that we are too quick to believe that

science is the answer to all our woes BUT• advocates that women participating in the

creation of technology as a truly liberating act.

Donna Haraway• Notion that women should embrace

technology and transform it rather than fall victim to it.

• 1986 Cyborg Manifesto, she attempts: “to get American socialist feminists used to negotiating through a technological world.”

• Feminist leave themselves wide open to attack because they themselves are very biased in their approach.

• Second, although a commitment to empirical research is not a must in designs of social theory; relying on such techniques as oral testimony and the analysis of such content a diaries risk a lack of objectivity and bias.

• Third, most feminists claim that all sociological theories are gender-biased but fail to provide any proof of this claim.

• Fourth, gender is just one variable in human interaction BUT many feminists believe that interactions are based solely on gender distinction. (its not the ONLY problem)