The more I have been thinking about how female journalists are perceived as the sexy weather girl...the more I get angry. That's not right. Unfortunately, our society reinforces that stereotype by telling girls that they should write about "girly" things like clothes, relationships, and beauty. With it being Thanksgiving weekend, I spent some quality time with my DVD player and my DVR. Two of the movies I watched had a theme similar to what I am writing about. One, called "Beauty and the Briefcase" and the other called "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days".....you can already tell where this is going.
The first movie is about a girl who wants to be a journalist for Cosmopolitan. She gets assigned an article, but she'll have to work undercover at a firm in New York City. She has to find her perfect guy and date lots of the guys at the office. Perfect, right? No. In the end, she ends up writing her article about how she found the perfect guy for her and he wasn't anything that was on her list. What is sad about this movie is that the focus of a female journalist is makeup and sex and men. I understand that the publication she was writing for was Cosmopolitan, but by showing this....girls think that it is the dream job for a female journalist. Well, when I think "serious journalist" I do not think "Cosmo".
The second movie starred Kate Hudson as a girl who was stuck at a typical "girly" magazine, but wanted to write more serious articles. She gets assigned an article about "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days". Essentially, she has to make the guy fall for her.....and then drive him crazy so he breaks up with her. This doesn't exactly happen and she considers leaving for a more serious job and to get away from the guy she now has feelings for. She ends up staying. While I do not have as much to say about this one, I think it's important that she showed how upset she was that she wanted to write more serious pieces and all she was getting was fluff.
A movie that was also on this weekend was "The Devil Wears Prada." This movie is about a girl who gets a job as an assistant at a fashion magazine when she really wants to be a serious writer. After losing everything that was really important to her she walks away and ends up getting a job at a serious newspaper. What I enjoyed about this movie was that they showed the negative side of being in the "feminine" part of journalism. It is not all what people think it is.
It is important for women to realize that they can be journalists and can have fun at their jobs. They don't need to work at a women's magazine if they don't want to. Also, they can start anywhere and end up being a serious journalist. It all ends up being about a woman taking herself seriously and not succumbing to gender stereotypes.
No comments:
Post a Comment