{"id":10235,"date":"2017-10-17T15:44:29","date_gmt":"2017-10-17T15:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=10235"},"modified":"2017-10-17T15:44:29","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T15:44:29","slug":"what-the-fearless-girl-statue-and-harvey-weinstein-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-the-fearless-girl-statue-and-harvey-weinstein-have-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"What the ‘Fearless Girl’ statue and Harvey Weinstein have in common"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Banet-Weiser<\/a>, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In March of this year, State Street Global Advisors unveiled the \u201cFearless Girl,\u201d a statue of a little girl installed to face Wall Street\u2019s famous \u201cCharging Bull\u201d statue. Her defiance was aimed at financial culture\u2019s historical exclusion of women in the financial industry, especially in leadership positions. <\/p>\n

In early October, its parent company, State Street Corporation, quietly settled allegations that it had been paying female employees less than their male counterparts, agreeing to award US$5 million<\/a> in back pay.<\/p>\n

Then, a week later, a series of explosive articles revealed that Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein may have engaged in a decades-long pattern of abusing and harassing women<\/a>. Weinstein, the reports noted, had been a prominent donor to causes that address gender inequality, especially in the entertainment industry.<\/p>\n

In both cases, a public-facing feminism ended up essentially serving as a front, a superficial sheen that distracted from systemic sexism. What does feminism mean if it functions as an alibi for structural discrimination? And how powerful are the forces that oppose it? <\/p>\n

Popular feminism and popular misogyny<\/h2>\n

Together, these two stories tell an even bigger tale of a national dynamic that I call \u201cpopular feminism<\/a>\u201d and \u201cpopular misogyny<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Popular feminism refers to a sort of mainstream, corporate-friendly feminism. It announces itself on self-help blogs that implore women to \u201cbe confident in the workplace\u201d and on aspirational Tumblr pages that remind women that they are beautiful despite societal norms that tell them that they\u2019re not. In this way, popular feminism is \u201csafe\u201d \u2013 it implicitly encourages more women to work within a system that is already designed to devalue (and underpay) the labor of women. <\/p>\n

Like popular feminism, popular misogyny is expressed and practiced on multiple media platforms. Yet its primary goal is to dehumanize and devalue women. <\/p>\n

Every time feminism gains broad traction \u2013 that is, every time it spills beyond niche feminist enclaves \u2013 the forces of the status quo lash back. Skirmishes ensue between those determined to change the normal state of things and those determined to maintain it, who frame the challenges to the status quo as a set of risks that must be contained. <\/p>\n

This happened with suffrage and abolition. More recently, it happened to the women who sought to assert themselves within the male-dominated world of video games (the \u201cGamergate<\/a>\u201d controversy). <\/p>\n

We also see this dynamic in the stories of the Fearless Girl and Harvey Weinstein. <\/p>\n

A sanitized version of feminism<\/h2>\n

The \u201cFearless Girl\u201d statue was installed in the middle of the night in lower Manhattan on March 7, 2017, on the eve of International Women\u2019s Day. <\/p>\n

It faced the well-known \u201cCharging Bull\u201d statue, which, since 1987, has been a global symbol of Wall Street. The bull was intended to be a sign of American \u201cvirility and courage\u201d \u2013 an \u201cantidote,\u201d in the artist\u2019s words<\/a>, for the stock market crash of 1986. The bull\u2019s allusions to manliness and a strong sex drive continue to be acknowledged in the popular tourist practice of taking a picture next to (or touching<\/a>) the bull\u2019s huge testicles.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Is the feminist message of \u2018The Fearless Girl\u2019 more whisper than rallying cry?<\/span>
\n Chris Holthof<\/a><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On the surface, the appearance of a statue that appears to directly challenge the bull is a striking symbol of empowerment.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s not forget that \u201cFearless Girl\u201d was intended as an advertisement. State Street\u2019s new index fund sought to signal itself as a collection of \u201cgender-diverse\u201d companies, meaning that they have a higher percentage of women among their senior leadership than most global investment companies. (Its NASDAQ ticker symbol is \u201cSHE.\u201d)<\/p>\n

To be clear: I believe it is important to praise those companies that hire women in leadership. It is equally important to have women directors behind the camera in the entertainment industries. <\/p>\n

At the same time, the recognition of gender inequality in leadership positions is a familiar trope of popular feminism. The remedy is thought to be simple: Have more women \u201csit at the table.\u201d This is Weinstein\u2019s brand of \u201cfeminism\u201d as well: to talk about the importance of hiring more female directors or giving more opportunities to female actors.<\/p>\n

But where are the results? Why is that, despite widespread acknowledgment of gender and racial exclusion in the technology industries, women and people of color remain in the vast minority<\/a>? Why is it that, despite Harvey Weinstein\u2019s vocal support for feminist causes, just 4 percent<\/a> of directors of the 100 top-grossing films between 2007 and 2016 were female?<\/p>\n

Harvey Weinstein\u2019s public support of gender issues in Hollywood and of female politicians easily gained traction and praise. But in reality, it could have worked to distract people from his behavior and a culture of sexual assault and gender discrimination that undergirds Hollywood. <\/p>\n

Popular misogyny takes aim<\/h2>\n

What does the \u201cFearless Girl\u201d distract us from? <\/p>\n

The plaque below the statue originally read, \u201cKnow the power of women in leadership. SHE makes a difference.\u201d (The plaque has since been removed and replaced<\/a>.) <\/p>\n

The presumption here is that putting more women in leadership positions is a catch-all solution to gender inequality. But what if it\u2019s simply a statement about women becoming better workers? <\/p>\n

The artist, Kristen Visbal, admitted that the artwork isn\u2019t meant to alienate, but to accommodate. <\/p>\n

\u201cI made sure to keep her features soft,\u201d she explained<\/a>. \u201cShe\u2019s not defiant, she\u2019s brave, proud and strong, not belligerent.\u201d (This is one way that popular feminism transfigures other feminist movements, which, historically, have been mobilized by defiance and belligerence, while directly confronting patriarchy.)<\/p>\n

Yet the accommodating tone didn\u2019t matter to the forces of misogyny.<\/p>\n

Even the suggestion that women should participate more visibly within capitalism \u2013 an economic system that depends, after all, on a gendered division of labor<\/a> \u2013 incurred a misogynistic backlash. <\/p>\n

The creator of the Charging Bull, Arturo Di Modica, has asked for the Fearless Girl to be removed<\/a>, claiming that she was \u201cattacking the bull\u201d and that he objected to her \u201cpolitical messaging\u201d (as if symbolizing capitalist America\u2019s resilience was somehow not political). <\/p>\n

Other reactions were more pronounced than Di Modica\u2019s. Alongside hundreds of photos and selfies of girls and women with Fearless Girl, pictures also circulated in social media featuring men simulating sex with the statue. In May 2017 another artist, Alex Gardega, installed a statue of his own<\/a>: \u201cPissing Pug,\u201d a small dog urinating on \u201cFearless Girl.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even a \u201csoft\u201d corporate feminism poses a threat to masculinity \u2013 so much so that it becomes a target of degradation and sexual violence. <\/p>\n

Apparently, the Fearless Girl injures masculinity simply by existing in the first place.<\/p>\n

The perils of popular feminism<\/h2>\n

The pervasiveness of popular misogyny can appear in subtler ways, whether it\u2019s political campaigns centered on taking away reproductive rights for women, or denying women and girls opportunities in the workplace. <\/p>\n

Others join \u201cPissing Pug\u201d in the not-so-subtle category, like Weinstein\u2019s alleged tactics of forcing women to perform sexual acts in order to earn his approval. <\/p>\n

The years-long silence of Weinstein\u2019s many female accusers \u2013 or of the many men and women who were aware of what was happening \u2013 is all, in my view, about the power of popular misogyny. Women are rarely believed<\/a> when they report sexual assault, while public shaming can ensure that future opportunities to do so can dry up. <\/p>\n

In the aftermath, misogynistic backlash has already emerged. Those who came forward are being questioned<\/a> about what they were wearing and why they let themselves be alone with him \u2013 how they \u201cinvited\u201d the assault<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harvey Weinstein is only the latest in a list of powerful men who have been exposed this year alone: Bill Cosby<\/a>, Roger Ailes<\/a>, Bill O’Reilly<\/a> and, of course, Donald Trump<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But while popular misogyny can silence in very visible ways, popular feminism can also work to silence dissent. Through building statues, appointing a woman to the board of a company and paying celebrity feminist spokespeople, this soft, corporate version of feminism signals that by being accommodating and safe, the problem will go away. <\/p>\n

\"ThePopular feminism might dispense a vision of progress. But don\u2019t let it distract from the structural gendered violence that persists, unabated, in so many aspects of American society.<\/p>\n

Sarah Banet-Weiser<\/a>, Vice Dean, Director of the School of Communication and Professor of Communication, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sarah Banet-Weiser, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism In March of this year, State Street Global Advisors unveiled the \u201cFearless Girl,\u201d a statue of a little girl installed to face Wall Street\u2019s famous \u201cCharging Bull\u201d statue. Her defiance was aimed at financial culture\u2019s historical exclusion of women in the financial industry, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[2579,1180,3349,1409,2930,3348,1976,2259,2574],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10235"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10237,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10235\/revisions\/10237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}