Starting in the late 1960s, the women’s liberation movement made great strides to improve the treatment of women in America. With Supreme Court decisions like Equal Pay Act of 1963, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned discrimination of women and blacks, there was a lot of ground was made towards the equal treatment of women.
Growing up in the nineties, I was always told that every person was able to fulfill their dreams and be anything they wanted.

I never viewed women as inferior in any way (except for the occasional joke), but today I look at the way women are portrayed in the media, in commercials, TV shows, and movies, and I can’t help but to think that all the progress that was made in the sixties to the nineties was ignored.

It seems like every time I see a woman on TV, she is either getting ready for her wedding or she is a middle-aged woman taking care of a child. I can see how that is the ideal family, but I can’t shake the feeling that a mother can be more than someone that cooks and does laundry. I know that traditionally the father is the one you go to when you need advice, but that doesn’t mean that the mother doesn’t have any ideas or opinions.

As a man, I can look up to anyone from George Bush, James Franco, or John Wayne. However, women seem to be portrayed as either sex symbols or crazy.  You have people like Ke$ha who comes off as a skank, or Miley Cyrus, who was a pretty good role model until the past year or two when she started dressing more revealing.  I want to see more women like Hilary Clinton, or J.K. Rowling.  Both of these women are really good at what they do, and show what a woman can accomplish if she works hard enough.

The way that romantic comedies portray women is especially wrong. Every romantic comedy that my girlfriend and I watch, the woman is always trying to get married and gets caught up in the heat of the moment with the new guy she just met. The movie Bride Wars is really bad at this. It is about two lifelong friends who want to get married on the same day. When they find out that there is only one day available they go on a spree of trying to wreck the other wedding. They completely missed the deal that they are ruining their friend’s relationship. I get that weddings are important to women, and I’m not trying to say they are bad, but there needs to be more emphasis on who you’re going to spend the rest of your life with, rather than the day itself.

Women are more than just things to be looked at, and to be used as a way to sell things. We need more women who have the drive to dream big, and do what it takes to make it towards their dreams.

mbritt@mesastate.edu