Final: Susan B. Athony

Born on Feb. 15, 1820, in Adams, Massachusetts. Susan B. Anthony was a pioneer crusader for the woman suffrage movement in the United States and president (1892-1900) of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Her work helped pave the way for the Nineteenth Amendment (1920) to the Constitution, giving women the right to vote.



Along with activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Anthony founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. Around this time, the two created and produced The Revolution, a weekly publication that lobbied for women’s rights. Later the pair edited three volumes of History of Woman Suffrage together. Anthony was relentless in her efforts for women, giving speeches around the country to convince others to support a woman’s right to vote. She even took matters into her own hands in 1872 when she voted in the presidential election illegally. Anthony was arrested and tried unsuccessful to fight the charges. She ended up being fined $100, a fine she never paid.


Woman like Susan B. Anthony have helped to pave the way for feminists fight to end gender discrimination. When Anthony died on March 13, 1906, women still did not have the right to vote. It wasn’t until 1920, 14 years after her death, that the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, giving all adult women the right to vote, was passed. In recognition of her dedication and hard work, the U.S. Treasury Department put Anthony’s portrait on one dollar coins in 1979, making her the first woman to be so honored.

There are some people who believe that feminism is a thing of the past and that we don’t need it anymore because the patriarchal system no longer exists. We can vote, right? That’s true. In fact, in all demographics, females vote more than men do. Yet, women still hold less than 20 percent of seats in Congress, even though they make up more than half the population. Some believe the patriarchal system doesn’t exist because we have equal employment opportunities. But if this were really the case would there still be a 23 percent pay gap?

 If it wasn’t for past feminist movements, who knows where we would be today. But we still need feminism and will continue to need it, until every other woman in the world feels this way as well.

Final: Victorias Secret Fasion Show

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is an annual fashion show sponsored by Victoria's Secret. The popular shows features tall, beautiful, and skinny models. Viewers both male and female, watch as these models strut their stuff down the runway barely clothed in lingerie and sleepwear. Victoria's Secret uses the show annually to promote their goods in clothing in a high profile setting.

The VS Fashion Show is, for most people, pure entertainment, rather than something to aspire to. Viewers in and out of the fashion industry tune in and appreciate the always outstanding concert and general insanity (I see you, Selena Gomez), and comment on whichever “It Girls” are leading the pack. I mean, who didn’t see that Gigi and Kendall moment coming? The show is the perfect opportunity to celebrate bodies, pop culture, and pageantry. Considering the rah-rah version of feminism that’s so popular today, it almost feels like a required viewing girl power moment.
The show is fun, and that’s just objectively true. However, I think some feminists may have issues stemming from the fact that our definition of “attractive people” is pretty heavily skewed in one direction, and that Victoria’s Secret capitalizes on that. Meanwhile, Aerie, a direct competitor of VS, made the almost definitely not coincidental decision to post this photo right smack in the middle of the VS show’s live broadcast. Aerie’s move away from Photoshop was very public and widely announced, despite the fact that most of its models didn’t "need" retouching to begin with. However, the image was an especially strong departure from the VS standard, and I think it’s safe to say that Aerie intended to grab the attention and support of VS critics.

Final: The 1960's-70s American Feminist Movement

Vision and Motivation

In 1960, the world of American women was limited in almost every respect, from family life to the workplace. A woman was expected to follow one path. That path consisted of marrying in her early 20s, start a family quickly, and devoting her life to homemaking. As one woman at the time put it, "The female doesn't really expect a lot from life. She's here as someone's keeper — her husband's or her children's." Wives bore the full load of housekeeping and child care, spending an average of 55 hours a week on domestic chores. They were legally subject to their husbands via "head and master laws," and they had no legal right to any of their husbands earnings or property, aside from a limited right to "proper support"
husbands, however, would control their wives' property and earnings. If the marriage failed, divorce was difficult to obtain, as "no-fault" divorce was not an option, forcing women to prove wrongdoing on the part of their husbands in order to get divorced.


The women's movement used different means to strive for equality: lobbying Congress to change laws; publicizing issues like rape and domestic violence through the media, and reaching out to ordinary women to both expand the movement and raise their awareness of how feminism could help them.
Seeing things from a woman's point of view, or perspective, allows everyone in society to know exactly what women have to deal with on a day to day basis. women. This is relevant to almost everything in a society driven by patriarchy, & male sexist bias. It is to be conscious of and critical towards domination of women by their male counterparts at home, in the workplace, in the streets, as regards property rights, right to education, right to justice and others. It implies social activism for the correction of gender imbalances/exploitation, abuse of women, sexual harassment etc. Over the years the United States has definitely been dominated by males, but women have started to play a more influential role within our society. Feminist theory uses the conflict approach to examine the reinforcement of gender roles and inequalities, highlighting the role of patriarchy in maintaining the oppression of women.

Song: We Are Stronger

The song “We Are Stronger” takes on rather bold point of view by looking at the population of the world as one unified existence. Seeing everyone as equal should have a profound impact on the way that we interact with one another. The differences that we can physically see in one another such as the color of our skin, or our gender are such minor differences compared to all the ways that humans are the same. Much like a grain of sand, if you look closely you can see all the different shapes, sizes, colors. But when you step back and look at the big picture, it all looks the same. Much like human beings, we’ve got black, white, straight, Irish, Chinese, women, and men. We can clearly see the physical differences of human beings but when we take a step back we’re all one in the same.  We don’t all necessarily have equal worlds but in the end, we’re all here to accomplish one goal. That goal is to live a happy and prosperous lifestyle without having to overcome gender, racial, or religious segregation. This song is stating that finding equal value in every being can only make our world stronger in all aspects.

"We Are Stronger"

Give and take
Snow or sand, it's all the same from far away
You and me
We're the stuff of stars and dirt
With eyes to see

I can't meet you eye to eye
But I can take your hand in mine

We are better together
We are the ocean tide
Freedom and the anchor
When we're together

We are better together
We are the day and night
Together we are stronger
We are stronger

A starry sky
Solitary sparks that find a greater light
Desert land
Sprawling miles and miles
With only grains of sand

Oceans from drops of rain
Everybody made the same

We are better together
We are the ocean tide
Freedom and the anchor
When we're together

We are better together
We are the day and night
Together we are stronger
We are stronger

We are better together
There is no real divide
The winter and the summer
We are stronger
All together

Every black life matters
Every woman matters
Every soldier matters
All the unborn matter

Every gay life matters
Fundamentalists matter
Here's to life and all its branches

All together we are stronger
We belong together

We are better together
We are the ocean tide
The freedom and the anchor
When we're together

We are better together
We are the day and night
Together we are stronger
We are stronger

We are better together
There is no real divide
The winter and the summer
We are stronger

Advertisments: Sexist Advertising

The automotive industry largely has no idea how to market their products toward women, which is why you see a number of advertisements repeating trends where:

(1) Women are objects that male car buyers want to accumulate

(2) Women are accessories that make cars appear more attractive to male car shoppers

(3) Women are seen as helpless and entirely unaware of how the entire car-buying experience works

(4) Women serve the primary role of minivan-driving mothers.

Despite this brief but inspiring run of feminist friendly car ads, sexist car ads have remained an offensive, ugly, thing of the present. Automotive companies are still operating under notion that women are objects to be used to hawk products that they are simultaneously considered dumb and incapable of using, as this Ford Cortina ad suggests:

In the 1970s, thanks in great part to feminist magazines such as Ms. Companies and advertising agencies, viewers were now alerted to the large consumer base of intelligent, capable, empowered women and that led to some feminist advancement in car advertisements. Not only were there nonsexist advertisements, but car companies actually marketed their products to women as informed, financially independent consumers. This new body style for advertisements included the ads below for Subaru which appeared in 1974 issues of Ms.

A video titled #WomenNotObjects went viral earlier this month by pointing out the sexism and objectification of women in advertising.

Now we find out that a New York advertising agency produced the video: Badger & Winters recently came forward to take credit for the #WomenNotObjects campaign and vow never to objectify women in its ads or work again.