I have written before in this column about the way that social media has impacted politics including a discussion of the way that we get our news i.e. Facebook, Twitter etc. I have also written before about the nature of celebrity and the social and civic responsibility that celebrities have when they decide to engage in political debate. I am somewhat suspicious of the new ways because they can feel as though they trivialize complex issues and, in fact, they often do trivialize issues. But, I must admit that, of late, there has been some interesting news items that make me wonder if social media just might open the door to new avenues for youth political engagement.
Imagine this: a statuesque young woman standing at a podium saying: "You might be thinking, "Who is this Harry Potter girl, and what is she doing speaking at the UN?" And, it's a really good question. I've been asking myself the same thing." Those are the words of Emma Watson launching the HeforShe campaign: "A solidarity movement for gender equality that brings together one half of humanity in support of the other half of humanity, for the benefit of all." In other words, HeforShe asks that all people fight for gender equality because gender equality is a human right. As a young woman I expect that she wonders: "How it is possible that are we still fighting for gender equality?"
As a parent I sometimes feel distressed as I watch my daughter navigate a world in which we still ask this question. What do young girls think as they are confronted with stereotypes while at the same time seeing intelligent, capable women achieving the same great things that men have achieved? In their early years of course they are too young to have heard of, or to have experienced, a glass ceiling so when in their adolescence does it become obvious that a simple truth is, well, not that simple?
Social media put this question out to young women (and men) recently when the product Always ran an ad in which they showed a television commercial audition. The potential actors were asked, "What does it look like to run like a girl?" The older girls who were auditioning looked to be around 16 or 17 and they ran with their arms and legs flailing clutching their hair for fear of looking wind swept. When the girls were asked to "throw like a girl" they flopped their arms behind them and mimed the ball dropping a few feet away. The 10 year olds, on the other hand, ran fiercely for the finish line and they mimed throwing the ball like a major league player. Those girls didn't know that "run like a girl" or "throw like a girl" was an insult.
Juxtapose those subtle stereotypes with the blatant attempt to stop young women from seeking a rich and meaningful education. As a young woman it must be jarring, scrolling through a newsfeed, to see the face of a beautiful girl, much like themselves, torn open by a gunshot wound because she wants to go to school. My daughter noticed how quickly a lot of kids stopped complaining about school (even if only for a few days). And, just the other day, before I could tell her myself my daughter emerged from her bedroom announcing that Malala Yousafzai had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize - thanks, Facebook.
Students of political science know that we introduce "feminism" as part of the discussion of the "newer perspectives" in the study of ideology. The history of feminism is interesting. We usually start with the 1792 "A Vindication of the Rights of Women" by Mary Wollstonecraft. As the textbook by Eric Mintz and his colleagues says: "[She] argued that women are human beings with the same capacity for rational thinking as men, and should therefore have the same rights as men. If women appeared more emotional and less concerned about the good of the political community it was a result of being deprived of adequate education and the opportunities to develop themselves, rather than being an inevitable product of nature." I wonder how many "likes" Wollstonecraft would get today. I also wonder if she would be astonished that we are still debating this in the 21st century.
