Saturday, July 16, 2011

Book Review: Pink Think

Pink in Our Society
Lynn Peril, author of Pink Think, touches on many items within society that depict women, such as ads or television shows. This discussion helps expose how society holds women as whole. The images that are put forth in society generally depict how society is, or how society wants itself to be perceived. For instance, many television shows throughout time illustrate a black family that has money, or at least is middle class, and is educated to show that affirmative action is not as necessary while others are insisting it is. Another example would be a single mother raising several daughters on her own. There are shows in our society that depict single black mothers living in wealthy neighborhoods, never mentioning what their job is, and basically, living the American dream. Or, for instance, the sitcom Who’s the Boss? is about a single mother who lives in a big house in a nice neighborhood with a male as a nanny to her children. These shows inherently tell the viewers that this is how it is in reality as well, even though we know that majority of poor populations are ethnic populations and a majority of single mothers are not as well off as these fictional mothers of television. Peril takes this idea and attempts to expose the underlying messages behind everyday things social images, like television shows such as Little House on the Prairie, to information given to children and young adults in the form of textbooks and magazines.  While the information Peril presents in Pink Think is valuable, there are several weaknesses in her book: the lack of discussion on women of color and gays, lesbians or transgendered women, and lack of a strong argument stating how the images she mentions are wrong and need to be corrected. Due to her writing style, anecdotal, the book reads more like a history novel than an argument for women’s rights. While it is good to preserve historical past of women in such a book, it is also very important to remind the reader why this is not the correct way of thinking; otherwise, the reader may be confused about the overall message.
The overall message of all the articles that Peril mentions is the same: this is how a woman should be. The images, articles and shows that were mentioned were to “guide girls’ behavior regarding boys and dating before nature took its course” (Peril 44). Femininity, for the most part, was defined by a woman’s ability to make her attractive for men by wearing form fitting (but not too form fitting!) sweaters, wearing make-up, and having luscious hair. It was also defined by the woman’s ability to “[think] like a girl even when you’re not with a boy” (Peril 45). Meaning, she continuously had to have correct information and skill on how to sew, cook, clean and run a household at all times. She constantly thinks of being a housewife and finding a husband; after all, as experts say, that is the purpose of dating: finding a husband and becoming a housewife, and nothing else (Peril 49). A woman, who could achieve this, along with charm and grace, was considered feminine. Being feminine was everything a girl wanted and needed to be; men wanted and needed feminine girls so that they themselves could feel masculine. Likewise, girls needed boys to be masculine because “[a] girl who is feminine,” wants a masculine man “to lead her – it’s as simple as that. She craves being a helpmate to him, and these are the qualities that maker her so desirable. She likes being with a boy because he brings out these” attributes (Peril 47). If a woman was anything less than these things, i.e. a tomboy or chubby, she was not feminine. Many stories were created to steer girls away from behaving in such a way. For instance, “fatty fiction” discusses heavier girls, who have many issues, mostly boy related; the messages of such books was the same, once the girl lost weight, she became more feminine and got a date for the weekend (Peril 51). By making it so that the girl does not get a date until she looses weight subconsciously tells women that being fat is undesired, because it is not feminine and men do not find it attractive.  This issue is still relevant today. There are many television shows and books that give overweight people a stigma. In the film, “Real Women Have Curves”, Anna fights against this stigma, even from her own mother. There is still the idea that how one looks measures all of there abilities, not just their ability to catch a man. While there is a stigma, today’s “fatty fiction” is not always the same. Like other obese people, Anna was teased for her weight, and told she was would not be able to get a boyfriend or get married (almost to say those are the only joys in life); however, instead of her story telling young women that they needed to lose weight for her problems to go away. She found a boyfriend, went to school and helped save her sister’s business, all while being overweight. There are several other topics that are brought up in Pink Think; some are outdated, others are not but both categories are worthy of note.
Although interesting is Peril’s method of presenting the history of women through social media archives, there is one section she overlooked. She discusses many types of women, and the troubles they faced. The educated women and her difficulty finding a husband due to her “increased” intelligence (woman were always intelligent; yet, this fact became more apparent with women attending college. Hence, the word increased is in quotations.) The stay-at-home mother, and her responsibilities for upkeep of the household, and how society put her there. The fatty child, and how society made it so that she is seen as a failure. While these are important topics to look at, one topic, woman of color, is completely overlooked by Peril. Many of the issues presented are White women issues, as in terms of education for instance. Peril ignores how women of color, along with all African-Americans, were depicted in society.  In cartoons, television and other images that reached mainstream society, women of color were presented always as inferior. There are images that make African-Americans appear to be monkeys, symbolizing how White people perceived them to possess lower levels of intelligence. Again, such images, for all people, show how society sees people, and how they want all America to see the same things. There are plenty of stereotypes of African-American women that lower their status. For instance, the Mammy.  The Mammy is a desexualized woman.  She is usually very dark in skin color because the darker the skin the less attractive one would be. She is also usually extremely overweight, because to society overall, women who were chubbier were unattractive, and less desired sexually. The Mammy never had troubles of her own; she was there to serve other women, listen and take care of their issues. The Mammy is not the only stereotype that was portrayed by society. There is the jezebel, the strong independent women, the “servant”, none of which were even mentioned in this book about womanhood. These are very relevant, even today. Peril needs to mention them and mention how women can handle them and counteract them, i.e. self-definition, for starters. Self-definition is “essential for Black women’s survival”, along with other women of color’s (Collins 4).  These women need to define their own relations instead of going with stereotypes; with defining themselves, the stereotypes can be defeated. Peril talks about stereotypes, but only those that can be applied to white women.
 The book, as shown by its title Pink Think: Becoming a Woman in Many Uneasy Lessons, is about how women grow up fighting the mold that society historically wanted them to be. Her book is essentially oppositional knowledge; it discusses issues that have oppressed white women, and how they learn to overcome them. What the fine print should read is “Lessons for White Women, that is”, because that is all that is shown and mentioned. Peril dedicated an entire chapter on men, and how Pink Think affected them, how society and the pressures to be strong, masculine males affected them; yet, no mention of any ethnic women. The mold for women of color needs to be mentioned as well, for they are women who are dealing with many uneasy lessons, as well.
Like white women, women of color are not the only women who deal with the fight against society’s mold for women and femininity; furthermore, women of color are not the only women that Peril forgot to mention. Transgendered women also have to fight the mold of femininity, maybe more so than other women, because to many people, these women are not “real” women. They continuously fight against stereotypes of women, as well as any thing or any one illustrating trans-misogyny. According to Julia Serano, author of “Skirt Chasers: Why the Media Dresses the Trans Revolution in Lipstick and Heals”, Trans defy gender and stereotypes places by the institutions “that enable male and heterosexual privilege, the images and experiences of trans people are presented in the media in a way that reaffirms, rather than challenges, gender stereotypes” (81).  Due to this, transgendered women, as well as transgendered men, struggle even more so than the “ordinary” woman, or male. They need to be psychologically stronger to endure the critics that cross them simply because they were not born as a woman, or male. Peril ignores how femininity plays an important role in these women’s lives on a regular basis. Peril talks about how tomboys and overweight women endure hardship because they do not fit society’s ideals about women, i.e. skinny, hair done, make-up on, wearing heels and a dress ready to serve her man; but what about transgendered women and how they are fighting to be accepted? To society, and the media, because they wear wig along with make-up, and sometimes do not have breasts, but insert socks into a bra, they are seen as inferior to women. They try to act and look like a female, but simply cannot; they’re fake, and it is apparent when you catch one adjusting her wig, or putting on make-up. Never one mind that everyday women wear make-up, may wear wigs and try to enhance their breasts, or lack there of, in some way; they are never as good as a “real” woman. If a group needed to learn uneasy lessons on womanhood, this group would; yet, Peril once again overlooks the minority.
Besides the fact that peril overlooks huge minority groups entirely, there is another issue that makes this book problematic: her lack of definite argument. For instance, Peril discusses the co-ed classes that were taken in junior high and high school students, shop for boys and home economics for girls. She discusses, on page 57, that theses classes were outlawed in the 1970’s, but she does not necessarily say why, or if them outlawed was a poor choice or not. It is more as if she is telling like a history book, explaining what happened, but never saying why or if the issue had a positive or negative impact. She would present some articles in favor of one side of the given issue, and then articles that favored the other, never saying if one was right or wrong, or if neither were right or wrong, or reasons to it. She appeared more times than not to be neutral in the great debates of womanhood. There was only once, in the last chapter, about females in the workplace where her argument for why women need to be working was clear; even though, her arguments were weak (basically, it was if women did not work, they would have a psychological meltdown). As stated before, this can confuse the reader about the subject, and purpose of the book. As a woman, grownup post feminism, I understand that the issues Peril brings up are wrong, and why women should fight these ideals; yet, there are women today who do not understand that, and may pick this book up, and think she could be in favor for the stereotypes, or at least not completely against them. Such loose arguments can never helpful in fights against society’s molds.
Peril presents many of society’s ideas about women and femininity. She discusses note worthy topics about dating, obesity, workplace, and education in relations to women. However, she lacks several aspects, which generally weaken her book. The issues discussed typically are restricted to White women. She does not mention any minority groups, such as women of color and transgendered women, as if these women’s fight against society’s stereotypical way of looking at women is irrelevant. Ignoring an entire topic in an argument shows lack of critical thinking and weakens the overall discussion. Furthermore, Peril does not clearly argue a side on any topics, which can confuse the reader on the purpose of the book. Peril needs to state more directly her purpose and stance on the topics, and acknowledge other groups of women. By doing so, by strengthening her argument, acknowledge other women and their battle in the overall fight, Peril can help the movement move forward instead of simply teaching history lessons.  

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