As I was working hard on Antigone's political campaign, I discovered that she is a huge feminist and, despite being from Thebes, relates much more to today than I originally realized. She pushes against the male-ruled constructs of her society to do what she feels is right and refused to let her gender define what she can and cannot do. Another story that deals with feminism in a different way is The Handmaid's Tale, which shows an extreme dystopia in which women are inferior to men in all aspects and feminism in non-existent. By depicting this society, the author is pointing out flaws in our current society. Both of these stories are pro-feminism and are largely relevant today.
One term that I would quickly like to go over is "feminism". It is the social, political, and economic equality of women to men – not superiority to men. This is a point that many people struggle with, saying that they are not feminists because men and women should be equal (which is completely incorrect), so I just wanted to clarify this word. All people should be feminists.
One instance of feminism in The Handmaid's Tale is when Janine confesses that she got raped. All of the women are taught that rape is their fault for leading the man on. As disturbing as this is, it is what is largely taught in today's society. Women are commonly taught not to report rape because it will hurt their reputation, and many are believed to be lying. Even if they do report it and their cases eventually make it to court, the majority of cases are dismissed by the judge for lack of evidence. However, there can be evidence in the form of Rape Kits, but most of them go untested and are even destroyed in order to make room for other evidence by the police.
However, the most astounding part is what is taught: women are taught not to be raped, while men are never taught not to rape. What's more is that the media chooses to ignore this and does not shed much light, if at all, on rape culture. One example of this is just from the last Oscars ceremony.
On February 28, 2016, the 88th annual Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars) were held. The purpose of this ceremony is to recognize excellence in film and motto picture-related topics. It is regarded as the most important film award ceremony and the highest achievement for those in the industry. One of the categories is the Academy Award for Best Original Song. This category recognizes the best original song composed for a film. However, this year, it failed to do so. Instead of giving the award to the most deserving song, Lady Gaga's "Til It Happens To You", the Oscar was given to "Writing's On the Wall" by Sam Smith.
"Til It Happens To You" is a song composed by Lady Gaga and Diane Warren for the 2015 movie The Hunting Ground. The song not only contains stellar vocals delivered by Lady Gaga, deep lyrics, and masterful production, but most importantly a message. The song deals with the heavy topic of rape. In fact, the song draws from Gaga's and Warren's own personal experience, as they are both survivors. It has received critical acclaim for addressing the issue, as well as for Gaga's vocals. The lyrics are composed from the writers' own experiences of being raped on college campuses, and this emotion is channeled throughout the song to create a masterpiece full of meaning.
"Writing's On the Wall," on the other hand, is a meaningless song composed for Spectre. The lyrics are dull and Sam Smith, the singer, stays in an unbearable falsetto voice the entire time. The song received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critics for its unoriginality and dullness, as it is extremely forgettable.
So why did "Wall" win? Because it is easy. The song is from a revered series, and Adele's brilliant "Skyfall" most definitely aided to this decision. It may also seem to the uneducated listener to be a quality song, using many cliché production techniques that seem sophisticated. But I believe that the main reason is that they want to avoid the topic of rape. It is so much easier to give an award to a meaningless song about (love? it remains unclear) than to award a emotional song that deals with a controversial topic – remember that this is the same committee that did not nominate a single black actor. As long as this issue continues to be ignored, no possible steps can be made to fix it.
Rape is rape. And rape is never the victim's fault.
So why did "Wall" win? Because it is easy. The song is from a revered series, and Adele's brilliant "Skyfall" most definitely aided to this decision. It may also seem to the uneducated listener to be a quality song, using many cliché production techniques that seem sophisticated. But I believe that the main reason is that they want to avoid the topic of rape. It is so much easier to give an award to a meaningless song about (love? it remains unclear) than to award a emotional song that deals with a controversial topic – remember that this is the same committee that did not nominate a single black actor. As long as this issue continues to be ignored, no possible steps can be made to fix it.
Rape is rape. And rape is never the victim's fault.