9/21 Response: Too this or too that.

In Frye's article, she discusses the double bind of oppressed people and specifically focuses in on the bind around young women.  I was particularly intrigued by this analysis as I myself am of course a young women and I found true many of the points she focused in on. 

Frye focused in on the bind where neither sexual activity or inactivity is considered acceptable for a young women.  Sexual activity leads to stereotypes revolving around words such as whore and slut.  Sexual inactivity can result in lack of male interest and stereotypes of being a tease or a prude old maid.  Neither is acceptable.  We focused in on a similar topic in class the other day in regards to girls at Colgate and what is considered the 'norm.'  It seemed to the class that the Colgate female population is expected to be an intermediate breed if thats the right term.  We can neither be too smart or too dumb.  We can neither be too nicely dressed or too sloppy.  We can be neither too outgoing or too shy.  It's all about perfecting the middle ground.  It's the same sort of thing with Frye's article.  You can neither be sexually active or sexually inactive.  However, where is the middle ground in that? 

Movies have also focused on this theme, creating female characters that must be made-over to become intriguing, popular, and essentially 'perfect.  These female characters are usually too much of one thing, such as too nerdy and too unpopular in She's All That or too ugly and socially awkward in Miss Congeniality.  In the film Cruel Intentions, the viriginal blond is desired by all the men simply in order to take her virginity.  The women see her as a prude and the men see her as a challenge.  She is immediately stereotyped and categorized based on her sexual inactivity.



Another example is seen in the slightly disturbing show, the Bachelorpad.  In the show, people are competiting for money and love.  Two of the women are cast as stereotypes through the filming and comments of the cast.  Natalie is the dumb blonde who is called slutty and was voted as the woman who would 'always be a bridesmaid, never a bride.'  Then there's Nicki who is seen as a mother and a prude.  Both of these women are not viewed in a positive light.  They represent in a way sexual activity versus sexualy inactivity.  Neither is acceptable or positive. 

So where do women fit in?  There is no in between.  There is no happy medium.  We seem to be forever doomed with undeserved judgement and insults.  It is only until, as Johnson says, we stop playing the rules of the game and start questioning society as a whole can things possibly change and can female oppression, perhaps/eventually, be fought and destroyed.