GNDS 125 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Me Too Movement, Celebrity Culture, Apink
GNDS 125
Week 3
Quiz next week in class: Thursday
Definitions w/ application
Power Dynamics
• Organized set of power differentials
No Bikini
• Mother uninterested in child’s explanation
• “You can’t be trusted with a two piece” meaning you cannot be trusted following social
norms and therefore you are not to be trusted at all
• coercive nature of dress codes
• Power structures and society: if you perform well, you may be allowed into the power
structure, which would not have been open to Robin otherwise
#MeToo Movement
• Harvey Weinstein
o 1952, arguably the most influential producer/director in Hollywood
o Large number of sexual assault allegations against him (80)
o “The Weinstein Affect” primarily men in positions of power are being accused of
sexual abuse of power in the workplace and outside of it
• Repeated trends essential to public discourse
o Surfaced over the course of decades
▪ No one is certain why all allegations came up at once
o Many people can’t afford to share their stories, but many can
o Has triggered an explosion of allegations globally
o Massive impact on the world
▪ “What if these things didn’t happen?”
o Me Too Movement: began October 2017
▪ #MeToo established by Alysa Milano
▪ Believed that if people said #MeToo, there would be a global discussion
▪ Tyrana Burke coined term (2006)
• Celebrity culture movement
o Often rich white privileged women
o One downside as it is not incredibly inclusive and/or intersectional
▪ Structures of visibility within an “exclusive” movement
o Women’s March--mass activism?
▪ A pink vagina hat does not make you a feminist, and excludes POC and
Trans Peoples
o Many potentials for harm and backlash
▪ Expected backlash, not necessarily able to distinguish between ____ and
violent rape
▪ “women are misusing a temporary power”
o Where do we go from here?
▪ Power structures, how can performance and awareness be translated into
structural change?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com