Marissa Mayer: Crisis Over Motherhood and Womanhood in the 21st Century

On July 16, 2012 Marissa Mayer was named the President and CEO of Yahoo! and became both the youngest and the first pregnant CEO of a Fortune 500 company. At nearly 7 months pregnant, Mayer told Fortune, “I like to stay in the rhythm of things. My maternity leave will be a few weeks long and I'll work throughout it." Her choice to forego maternity leave caused uproar among working and stay-at-home mothers over the importance of bonding with one’s child, the pressure on women to perform as equals to their male counterparts, and Mayer’s personal parenting choice as a public figure.

While the debates have drawn attention to both the inadequacies of American policies on paid family leave and the “society-wide struggle to reconcile women’s growing power with their maternal role,” as outlined by Michelle Goldberg of the Daily Beast, it has also revealed our anxieties about biology in defining gender expectations. The bulk of the critiques are rooted in the desire to make Mayer the posterwoman for working mothers who successfully achieve the work-life balance. Her failure to fulfill the maternal role prescribed by other working mothers like Todays Mom and Mommyish has angered some feminists and mothers who think Mayer’s choice is shortsighted, a bad example for working mothers, and a slap in the face to the nurturing maternal role. The Washington Post’s Janice D’Arcy asks, “What’s the benefit of a new mom in such a high-profile position if she’s going to act like she doesn’t need maternity leave?” D’Arcy adds, “does Mayer have a responsibility to advocate for the rest of working parents?”

Given the pressure on Mayer to be a figure of a specific agenda, the anxiety over her choice to skip maternity leave is clearly based on her biological difference as a pregnant woman CEO of a Fortune 500 company. While some have resisted acknowledging the importance of Mayer’s biology, it remains the crux of the debate. Roland Martin of CNN writes in his article, “Focus on Marissa Mayer’s brain, not her pregnancy,” “Every time a woman is in position to ascend to the top post, be it in politics or business, we immediately begin to question her uterus instead of her brain.” Roland is correct to point out the problematic gendered critique of Mayer’s choice and its distraction from her intellectual merit, but his analysis is incomplete because biology was on the table when Mayer was initially praised as the first pregnant CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Mayer’s biology has been both honored and claimed irrelevant: we cannot have it both ways, and in fact it is important.

Martin’s observations tap into the longtime debate among feminists over the importance of biology. They have been divided on the role of biology in defining womanhood since the 1970s, caught between claiming whether womanhood is based on biology or if it is a social construct (see Judith Butler). In the case of Mayer, if biology doesn’t matter then the focus should shift to her intellect. If it does, the feminist lens should focus on Mayer’s choice as a mother and professional woman instead of prescribing and projecting a social role.

What harm does this debate really cause among working mothers and social roles on the whole? It is not simply the void of a role model or the struggle for better paid family leave or even the definition of the maternal role: it is the failure to respect individual women’s choices as mothers and as businesswomen. Mayer has become a caricature of an agenda composed of projections by professional male counterparts, working mothers, stay-at-home mothers, and future mothers. The placing of a woman or a group of women on a pedestal of projected norms and expectations ironically participates in part of what feminism has responded to for decades. Women should not be expected to conform to specific gender roles, social norms, or specific choices and should instead be empowered to make their own decisions and fulfill their own personal expectations for themselves.

Regardless of opinions about Mayer’s shortsightedness in skipping maternity leave, on her foregoing the opportunity to be a role model for working mothers, and her failure to use her public image to draw attention to paid family leave issues in America, Mayer is still entitled to her choice as a working woman and future mother. Given that her biology has put her in the spotlight as a pregnant woman, our 21^st century progressive focus needs to shift toward Mayer’s entitlement to choose her own biological, maternal, and professional roles.

Protagonist & Praxis: "Chocolat"

 

Chocolat tells the story about Vianne, (Juliette Binoche) her daughter, Anouk, and their enchanting chocolate shop in early 20^th century France. Their nomadic life brings them and their recipes to a small Catholic town during Lent, creating a contrast and eventual harmony between traditional religious practice and the mystical powers of Vianne’s chocolates.

Sisterhood Necklace: Vianne’s restorative friendship with Josephine and close relationship with her daughter inspire a strong community of women. Check out Dogeared’s Sister collection here.

Gypsy Advocacy: Johnny Depp’s gypsy, Roux, charms at boat parties with guitars and dancing, but his rejection from the town points to the reality of oppression against Gypsies worldwide. Support causes like Friends Family and Travellers that seek to end discrimination against Gypsies and other nomadic and immigrant groups.

Mayan Hot Chocolate: Embrace the Artist in the Kitchen, Kathryn Lee Seidel’s term that honors the creative in domestic work. In homage to the name of Vianne’s shop, Chocolaterie Maya, try this Mayan Hot Chocolate recipe inspired by the one Judi Dench’s character loved in the film.

5 Reasons Why American Apparel’s New Ad Campaign Might Redeem a History of Problematic Advertising

 

During the week of July 4^th, American Apparel debuted a new advertising campaign with “advanced” model, Jacky O’Shaughnessy. O’Shaughnessy was discovered in February of this year, launching her modeling career at age 60. The campaign deviates from its history of controversial ads that use nudity to advertise clothing and hints, if only briefly, at an advertising strategy that does not rely on the hypersexualization of homogenous female bodies. 

Here are five reasons why the campaign may redeem American Apparel’s sub par track record:

1. The campaign has fewer problematic images of women and is void of excessive side boob, visible nipples through diaphanous shirts, public hair, and ample cheeckage.

2. The ad creates positive controversy, generating awareness of various body types and ages instead of igniting frustration over hypersexualized images of similar-looking models.

3. O’Shaughnessy disrupts the classic high-fashion narrative of underage, underweight models, making room for inclusive ideals of beauty and for new standards in the industry.

4. O’Shaughnessy, whose look is much like today's Lauren Hutton, is unique because unlike Hutton, she is famous in her 60s without any past fame as a standard looking, youthful model. Her professional success is based on her current appearance, not a past aesthetic, suggesting today's beauty standards might be expanding.

5. The ads deviate from American Apparel's past advertising campaigns that seem to overcompensate for the already appealing sweatshop free, American-made trademark. These ads (sort of) do not rely on jazzing up the ethical parts of the American Apparel brand with compromising images of young women in ads like this one for pants with a topless model.

A Response To The Criticism of Kate Upton’s Body: Why We Need An Empowering Community of Women

On June 10^th, 2012 the “pro-skinny” blog, Skinny Gossip, published a post titled, “Kate Upton Is Well Marbled” that called her “thick,” “vulgar,” and “plus-sized.” The post writes, “Huge thighs, NO waist, big fat floppy boobs, terrible body definition – she looks like a squishy brick. Is this what American women are “striving” for now? The lazy, lardy look?...Has fashion become this?”

Since the release of this article, several feminist and fashion websites have responded. Jenna Sauers of Jezebel wrote a wonderful piece that highlights the tragedy of the website’s intolerance of Upton’s body image. She writes,  “If Kate fucking Upton's thighs are not immune from public dissection, then who is? The truth is, none of us are. As long as we live in a culture that tells women that being admired and desired for the way we look is merely the normal condition of womanhood, something fundamental to our sex, it will be considered acceptable to evaluate women for their decorative value.”

Hayley Phelan at Fashionista made similar claims about the bind that contemporary women find themselves between being labeled emaciated and plus-sized: “So if Crystal Renn is too thin, and Kate Upton is too fat, then what is the “ideal”? Can models–or regular women, for that matter–ever win when it comes to weight? The answer, as it is now, is no.”

Sauers and Phelan are right: the anxiety over visual representations of women in the media and the projections made on to everyday women is undeniable and it will not go away any time soon.

What informs these distorted body image fantasies? Is it the fashion industry, which has a long history of supporting unhealthy images of women? Perhaps, but the industry is currently trying to change their tune with the recent Vogue “Health Initiative” and the new Seventeen Magazine “Body Peace Project” that came after the advocacy of a fourteen year old girl.

Is it the unrealistic expectations of heterosexual men who have impossible ideals of femininity? Maybe, but it is important to note that Upton herself reached fame on the cover of Sports Illustrated 2012 Swimsuit Edition and is on the July 2012 cover of GQ as an addition to the canon of American bombshells.

While both the high fashion world and a few chauvinistic gentlemen contribute to the warped ideal of femininity, the current social attitudes among women also, surprisingly, adds to individual women’s critiques of their bodies. Though Skinny Gossip is no poster child for sisterhood, its tip for “Thinspiration” to “pay close attention to other girl's bodies. Pick them apart — try to find faults even with the best bodies. Then apply these high standards to yourself” is, sadly, not too foreign for many women.

Upton has been a source of criticism from other women for some time now and has been portrayed as a Jezebel figure of loose morals who would fall into the category of f**k in a game of F**k, Marry, Kill. She has been rejected from high fashion as a refined lady and instead has been branded a “page 3 girl” by Victoria’s Secret’s show runner, Sophia Neophitou, a reference to the promiscuous, voluptuous women featured in England’s The Sun. In Upton’s upcoming Vogue debut, the magazine writes, “it is in fact those two deeply abbreviated swaths of fabric on which Upton's not inconsiderable fame rests, which might make you think that this Sports Illustrated cover girl, almost always photographed nearly naked, is not exactly the ideal customer for Altuzarra's cuddly coat.” In an attempt to dance around the subject of Upton’s ladylike high fashion potential, they manage to suggest she is classless and subsequently cast her out of a clique of more respectable women. As Jezebel’s Sauers observes, “As long as women are in competition with one another to have the ‘best’ body, we all lose.”

Where is the space for change and new attitudes about women’s bodies? It lies within the establishment of a strong community of women who stop silently and verbally comparing themselves to one another, commenting on other women’s clothing, and suggesting a girl “eat a sandwich.” As feminist literary critic, Elaine Showalter, writes in her groundbreaking 1981 article, “Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness,” “a theory of culture incorporates ideas about women’s body, language, and psyche but interprets them in relation to the social contexts in which they occur.” In other words, women’s understanding of their bodies and ideas of self are informed by cultural contexts. For Showalter in 1981, that context was a phallocentric—male-centered—one, yet in 2012 many women have successfully found a social space that is uniquely feminine and largely outside of patriarchy.

But these spaces still lie within a context of competition between women and they need to be reimagined in a way that allows for more acceptance of womanhood. Showalter calls the space outside of patriarchy the “wild zone” that is “the place for the revolutionary language” and “liberated desire and female authenticity.” Using Showalter’s imaginary place of womanhood, women today can aspire to create a sisterhood that accepts different body sizes and expressions of femininity. In this way, intolerance from women like the anonymous one behind Skinny Gossip will not be welcomed and acceptance of women’s bodies will span across the fashion industry, men’s communities, and sisterhood alike.

Protagonist & Praxis: Everyone in 'Vicky Cristina Barcelona'

In Woody Allen’s 2008 film, Vicky Cristina Barcelona, friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) have opposing views of love that represent dry stability and unfulfilling passion, respectively. Their summer in Barcelona, complete with meditations on Catalan culture, affairs with the charmingly eccentric Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem), and enchantments with the captivating Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz), inspires personal artistic and romantic journeys.

-Moleskine: Channel the artistic vision of Juan Antonio and Maria Elena’s paintings with a watercolor album like this to store musings and doodles.

-Sunhat: Maria Elena’s black sunhat carries her throughout her adventures with ease and sun protection. Grab one like this one from Anthropologie and get picnicking.

-Build Your Own Darkroom by Lista Duren & Will McDonald: This classic book can transform the average bathroom into a darkroom and the average iPhone snapper into a print photographer.

-La Nez Du Vin Wine Scent Kit: Get inspired by the ample supply of Spanish wines in the film and learn to recognize aromas within wines. Use the classic La Nez Du Vin Wine Aroma Kit to familiarize yourself with scents from sandalwood to tobacco to cherry.