#SOCIAL MEDIA

Sophomore Alana Chun, co-president of the Women’s Representation in Media club, said women and girls often lack female role models in the media, but with fourth-wave feminism and its prevalent online presence, more and more girls can see those roles filled.

“Some of the biggest challenges women face with representation in the media are seeing how the women are represented now and feeling like they have to act a certain way to fit into what the stereotypes that are portrayed in the media,” Chun said. “It’s hard for girls to really feel comfortable in their own skin, if they see people in the media they may not relate to and that don’t represent them as a person.”

However, Chun said the media is improving the diverse roles given to women.

“When I was younger, a lot of the shows and movies were all about girls getting saved by a prince or by a man, and I think it’s nice for girls to be able to see a strong female character who can work on her own and take care of herself on her own,” Chun said.

Junior Maya Mohan, president of the Women in Data Science club, said she has noticed a change in women’s representation in children’s animated films, adding feminist undertones to media that can influence children in positive ways.

“In past children’s movies, Disney Princesses always had a Disney prince to accompany them whereas Moana, for example, is (one of) the first Disney princesses who doesn’t have a male love interest,” Mohan said. “Especially for younger children, being able to see that a princess can be very dainty and have a prince in her castle and go fight monsters across the sea is really nice to see.”

Fourth-wave feminism isn’t just benefiting women by giving them role models in the media, it’s also opening the stage for men to be open about their experiences.

In a 2003 study by Gross and John, they found males scored significantly higher than females on the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), and this study was later confirmed by another in 2009 by Haga et al.

AP English Language and Composition teacher Alanna Williamson said movies and TV shows promoting feminist values can benefit men as well.

“I think that (feminism is) dismantling the patriarchy, but that’s for men too,” Williamson said. “That’s why Barbie was so powerful — because men are impacted also. Men should really care about how the patriarchy impacts them and doesn’t allow them to feel feelings or have male friendships that are really close.”

However, senior Amani Fossati-Moiane said he has seen how feminism can sometimes be misunderstood or interpreted negatively.

“I think the whole concept of feminism is to be inclusive, but there are cases where feminism can be aggressive,” Fossati-Moiane said. “Sometimes, people might use feminism to justify a cultural double standard in (everyday interactions).”

With the rise of social media, Katelyn Kramer, the vice president of Outreach for Stanford Society of Women Engineers, said online platforms can help support women.

“A lot of my social media is very positive regarding feminism, empowering women and seeing women in male-dominated fields — maybe not always being treated equally or having full equality achieved, but at least getting to these points,” Kramer said. “I think that’s taken as positive a lot in the media, but in the real world, it’s not always taken positively. There’s still people fighting for real equality, like getting the same pay.”

According to the Pew Research Center, 28% of teen girls say social media makes them feel worse about their own life, compared to just 18% of teen boys.

Additionally, Chun said social media can promote unrealistic standards for women and girls.

“Sometimes looking at social media can make you feel bad about yourself, like it’s not normal for a girl to be interested in computer science, and you only see videos of girls going shopping,” Chun said.

However, Naomi Lilly, director of storytelling and marketing for Girls for Gender Equity NYC, said women having positions of power does not address the larger systemic issues such as women’s safety from sexual violence, healthcare disparities and cultural attitudes towards women.

“It’s still not enough when you’re still facing larger systems that don’t agree that you deserve those rights,” Lilly said. “Having that one vote doesn’t necessarily create the change that we need, which is why I think the community organizers that look like us, that care about us, that aren’t facing the larger systemic obstacles, are important.”

And community organizers can come in the form of those who have power in the hierarchical system already. Williamson said those with privilege should strive to uplift minorities.

“I hope that anyone in a position of power, where you’re not (a) marginalized person, can check your own privilege and be willing to be uncomfortable with how you might be contributing to a system that isn’t what you want to be contributing to — not because you’re a bad person, but just because there’s systems in place that do that,” Williamson said.