Difficult To Miss That 'Easy A'

          
In Patricia Hill Collin’s piece, “Toward a New Vision”, she speaks of symbolic oppression.  Her central thoughts on the subject may be characterized by a list that is placed in the bottom, right-hand corner of page 78.  The list shows qualities that are stereotypical to men and women.  This list she has holds similar ideas to those discussed in class, but that’s not the only reason her message has stayed with me.  Earlier tonight I went to see “Easy A” and these qualities were thrown onto the screen.  Without giving too much away (for those who have yet to see the film) one character was bullied for being homosexual while the movie’s main character chose to give into pressure and fulfill numerous stereotypes.  She dresses provocatively and lies about doing sexual favors for members of the opposite sex.  Olive does this in an attempt to help others and gain attention.  In other words, it’s how she supposed to behave to be a “real woman”.  She tries to harness the attention by embroidering a scarlet “A” on all of her clothing.  Olive likens her behavior to the punishment handed to Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter.  In all honesty, the main similarity I can see between the two plot lines (aside from the obvious topic of adultery) is that the male characters are not held accountable for their actions.  In the novel, Arthur Dimmesdale is not forced to suffer the public humiliation of his actions.  It may be argued that his punishment is in fact harsher than Hester’s, but that is not the focus of this argument.  Arthur’s ability to keep his misdeed hidden is similar to the male characters in the movie.  They appear to benefit from the destruction of Olive’s reputation and are not thought less of by the rest of society.  It seems that their actions are acceptable, while Olive’s are not (even though they are” involved” in the same activity). 

What is the point of this random connection you may ask? Although it is a nerdy and partial representation of my personality, it shows more than that.  It shows how these ideas of what it’s like to be “masculine” and “feminine” are so ingrained into popular culture that they becomes the topic of movies and even music.  Sometimes they aren’t even recognized as oppression because it’s “simply how thing are”.  It seems like nothing can change the minds of millions, but the truth is that change is already happening.