How women have been notoriously humiliated and scrutinised in 2000s media.
Let’s revisit the decade that pioneered celebrity culture as it simultaneously dismissed feminist values.
Ah, the 2000’s, an era that’s infamous for its chick flicks, iconic pop culture moments, flip-phones, mini denim skirts, and chunky glitter lip gloss. A time period that made unforgettable developments in music, cinema, fashion, and cyber-culture. We see its archetypal elements integrated into society today, with the Y2K movement recently took the internet by storm. I am personally irrevocably fond of this decade because of the deep feelings of nostalgia it evokes in me. Maybe also because I really just love the movies Legally Blonde and Mean Girls. Nonetheless, it’s safe to say that I have extensive passion for the 2000s.
Viewing that time from a more contemporary point of view can evoke feelings of revelation for some. Particularly those who choose to look at the 2000s from a feminist angle. The media throughout that time is quite literally riddled with anti-feminist and misogynistic principles. Even when you put a little bit of effort into the surface level analysis of what seems to be reasonably innocent comedies from the era (*cough cough* Superbad) and just how generally sexist the portrayal of women is. With so many technological advances in the 2000s, the media was overwhelmed with a surge of content. With those many forms of entertainment came obvious controversial choices regarding women.
Tabloids
We can all agree that a crucial part of the 2000’s media was tabloids. Hot pink magazine covers plastered with exclusive photos of your favourite celebrity with shocking captions. Their main objective is to sell as many copies of the tabloid as possible and create shock value through gossip. Each magazine headline was riddled with undertones of inconspicuous misogyny. Only now, a decade later, we can spy and detect the blatant sexist values that dictated tabloids in the 2000s. Either the patronising headlines and captions or the apparent principle of over critiquing and scrutinising women for their every move.
All aspects of women’s lives were amplified to the harshest extremes; their relationships, private life, even their own bodies.
What the most prominent female pop culture icons of that decade, such as Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, have in common that paparazzi and tabloids have undeniably ruined their mental health. These women (and many others) have faced copious amounts of public criticism due to the media exploiting their every move.
With the #FreeBritney movement currently surfacing all over social media regarding Britney Spears’ battle for freedom from her conservatorship, let’s look at how tabloids and the media exploited and scrutinised Britney Spears and her 2007 ‘breakdown.’ This was a heavily publicised moment in her life. Headlines saying ‘Britney Shears’ and ‘Unfitney’, these disrespectful play-on-word titles were smothered all across tabloid covers with off-guard photos of Britney. Moments where she was battling a mental health crisis while simultaneously going through a divorce as she struggled to have custody of her own children, were for the whole world to see. Is this really what comes with fame? Britney was painted out to be a villain of her own story, her personal struggles. Ridiculed, exploited, and sexualised since she acquired her celeb status at the age of just 16. It is safe to say that the media industry owes Britney Spears a big apology.
“Not since two became new four and zero became the new two.”
Notice how I used a quote from one of my favourite movies; The Devil Wears Prada. Very accurately so, this movie was made in 2006. While I may love Stanley Tucci’s character in this film, Nigel. His quote perfectly captures the toxic attitudes towards women bodies in all forms of media.
We all remember ‘Fat Monica’ from the TV show Friends, right? Sure, it was surface level funny. You can’t really expect more from a sitcom comedy show. But she was only really there to show how undesirable plus size women are. Why was an overweight woman in a TV show only used for comedic effect? Once you start looking at it, body positivity was really rare to see those days. And once you start realising and applying the effects of the media on young impressionable girls at the time. You can see truly how brutal the media was towards women.
Nearly all forms of entertainment undeniably harboured and reflected toxic attitudes towards women bodies for decades, more notably during the 2000s. Diet culture and the glorification of being size zero was a standard that women were upheld to. Nearly all the more famous female celebrities and public figures have had their body and size talked about somehow or the other. Whether it was weight loss or weight gain, women were upheld to this beauty standard. This is probably why many women from the Millennial generation admit to having eating disorders and/or critical views of their body in the 2000s when they were teenagers.
Rightfully so, seeing an off guard paparazzi picture of yourself at the beach on the front cover of a gossip celebrity magazine or some online forum, with your appearance being taken apart, would be undeniably upsetting. It would honestly be incorrect of me to say that this categorically happened in the 2000s. This is an issue still seen today in all forms of media. This is just overt misogyny that needs to be called out.
The Dumb Blonde
What I have been able to notice about prominent women in pop culture in the 2000s, is how they have their authentic character and intelligence robbed of them to adhere to a misogynistic stereotype. My favourite example of this real-life trope being implemented and affecting a women’s life is Paris Hilton. Notoriously known to be the ‘It Girl’ of the 2000s. Many of us saw her ‘dumb blonde’ persona debut in the early 2000’s reality TV show ‘The Simple Life’, in which Paris Hilton starred alongside Nicole Richie. This iconic show gave us memorable and quotable moments that we all love, such as “What is Walmart? Do they, like, sell wall stuff?” and the infamous Paris catchphrase, “That’s hot.” However, in her 2020 documentary ‘This is Paris’, she reveals that she had been faking her ditsy Valley Girl archetype voice for the show. She says in an interview that “This entire time, I have been playing a character, so the world has never really truly known who I am.” My thought behind this is that her fake persona prevented the media from scrutinising and exploiting her actual character. Taking away her authenticity was actually a smart move to protect herself. Paris further stated that “The real me is actually someone who is brilliant, and I’m not a dumb blonde — I’m just really good at pretending to be one” All her unintelligent comments on ‘The Simple Life’ were all just a part of her ‘dumb blonde’ act that immediately cemented her into this stereotypical mould that would dictate the media’s perception of her throughout the peak of her fame.
Paris admitted to not wanting to be remembered as an ‘airhead’; does this not show how women were represented then? How they were diminished to a persona that they showed the world on some TV show. How women were judged to such large extents simply just from how they were represented in the media. Usually from one dimensional and superficial angles.
The Takeaway
While we can’t precisely apply Generation Z’s ‘cancel culture’ principles to some famous comedy movie from 2007 for containing a handful of sexist jokes. We can look at the 2000s with a totally different point of view in regards to women.
-Zara Karlieva
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