Women and Gender

Shields: Celebrities jumping onto feminism bandwagon hurts movement

Usually, when a celebrity stamps his or her name on something, nothing but positivity emerges. Whether it’s a commercial product or a social justice campaign, getting a celebrity endorsement can help increase its popularity and success. This has been true for feminism, until Katy Perry decided to join the bandwagon.

When celebrities like Beyoncé or Ellen Page say they’re feminists, it encourages their many fans to look into feminism and what being a feminist means. That’s because these celebrities and many like them know what feminism is and act it out in an authentic way.

However, when Katy Perry told “I Wake Up With Today” host Karl Stefanovic on March 16 that feminism “just means that I love myself as a female and I also love men,” after she told Billboard Magazine that she wasn’t a feminist in 2012, it had the opposite effect.

I personally don’t believe there is one way to be a feminist, however if one goes from rejecting feminism to earnestly accepting it without understanding what it is, feminism comes off as one thing: a trend.

This brand of feminism — accepting the label without actually understanding or doing things to help women — is not good news for the feminist community. If people think that feminism is just a meaningless label, they may become complacent.



Women see so much injustice in the world: illiteracy, sexual and physical abuse, poverty and so much more. The point of the feminist movement is to try to combat this. It would be a shame if people begin thinking there is no work to be done.

For people with high media intake, celebrities are like their teachers. If someone like Katy Perry said feminism is simply loving everyone in the world, a lot of people would start believing this as well. This doesn’t mean that Katy Perry is responsible for molding young minds, but people like her shouldn’t take the initiative to accept this label just because everyone else is doing it.

When celebrities go around saying that they’re feminists without actually doing anything to better the lives of women around the world, their fans will follow suit. Stamping the label feminist onto oneself will coincide with buying a popular piece of clothing or the latest iPhone.

At first it will be immensely popular — everyone will adapt this new definition of a feminist — but then, like all other trends, it will die off. People will begin to resent its popularity and reject it, but they will be rejecting authentic feminism that helps women along with it.

It’s great when celebrities bring serious topics into discussion. In our reality TV-driven world, that can often be the push we need. However, it’s important that celebrities are fairly educated on the topics they’re bringing up and realize the effect that their words can have on others. This is especially true for Katy Perry who is a huge figure for women and girls around the world.

I’m not saying that celebrity endorsement will be the end of feminism or that celebrities can’t be real feminists. I just think that it’s important for celebrities to acknowledge the very real power that they have and to use it responsibly. It’s great that Katy Perry brought up the topic of feminism, but hopefully it won’t turn into just another trending topic.

Mandisa Shields is a freshman newspaper and online journalism major. Her column appears weekly. She can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @mandisashields. 

 





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