Picture this. A single woman in her early thirties risks everything by leaving her old life behind to move to the big city and makes it big all on her own.
Welcome to the Mary Tyler Moore Show where feminism is expressed without people bashing all men, taking off their clothes, or implying that you need to play the “I’m a women so I am the victim” card to get places in life.
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The show aired in 1970 offering a whole new perspective of what it could mean to be a woman and how it was okay to go against the status quo. The shows lead character Mary Richards portrays a strong successful independent woman who lets nothing get in her way as she faces everyday challenges like dating and work. This show proved that you don’t need a man in your life to be happy (yet not implying that all men are scum). This was a very big deal, because at the time, the majority of shows that were out were centered around the importance of family and marriage.
Mary Tyler Moore’s show promoted equality and the importance of chasing after your dream because that dream may not always be in the kitchen.
Feminism has lost its way since the third wave has swept across the nation. This is no secret considering the fact that we now live in a world where walking around naked, kissing girls because you liked it (as sung about in Katy Perry’s song “I kissed a girl”), and murdering an unborn child are all seen as acts of feminism and girl power. According to the Merriam Webster’s dictionary, the definition of feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” Nowhere in this definition does it imply that murdering a fetus is the right of a woman.
Millennials specifically are looking at celebrities like Katy Perry and Lena Dunham as their feminist role models, unaware that they promote many things feminists have been fighting to get rid of — including the idea that women should not be seen as sexual objects.
Perry and Dunham supported Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election. What kind of a feminist would support a candidate who forced women to drop rape charges against her husband? Katy took part in the Women’s March this past weekend where women were marching around with signs that said “grab my pussy” or even wearing vaginas on their heads.
How can these women be demanding respect and to be seen as more than just sexual objects when they are wearing vaginas on their head and walking around with half of their clothes off? The march was ultimately a slap in the face to those who had actually fought for women’s suffrage and granted women the right to vote.
Mary Tyler Moore will always be a more accurate symbol of what it really means to be a feminist. She recognized that there is no need to wear a vagina on your head to prove that women should not be seen as sexual beings. She recognized that making men out to look like monsters and blaming them for all of women’s problems will at the end of the day achieve nothing. She recognized that making a video of yourself naked to support a candidate is not the only way to show that support (ahem, Katy Perry).
Mary showed women that they could have all the opportunities afforded in life and find happiness on their terms without putting others down or taking it all. Before there were third wave feminists, there was Mary Tyler Moore feminists, and she showed women could make it after all.
