Interviews | anewkindoffairytale

Interviews on Gender, Society, and Inequality

Questions

Have you had any work/internship experiences in the past? What was it like? What did you like about it? What were some things that you didn’t like?
Have you ever taken a women’s studies class? If so, what was your impression or experience of the class (peers & professor)? If not, what are your thoughts surrounding women’s studies, feminism, etc.
Recently a lot of female celebrities are becoming more vocal about their beliefs on feminism and gender equality. What are your thoughts on the recent events that have happened this past year?
Based on your experiences, what qualities make up the modern day woman in our society? How does that differ with perhaps how society views the modern day woman?
Is there a stereotypical modern day woman anymore? Do people normally match that? Or, do people seem content making their own path?
Have you ever read any popular magazines for women such as Cosmo, or for men such as GQ? What is your experience or opinion of these magazines? How do they make you feel or what kind of opinions of messages do these magazines express?
College campuses can be more liberal in their ideologies or opinions about gender. Do you think there’s a difference between what college students think of as the modern day woman vs what most Americans think of? What do you think causes the difference? Do you see a change coming for what most Americans think?
As a child, did you ever read fairytales or watch Disney princess movies? Which ones were your favorites and why? What did you think about the main character from the movies or fairytales? If you didn’t like them, why? Did you identify with them? How about now? Which characters would you identify with now and why?

Have you ever re-watched the movies when you were older, picking up on different subliminal messages? (ex. women always being saved by men)
What do you think of when you think of fairy tales? What do you imagine? What are the first things that come to mind?
Can you describe a situation where you felt like you had to accommodate or compensate for yourself? At school? In your family? In your club organizations or friend groups?

compensate in what way? -- this might get a short answer

what are you trying to get at with this question?
Can you name some initial negative stereotypes that comes to mind when you think of women in today’s society? What about positive traits? Do you think this is true based on your own experiences as a woman or interacting with women?

Do you think college woman care more about their personal professional growth, or their relationships and future motherhood? (can show the change in modern women)

GAIL BLAUUW

Current Job: ESL Teacher

Mother of three children

Age: 47

I taught when my children were really small. Taught at a community college in Texas. I liked it pretty well. One thing I didn’t like and I didn’t realize it until I had this job, is that this job is very collaborative. I talk with my supervisor everyday. But at the community college, I was very alone, and I didn’t see my colleagues or my supervisor. I also did not like how I had to make decisions between taking care of my children and working, and I didn’t like how it dragged on my life, working with small children. I’m not complaining, but it was my responsibility to find childcare to cover for them while I went to work. And it was really hard to juggle the two. It’s very hard to be a mother of small children and also work. This is why I quit work when I was pregnant with my third.
No I have not taken a women studies class. I just feel very ignorant because I don’t know what women studies is. I do have a cynical response: I feel that women studies doesn’t really feel like an academic field or an area. I guess it could be like sociology. I don’t really understand feminism either. I feel I’m ignorant. I guess I feel I’m glad that somebody is thinking about these things. It does have a negative connotation, of people being angry about things. But in general, I do think we live in a society where women are not treated equally to men. It’s historical, and it still continues. I’m not sure they’re well represented in all jobs. And there’s the whole women and science issue. I don’t believe they are less good at science.
I don’t know much about them, but it seems good because they’re making clever comments. They’re being seen as sex objects. And sometimes the interviewers are making conversation, but it’s funny to think about what kind of conversations they would make to the men. It makes me happy when I see it.
So my interactions with women: Most women I know have had somewhat of a battle or a conflict where they’ve had to think about their children and work. They feel pulled in different directions. Most women have this TENSION in their lives between family and work. I think most of the women I talk to really love their family and take care of their children well. Some of them have to work for the money, and others have something valuable. Sometimes you really have to continue in it. I don’t think it’s just a job, but it’s also a PASSION, you can just let it sit for ten years. The women I see tend to be deep thinkers and they tend to live life deeply by asking hard questions. They kind of what to know why am I doing what I’m doing. They are women who really care a lot about their families. Some are very pleasure driven so they always talk about what they are watching like movies or traveling. So fun driven.

What you think the modern day woman should be like: It’s really hard because the reality is there that you have the family and that you have work. I don’t see any solution to that. I think they should be willing to work hard and invest themselves in whatever they do. Ideally they would have a lot of energy to do all of this and organize their lives. And ideally they would do this happily without getting angry or stressed. Maybe what I said is what society sees it too. Juggling both, doing it well, the perfect woman that can do it all and smile. Being a superhuman.

I think people do not match that idea, and whether they seem content, they don’t measure up so they feel less because they can’t do it all. Some women feel guilty for working with small working, and others do the others. Whatever you do, you can’t do it right.
I don't read those magazines
Probably. I don’t know the difference would be. I think that more students would be okay with a woman working more full time or more. But some people in society are okay with it too. I think they’re young so more open to different ideas, and they’re energetic and grow. When you’re old, you get set in your ways and get tired and cynical. These studies of academia kind of shepherds these changes or vice versa. I assume some research and studies also play into that based on what the students are doing. Actually I’ve been teaching a moms group for ten years, and I’ve been seeing more women working earlier, but it might be an economic reality. Usually part time.
I read a lot of fairy tales. My favorites were the ones that had love stories in them. I’ll say cinderella. Yes I liked cinderella. I liked the justice because she had injustice done to her, but in the end she had justice and she got the prince, so there was romance. I’m not sure that I identified with her in the sense of being treated unjustly. I’m sure I identified with her because I had a strong drive to get married, but she necessarily didn’t want that. I didn’t like rumplestiltskin because he seemed really grudgy and he got mad because she rightfully guessed his name. He seems sly and conniving. So now I identify more with the parents--Tangled, so when they lost their baby, I identified more with the mother, and I also identified with the witch who wanted the child. I don’t like the witch, but I can identify with her and her desire for a child.
I think of the book I had of a small child, I think of the pictures in it. They tend to be the grimm’s fairy tales. I don’t think of the princesses actually. I think maybe disney brought that in. I think of little red riding hood, puss in boots, hansel and gretel. Some of those are kind of scary.
So when I was a freshman in college, I dated a guy from a very stringent Christian background. And I started out as pre-vet because I wanted to be a veterinarian. And he told me that he couldn’t marry a vet. So I changed my education major to something else because he said that. I was just really young, and I thought I was going to marry him, and so because he said that. And so I changed to education, something more socially acceptable since he was okay with that, and that way I could take care of the kids. He was okay with that. And in retrospect, nobody really talked to me about either.
I think about Hillary Clinton-the woman who is not feeling, not caring, hard, driven, kind of the devil wears prada type character where they are all about their work. The other is the woman that just stays at home and doesn’t do anything, lazy, frumpy, and not very intelligent. The stay at home moms are seen as pretty unintelligent. Positive initial stereotypes: I think women are maybe more receptive or easy to talk to, give you a kind answer. And I think even the idea that women can work and manage a home. That they are capable and multi-tasking.

DAVID TAN

Current Job: AP Economics Teacher

Age: 27

What is the dynamic of your workplace in terms of men and women-gender dynamics?
- Mostly dominated by women. I think it has to do with history of education. As women enter into the workforce, they were typecasted into certain acceptable roles that were okay. And then there was a big push for men to become teachers, and then reports of sexual abuse. And then there was a push for no men. And then for 6-12, it pushed a lot of men away from teaching. My school is pretty even with guys and girls. There’s five departments three guys, two girls. But before this semester, it was two guys, three girls. We have such tings such as paraprofessionals. And for the most part, they are all women-younger women. There’s a couple guys, but they’ve been there for the longest time. All the new hires are women, but there’s no guys. There’s like an aura that they’re there to help teachers out. In that sense, across staff dynamic, all the secretaries are women, all hire administration are men aka principal but dean of students is a woman. My department is lead by a girl. Science is a guy, math is a guy. Inter-teacher dynamic, there seems to be no power differentials because the departments with the most men are lead by women.
I think it’s great. I think it’s helpful to have a structure for people to study injustices with a specific niche, just like race. I think feminism gets a bad rep, but I also think it’s because it can be done poorly. It’s kind of along the lines of if you say the right things but you say it meanly, no one is going to listen to you. But you think it’s beneficial for anyone.
There was like Emma watson speaking up---although I don’t know if I liked everything she said because she’s also a white female speaking too, because a lot of it ignores intersectionality. But I think it’s good that women are getting heard. Also at the grammys. But a lot of it was that they were happy that a white woman won. It really didn’t help the race thing. I don’t think they were becoming feminist, I think more people are listening. I think they always understood the way the world was. I’m glad because they’re feeling more empowered to do so without being blacklisted from every movie, and I think it’s some sense, it’s progress, but some of the stuff they said might have set them back too. It’s not perfect.
I think my experience with american society, I would say independent, very capable, more organized than me, but very thoughtful and perhaps more context driven, in terms of understanding events. Reliable, and driven and getting empowered.

Society: It’s like those sitcoms, an independent woman who is emotional but is successful aka young professionals, but there’s this idea that people don’t believe women when they talk about rape--there’s like gossip girl or things where people talk about how women are liars or not credible. Like that they are somewhat still objects and like that all they really want is for someone to still take care of them.

stereotypical women: I guess it depends on how people think of as modern day woman because the stereotypical view is like educated, white women, and that’s not necessarily true among ethnic groups. There’s a lot of pressure to conform to what society wants. Like you can get a career and get educated, but eventually take care of the kids. And people don’t really match that for me, but it’s like movies and real life. But we’re taught to believe that that’s how they should be or could be.
I’ve read GQ once. But I don’t like them. I feel like GQ is trying to tell me to be someone else all the time, and I feel like Cosmo is doing the same. It tells men to be to get a woman. You can tell what headlines are from what. And even the content that they talk about is sports, stocks, business, like these are the only things for men to talk about, which is limiting.
Definitely. Because college is a place where there’s a lot of forced diversity based on admission statuses or whatever. And even closer proximity. And even in cities, you can live in your own ethnicity. You can live in New york and never see another ethnicity. People who are willing to think and recognize that they don’t know everything, those people are in college. They’re open to being challenged. It’s a freer space to have harder convos that are more or less looked down upon in adult society because they don’t want to rock the boat, whereas college students don’t care about that.

I would say eventually, but not very soon. Because, the irony is, for as many people that are getting educated, there isn’t that big of a population. We all think we’re the same, but really, we are all so much ahead that most people in america. It doesn’t make us better, but we’ve been in contexts where we’ve had conversations where we can have them in a helpful way.
Yeah, I did. Not all the disney princesses. I liked aladdin a lot, I liked mulan, but I always felt weird watching it because I wasn’t used to watching Asian people on the screen. I didn't’ realize that she was Asian. It was probably just Jasmine partially because we had the VHS. But she was really pretty, but now that I think about it she was super scantily clad all the time. And I knew she was not white. She’s probably the one I knew the best and I liked the story. I think I did identify with her in some sense because I felt like a victim mentality, which she basically was--she was chained. So in the end, it had to do more with him than with her.

Now, I really like Mulan because she broke out of a hierarchical society in terms of like family, government and especially gender roles and was like a hero for her country. You didn’t like that she had to “ be a man” that she did that, but I admire and respect her for going through that. She just had the most agency out of all them. She had control over her own story in ways that Jasmine never did.

Subliminal messages: I haven’t re-watched them so no.
I imagine a damsel in distress with a knight in shining armor to save the day. I think of magic. All like romantically driven, about finding true love.
In terms of gender. Wanting to break out of the Asian mode of like not being awkward and being able to talk to girls, being able to be funny. Having to compensate from me being really shy. Having to also speak up more in the sense that I moved around a lot, so I was really shy.
Negative stereotypes: Emotional, like I said with that article, apparently all liars, unreliable sources, weak, and need to be protected, bad drivers, and they don’t play sports or are less competitive. No. I think what’s interesting is, is that the emotional part is sometimes true, but it’s actually the result that women are more vulnerable sometimes, and men aren’t. So in contrast, they might seem more emotional. I met super competitive girls who are really into sports too. I also meant weak willed as well. Interestingly though I see it at work, and I wonder if it’s a self preservation thing. Or ppl assimilate to authority.

PERSONAL REFLECTION

Rachel Choi

College Senior

Journal Entry: What I think makes up the modern day woman

It’s difficult to pinpoint specific qualities that make up a modern day woman that many other women can support or agree with because everyone has an idea of what a modern day woman is like. There’s a difference between what I think the modern day woman is and what kind of woman I would respect or aspire to be. As a kid, I probably would have said the modern day woman is a kind, feminine, polite woman who is self-sacrificing and loving. Because that was what I saw when I looked at the women around me. They were mostly stay at home mothers who were strong in loving their children, but their interests weren’t really in their careers. Personally as I kid, I loved female characters that were rebellious, took matters into their own hands, and could outsmart their male counterparts. I would read a lot of adventure fantasy books where women were at the center of their own destinies and had to fight to save the world, sometime while pretending to be a man.

But I think one of the biggest issues that come up is that all these female characters had a magical ability or something that made them unique. They were strong, independent, and powerful. This is a great image, but it doesn’t really make a difference when your personality isn’t really that. I craved these stories because I wanted to be that kind of person, but my personality was just naturally shy, quiet, silly, and not that independent. The gap in these “superwomen” characters and everyday girls is so big that even though we have these stories, we don’t really relate to them in tangible ways. It’s idealistic, but it’s not realistic. Just like boys love reading superhero comic books. Now that I’m in college, my idea of the modern day woman has changed. I think of confident, ambitious women that strive towards their careers while still worrying about their social lives among other things. Society has created this hybrid where women are becoming more strong, but also at the same trying to revert back to patriarchal views of what women should be. I’ve heard college students working hard as pre-med, but at the same time worry if they’ll be married by the time they’re 25. It’s a weird dynamic.

My own idea of a female role model has also changed. I imagine women who are patient, smart, wise, listening to others but at the same time clearly stating their opinions and what they believe is right. Not in anger or in bitterness, but with perseverance. And at the same time, they are very comfortable in their own skin, their own identities, and encourage and build up other women together. I guess that idea has come up a lot with celebrity feminism and articles that I’ve read throughout the years. It’s different, and it seems more realistic. Maybe because it’s not something that I’m reading from fantasy novels where girls are gritty, and unrealistic. I think the modern day woman is a conflicted woman who is navigating through a patriarchal society while holding onto her own views and her hopes for the future. Sometimes that means being a walking contradiction, but at the same time holding onto who they are as a woman and encouraging freedom for women to act and be who they want. So maybe when I’m writing a character in a fairytale, I’ll portray her in a way that is real, but also show the things that a real, normal person can achieve. I want to create a character that a normal girl can relate to and gain encouragement from.