Cinema and television often aim to portray an idealised version of the world; even in gritty realism the presentation of life is still intensified. Through this exaggeration, an unrealistic expectation of life can be perpetuated, for example the significance of career. As a child of the noughties, I grew up watching many romcoms and happened to notice a common career for the leading women: journalism. This is not to say that other careers were not portrayed, but I can often recall the female protagonist as a striving journalist, full of intelligence, resilience, and persuasion.
Growing up on these images of strong women creating and expressing their opinion was an inspiration for me to want to write. Yet, looking back now, these honeyed ideals of or even idolisation of women forging identity through career has turned quite sour. In these depictions of the career driven woman as a journalist, she is often portrayed as being somehow stuck in writing about topics framed as frivolous. Now, these topics are often matters surrounding lifestyle or fashion and centre upon a stereotype of femininity. Perhaps the vice of the noughties era, in addition to the obsession with thinness as the beauty standard, was a policing of the value on women’s choices, bodies, intellect and femininity.
Diminishing the importance of a woman’s career, where the journalists focus on stereotypical female issues reduces not only a woman’s experience but diffuses the experiences and interests of all genders and identities. Almost two decades on, I hope that these portrayals have changed in cinema and television. However, I question the impact these images and ideals have had on the children of the noughties.
Yet, having an awareness of the problems around such portrayals, hopefully means that a positive change can be made.