Chris Muller, 12/18/23, Period 7

 Chris Muller

Pd 7

12/18/23

Modern Mythology 2024

Socio-Political Awareness/Literacy & Learning

When reading Stone Blind, I couldn't help but be reminded of the current trend of reimagining ancient/older tales or customs through a modern lens, particularly through a feminist lens. Examples of this empowerment of women besides Stone Blind can be seen in everything from superhero blockbusters to advertising to military recruiting. Stone Blind is just one example of this new, more woman-focused media ethos through its analysis of ancient Greek women and goddesses and showing the true colors that were misinterpreted through time. 

One example of this new feminine lens is the recent development of strong female superheroes such as the MCU’s reimagining of Captain Marvel. In the original comics, Captain Marvel was a male. However, the MCU decided to remake the character as female. This was a relatively bold move at the time, as Captain Marvel is one of the most powerful characters in the setting, and a cornerstone of the comics. However, the move paid off as Captain Marvel became one of the highest grossing MCU movies and set the standard for female roles in the MCU moving forward. It moved Marvel away from women as a showpiece or “eye candy” shown previously in characters such as Black Widow and toward more self-sufficient stand-alone female characters, which is now being realized through new characters such as Ms. Marvel and Iron Heart. 

A second example of this lens is in advertising, where products are usually no longer marketed specifically based on gender lines. Many new advertisements for traditionally gendered products, especially toys such as Barbie dolls or Hot Wheels cars now feature both boys and girls using the products in advertisements. Other products such as makeup feature men in advertisements as well. Trends such as this would've been unthinkable even 30 years ago, when products, unless very general in usage, were marketed very specifically toward men or women. Certain stereotypes also are no longer perpetuated through advertising, such as the outdated notion of women as housewives and thus kitchen products or cleaning supplies would be marketed toward them.  

A third example is the recent drive for women to join the military. Before 1948, women were not allowed to join the military in a permanent capacity, and thus had to serve in temporary positions such as nurses and secretaries. As recently as 2013, women were not allowed to serve in combat roles. However, this trend has reversed in the last decade, with there being a major recruitment drive for women to join. This is likely due to declining male recruitment rates, so recruiters turn to women to fill the gap. Also, technology makes physical strength much less important in many roles, as it functions as a strength multiplier. Many positions in the military are moving away from physical combat/duties and toward remote warfare through drones and remote weapon systems. This leads to an increased ability for women to participate in the military, further spurred by the aforementioned recruitment effort.

In short,  Stone Blind is just one example of a new, modern media climate that is shown in a myriad of different ways.