The Luck of the Draw: The Inconsistency of Single-Stories Placed on Women

    Let's play a game... unwanted, slutty, respectful, powerful, attention-seeking, beautiful. What do all of these words have in common? These are all words commonly used to describe women and as you can see many are actually very different from one another. Being a woman in today’s society you carry a lot of single stories with you, some positive and some negative and you never quite know which label society will place on you as you go about your life, trying to prove yourself in a world driven by men. The New York Times publishes Op-Docs, short documentaries made by emerging filmmakers, that explore issues such as societies’ views on women. I recently watched two Op-Docs that especially stood out to me because of their contrasting depictions on women's lives in their societies today.

    In the first Op-Doc, “Where Being a Single Woman is Not OK” Shosh Shlam, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who focuses on societal issues in China, examines the degrading stereotypes placed on women in Chinese society. She does so by exploring the life of Qui Huamei, a single woman in her thirties, and by showing how society and her family look down on her simply because she is not married. In China, the government pressures women to get married and single women over the age of 27 are labeled as “leftover women” or “sheng nu” in Chinese. So beside the fact that Qui Huamei is a hardworking and successful lawyer who can provide for herself she is still described as dumb, inferior, and an embarrassment to her family because she does not desire a life dictated by a man.

    On the opposite end of the spectrum is Jesselyn Silva, or preferably called “JessZilla” when she’s in the ring. In the Op-Doc “Girl Boxer” Emily Sheskin, award-winning director and editor of many documentaries, TV specials and advertising campaigns, tells the story of 10 year old Jesselyn Silva and her passion for boxing. Sheskin shows the adversity that Jesselyn faces by her school-age peers and older members of society and explains how this adversity continues into the professional realm of female boxing. However, different from Qui Huamei, Jesselyn’s family and close friends show her nothing but support as she continues to, quite literally, fight her way through the obstacles presented to her in boxing. She isn’t inferior because she shows masculine qualities, but instead described as a force to be reckoned with by her supportive father, Pedro. 

    Why is there such a contrast between these two stories? I believe it may be the difference in American and Chinese culture, but even if we focus our lens over just America, we see some women labeled as powerful for creating a name for themselves while others we label attention-seeking and greedy for doing the same thing. It seems as though we care less about a woman's story and more about getting a label on her as fast as possible, whether it be positive or negative. I encourage you to take some time and watch these two stories and observe the profound lives of Qui Huamei and Jesselyn Silva, and after become more aware of the labels that you place on women in your daily life.