One question has surfaced in the realm of women and pop culture all year. A controversial article in The Atlantic by Anne-Marie Slaughter looked into it. The newest preview for comedian Mindy Kaling’s fall show, “The Mindy Project,” is dedicated to the best way to do it. Yahoo’s new CEO, 37-year-old Marissa Mayer, is making the blogosphere atwitter over it.

Can women have it all?
This summer, I am interning for BUST Magazine, a magazine “for women with something to get off their chests.” Working there has made me think about women and pop culture almost every day, especially the hot topic of whether or not women can really have it all.

Slaughter’s piece, “Why Women Still Can’t Have it All,” explains that women juggling thriving professional and personal lives are “superhuman, rich, or self-employed.” Every other woman is set for a harder road and less successful time management.

Kaling’s latest “Project” preview satirically explains the three easy ways for a girl to have it all.

“Work eight hours a week and be amazing at your job. Make sure you’re always available for your friends. Save plenty of time for love,” Kaling says. “You can do that, right? Because I hope someone’s up to it.”

Yahoo’s Mayer is just the 20th female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. In addition, Mayer, an ex-Google engineer, announced her six-month pregnancy. While that did not appear to make a difference in the minds of Yahoo’s board members, seemingly everyone with access to Wi-Fi cared.

Mayer may be proof that the fairer sex can do it all.

She is fashionable and nerdy at the same time. She will soon split her time between a baby and a running a company. She falls into that “superhuman” category Slaughter described.

But the first issue with answering this question is defining what “all” even means.

A woman used to need only a perfectly put-together home to look like she had it all together. After the sexual revolution, a woman was at her peak once she ruled the boardroom.

Now, both are requirements that women need to fulfill or be flawed.

Any single girl on television or in the movies is dodging relationship questions once she hits her mid-20s. If she hasn’t gotten her career on track, there are some pretty big concerns, too.

It’s hard for women to avoid comparisons to the line of females in pop culture who do seem to have it all. Whether it’s Carrie Bradshaw of “Sex and the City” with her amazing rent-controlled apartment, perfect job and lifetime supply of men, or Angelina Jolie, who still looks fresh while handling a United Nations career, Hollywood hunk husband and battalion of kids.

Those lives are much easier to idealize than an obviously fictitious —and not so fun— story like Sookie’s on “True Blood.” She doesn’t know how to balance her life or have a normal day.

The first step in figuring out this feminist riddle is accepting that having it “all” will probably mean something different to everyone.

I can barely handle a few internships in one summer without feeling overwhelmed. I can’t imagine a real job, a couple kids and a husband at home.

Ariana Romero is a junior magazine journalism and political science major. Her column appears every week. She can be reached at akromero@syr.edu or followed on Twitter at @ArianaRomero17.

Published on July 19, 2012 at 2:26 pm