11/1/12
This week really interested me because lately I’ve been trying to stay away from Mass Media because so many societal norms come from the media that it’s hard to be your own person when other people are telling you how to act and think. This all starts at a very young age when children are susceptible to whatever they see and hear. They don’t know the difference between what is right and wrong since they have nothing to base morals off of besides their peers, parents, and the media. In Adie Nelson’s reading “The Pink Dragon is Female: Halloween Costumes and Gender Markers” she explains how in previous research “Play” ment creative imagination. Now however commercial markets play a major role in fostering children’s imaginations so kids have less freedom than they did to choose to be whoever they want to be. The study looked at marketing reinforcement of gender stereotypes based on colors, names, and the boys and girls on the packaging. Out of 469 costumes only 8.7% of them were gender neutral which means that either a girl or boy could wear them and it be socially acceptable. In my family I have two brothers and a sister and not once have I seen them wear a costume that didn’t fit their gender role, for example my brother wearing a dress. I found an example of sexim in a movie called “The Change-Up” it’s showing a young man with two hot girls and then a dad with two kids showing that men should look for hot women compared to having a family and being a stay at home dad.
http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lok9c4L6Yx1qhw47o.jpg
10/30/12
Today was a very interesting class that talked about gender in the media and how women control a small portion of Directing, writing, and producing jobs in the media. I like how that girl on youtube showed the Bechdel test and I was surprised to see that many movies failing it showing that men have the most important role. Growing up as a child I never would pick up on men being the dominating role I just assumed it was normal and how it should be. Looking back on it I realize how wrong it is and how much mass media contributes to our societal norms and keeping the white male above all other races and genders. There’s a video about disney and sexim that is similar to the Micky Mouse Monopoly in showing that men should embody females looks and not care about their personalities. They also explain how boys should turn into men and have nice bodies and be very masculine so they can be good to their wife and make lots of money. People without big bodies are usually made to look stupid, weak and have a minor role. Most fights in disney movies between men are about getting a women showing who is the better man. Women in the media are also portrayed in goofy, friendly, and not serious postures which makes them look silly and as if they are objects not people. Erving Goffman talks about this Gender Display and how it’s still present in the media and objects we purchase today. Masculinity if reinforced through violent video games in Kimmel’s reading he explains some of the reasons why. One is that men need to relax from their adult lives, take revenge against the world that has mistreated them, and finally restore a sense of control. This kind of relates to a book I was reading the other day “The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are” by Alan Watts which talks about people having an ego and it makes them want to fight against this strange world they were placed in. This relates to gender because if we all didn’t have huge egos then I believe we wouldn’t have gender, race, and war conflicts because we would all understand that we are born of the earth and are all living life because we are part of the universe as a whole process.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc0qg7hzcnU
10/17/12
I really enjoyed working on the breaking a gendered norm paper/project. At first I thought it was going to be very tough, awkward, and made me anxious but by the end of it I was glad we it was an assignment. This week was interesting to me because I think that one of the worst things about the inequality of gender is that women get paid less than men in the workforce and don’t get very high level positions. Also lots of women usually get jobs caring for other people as nurses which don’t get paid very much compared to doctors or surgeons. I think that because of this discrimination in the workplace where women get paid a lot less than men the home life of a married couple is affected. In my experience this helps contribute to the fact that there are many stay at home moms, since my dad makes alot more money than my mom would she ends up staying home and caring for the kids. Even when the wife makes more than the husband she ends up doing more housework to protect their husband’s gender identity based on a study by Bianchi, et al. There are more examples of this in “Gender Force Field” by Williams where he talks about dual earning couples and how their relationships are affected based on how much money one partner makes. Below I included a video about gender stereotypes in the household which have many different television commercials one specifically is for young girls showing that they should do housework. Another is a survey done asking kids about different questions asking who does what role in the house all of them choose the woman. There’s a lot more of this in children’s movies especially Disney like we saw in Micky Mouse Monopoly where it shows how girls should do the housework like Snow White cleaning the house. They also explain how girls need a man to go to work and rescue them and in order to do that they need to dress beautifully and flirt with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8z6ks8Z0X20
10/10/12
Society has usually adopted the fact that women stay at home with the children, make dinner and take care of the household. This has been going on for many years and is further backed by many media shows especially the show Mad Men. In the scene I attached below it shows Don Drapper getting angry at his boy because he is playing with a toy at the dinner table. It shows that the man is the dominant member of the household and he has the final say in punishing the children. Also it is showing how Betty makes the food for the family so when Don gets home from work he has a nice meal to sit down and enjoy. This scene from the movie ties into the reading “The Feminization of Love” by Francesca Cancian. She states that “This feminized perspective leads us to believe that women are much more capable of love than men and that the way to make relationships more loving is for men to become more like women.” This whole show is about how women need a man in order to have a good life and that without one they will be very unhappy and an outcast of society. Also the show has examples of married men who sleep with their secretaries and random women and get away with it. Even the main character’s wife Betty knew about Don sleeping around but put up with it until she found a suitable man to fill Don’s place. Thankfully the times are starting to change and because of economic times both the husband and the wife have jobs and share the household chores. Personally I see the typical model of the family in both my mom and my dads families, my dad works hard and my step mom stays at home. On the other hand my step dad works and my mom stays at home taking care of the kids taking them to sporting events, feeding them, etc. I believe that one day people won’t question when both parents work, take care of the house, and children equally just like the family in the New York Times video we watched in class.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEICkRt9FcY
