Colin's Gender and Pop Culture Blog

Video Post

2008-08-09T15:07:00.003-04:00

After Much Technical difficulty, I present my first youtube video. Ever.

How to Objectify Women

2008-07-31T19:48:00.002-04:00

In creating my collage I've decided to depict feminine objectification over masculine, because lets face it: It is by far the more common occurrence, the more lewd, and the more demoralizing. This is not to say that advertising for men isn't headed in the same direction, but for the time being, it is not as noteworthy.

Let's start with the top two images. The first is actually an ad made to support vegetarianism, which some might consider to be a noble point to get across. However, the passage reads "Spice up your life," with a nude female model laying out across a bed of hot peppers. Now, regardless of the underlying vegetarian theme, we find a separate idea: that women can be turned into objects of desire for men in order to manipulate them. Not only does this show a woman as simply a body to be desired, it also indulges the reader into thinking that he has a possible chance at doing something "spicy" with this woman, regardless of the fact that she most likely has no interest in even looking at him. So not only has the ad objectified women, it has convinced men that all attractive females are meant to bed them.

The next image is pretty self-explanatory-- "Most women feel their bodies fail the beauty test, and the American health and beauty industry benefits enormously from continually nurturing feminine insecurities." (63) So here we find a Victoria's secret model showing off the lingerie required to make your husband/boyfriend love you for who you are. Dress sexy, or get out. The important message here is that women MUST consume, they absolutely must, at the cost of having their boyfriend not love them or appreciate them. Such a message hits painfully hard to teenage girls, whose boyfriends may not even have any interest in seeing them in lingerie.

The Middle image, however, is a bit more degrading. Not only do women need to lift their breasts up and make them look as full as possible, but it is the only thing they need to do to seem attractive. The nail in the coffin is that the one thing the woman in the ad is mentioning NOT being able to do is COOKING. As if a normal, respectable girl would be measured only by her cooking abilities, this ad has taken it down a notch to being measured by, well, her measurements. As Hesse and Biber write in the first chapter of The Cult of Thinness, "A woman's sense of worth in our culture is still greatly determined by her ability to attract a man. Body weight plays an important part in physical attraction." (18)

The last three ads are a bit more offensive than simple sexual imagery.

Bacardi Mojito: This woman's tongue will find a mint leaf anywhere, especially if it happens to be in a man's mouth. That is how much she loves Mojito.

"You can't turn a ho into a housewife" T-shirt : I'm not sure if you can see it in the collage, but the woman who is supposed to be a housewife is actually having thoughts of submissively taking a man from behind. So not only are we perpetuating the stereotype that women are meant to be cooking, we ALSO are adding that some women aren't even capable of housekeeping, because they think about how to be pleasing their husband/boyfriend too much.

Finally, the last image of a book called "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch." Not only does it funnel women into the activity of cooking, as if they could not excel in any other facet of life, but it tells them how to stay skinny so that while they're being degraded into home-servants, they can keep in mind that they are constantly being judged for their looks as well.

These last two examples touch on Wolff's idea of Virtuous Domesticity: "As soon as a woman's primary social value could no longer be defined as the attainment of virtuous domesticity, the beauty myth redefined it as attainment of virtuous beauty." (125) Yet these last two ads, you may notice, are in support of exactly this: Virtuous domesticity. And the book "Skinny Bitch in the Kitch" was amazingly published in 2007. It acts almost as a bridge between two generations of the degradation of women, and is the #1 sold book on Amazon.com in the reference section of Health, Mind & body. Amazing.

Works cited:

(125) The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf
Harper Perennial 2002

(18, 63) Hesse-Biber, Sharlene Nagy. The cult of thinness I by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber.-2nd
Oxford University Press 2007
Rev. ed. of: Am I thin enough yet? 1996.

Billy The Kid

2008-07-24T18:58:00.013-04:00

My nephew, Billy, is a cheery little git of 11 years. About three moths ago we celebrated his birthday, cake and all; with his parents both on a week long vacation, they left me with the responsibility of helping little Billy choose an array of toys that his parents would buy him upon their return. Being upper class, white, well-to-do business owners from Georgia, they really have no qualms with high priced gadgets. They are, however, a little bit worried about exposing Billy to bad influences: guns, violence, nakedness, loud noises, and anything unchristian. This left Billy with few options for his gifts, although he didn't know that yet; he thought he had free range. I set him up in front of the computer and pointed him to Amazon.com, Toys R' Us online, and eventually Google. The following is an account of what transpires.

Billy's Birthday

Even at his young age, Billy is very aware of one thing: his social status. He is defined through kids in elementary school by his family's wealth, his advantages, and what he owns and brings in to school. Never timid, Billy is very willing to shove the newest action figure into his friends' faces while yelling "Neener neener" at inexcusable volumes. For some reason his rapidly degenerating personality does not worry his parents as it does me-- let's recall what Newman has to say about Identities and their significance:

"[Identities] are social locations that determine our position in the world relative to other people. At times, we purposely call attention to them, through how we dress, walk, and use language, whom we choose to associate with, perhaps even where we live." (Newman, P.33)

For children, innocence and ignorance disallow their consciouses to recognize how their toys and actions are affecting their identities. Let me give you an example. Although not his first choice, this action figure was one that Billy picked out.

http://home.nycap.rr.com/lathfam/
Here we have what some would consider an honorable soldier, and others would consider a racist symbol. "Not surprisingly, although symbols can evoke feelings of solidarity and unity, they can also be used to separate, intimidate, and evoke hostility." (Newman, p.74) Billy, of course, knew only about what his father had told him of the bravery of Robert E. Lee and his troops-- not that the confederate army was fighting to retain their right to maintain the tradition of slavery.

If Billy were to grow up idolizing his Confederate action hero, he may come to believe that what they stood for might not be so bad. What I mean to get at is this: Young children are unable to reject certain influences that could affect their identities for the worst, and as such, toys are a powerful (and often negative) influence on their young minds.

This malleability of young minds is much more liable to have permanent influences on the way children consider race and gender as well. One of Billy's favorite action figures is of course Spiderman
http://www.amazon.com/
One of the greatest Villains in the Spiderman series, I must add, is Venom. Naturally, Billy wanted both action figures so that he could make them fight each other.

http://www.amazon.com/

As is consistently the theme in Comic Books and movies, the supervillains are all black or dark in some way. You'll notice that "good guys in old western movies wore white hats, and the bad guys wore black hats. White lies are small, insignificant, and harmless. But black magic is dark and ominous." (Newman, p.79) The danger here, of course, is that Billy will apply this same principle when considering the goodness of races other than his own. After consistently having evil associated with dark in his immature little head, he may eventually come to apply that same rule in his everyday life. We see now that the development of a child's identity starts early, and can easily be defined by his influences in everyday life, notably through the TV he watches and toys he plays with. While race is certainly a theme in many toys and shows, Billy is also beginning to define himself as a boy, which naturally has led him to a rejection of girls and all of their habits. He is very aware that he is not to play with this, or he would hear unending criticism from his peers:
http://www.amazon.com/

Although he is unwilling to take part in female activities, however, he still notices what they are doing-- Billy begins to understand the role that ideal women should be playing, and apparently, it involves wearing little clothing while being attractive. He has no knowledge or desire to change or reject this view; as a child, he is simply presented with it. "If a society is oppressive, then people who grow up and live in it will tend to accept, identify with, and participate in it as "normal" and unremarkable life. That's the path of least resistance in any system." (Johnson, p.93)

So, back to the issue of Billy's gifts. I didn't want him to get the confederate soldier; it may offend teachers at his school, or even other students. More importantly, it might leave a lasting impression on the little tyke. I didn't want to get Spiderman & Venom, as the constant portrayal of all black things as evil might tilt him towards racism. I wouldn't get him a Barbie doll, of course, because he would be ridiculed and come to believe that all women are to look and act like a large-chested plastic doll.

All of my reasoning, as you can see, is based off of one fact: That Billy is unable to realize the significance these toys could have in developing his later identity. So I took one tiny bit of Johnson's advice: "We have some freedom to break the rules and construct everyday life in different ways, which means that the paths we choose to follow can do as much to change patriarchy as they can to perpetuate it." (Johnson, p.98)

Rather than recommend he ask his parents for any of the toys that could cause potential psychological harm, I told him that by far the coolest thing he could do is ask for a guitar, and go learn to play it.
http://customersrock.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/rock-crowd.jpg

Works Cited:

1.) David M. Newman, Manufacturing Difference: The Social Construction of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality McGraw-Hill Companies Oct. 2005

2.)Allan G. Johnson -- The Gender Knot Temple University Press (April 30, 1997)
Patriarchy, The System

Family Guy (not girl) - Gender Issues

2008-07-18T15:25:00.002-04:00

Family guy is an all-encompassing show; it strikes chords of racism, sexism, religious degradation and social class systems. Here are a few examples from one episode that we viewed in class which focuses on the makeover of Meg, the daughter of the family.

One of the earliest and most striking examples in the show occurs when Meg's mother takes her to go shopping at the Mall. In an attempt to make Meg seem cooler and more popular, Lois (Meg's mom) offers to buy her shirts which epitomize the sexist slurs given to some women. One shirt, for example, bears the text "Little Slut," while another has the phrase "Cum Dumpster." In using these shirts as an attempt to be more accepted, Meg of course is willing to trade her pride and any sense of female empowerment by announcing her desire to do anything to please a man--if it means she'd be cool because of it.

In an all-too-common example of how social constructs influence children's views of masculinity and femininity, we have the boy that Meg attempts to date before and after her makeover. He is the coolest and most charming guy in school, and is of course blonde, wears a leather jacket, doesn't "play by anyone's rules but his own," and "doesn't even play by his own rules." He plays the typical high school jock, portraying to children that it's cool to be a rebel, to be dumb, and to be handsome.

The same school jock in one scene uses sexual language to belittle Meg. When she asks him if he'd liek to go out on a date, he responds with "I don't date dudes." Labeling a girl a tomboy is something that occurs constantly, and has always been an attack on their femininity. In a way, it's a bit liek saying "sorry, you're not doing enough to look pleasing for a guy." It is remarks like this type of remark (as well as the people who light themselves on fire and jump out of windows when they see her face) that eventually encourages Meg to get her makeover.

If there is one thing family guy is not, it's politically correct. Between slamming handicapped men around on tables and having a perverted neighbor hitting on young girls, this becomes pretty obvious after seeing a few episodes. It can avoid this political correctness in the form of humor, although at times the show can go very far in stretching the boundaries of what's acceptable. For instance, at one point in time P. Diddy ( I believe?), while acting as the family's agent, said "America loves hot, white, jailbait ass," to which Meg responded "I want to be exploited!" Although clearly satirical, there is some truth in young girls being willing to exploit their bodies in the name of popularity.

Lastly, there was an instance of racial language towards the end of the show as well, wherein the pet dog begins barking at P. Diddy veraciously (in an attempt to show that dogs are racist I would assume). That was overt racism, but more subtle was the fact that he called Diddy "brother," a few times, as if the best way to get in good with a black man is to refer to him in such a way. It was an interesting example of how a white man (or dog) believes it is necessary to change his vocabulary in order to better make a black man feel comfortable. There is also a hint of fear at being labeled a racist, as the dog asks his family " hey you guys know I'm not racist right? right?", and then goes on to say his racism comes from his father's blood.

There were countless other examples of the distortions of race, sex and class in this single episode, but these few seemed the most glaring examples.

Family Guy. “Don’t Make Me Over.”

Season 4, Volume Three, Disc One, DVD. 6/5/05

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation: Beverly Hills, CA. 2005.

Test Blog

2008-07-10T16:21:00.001-04:00

Blog Blog Blog

Link to Blogging in College: The Main Gender & Pop Culture blog

2008-07-10T15:53:00.000-04:00