Representing America - American Literature AP - Blog

Anti-Feminist Designers?

The recent Chanel window displays show female manikins in elegant gowns wearing large, feature-hiding, white-feather-covered, Venetian masks. One of these women is also sitting in a large, human-sized, golden birdcage.

Chanel’s design, while intended to capture a woman’s attention and draw her into the store, is extremely derogatory toward women. The masks objectify women, turning the manikins into body parts for passersby to look at anonymously. The manikin positioned happily in the birdcage suggests she is submissive and passive.

Chanel, a high quality brand that sells to wealthy, influential women, has determined that showcasing stereotypical attributes of women will sell their products. Their marketing strategy shows how much America is influenced by traditional views of women as obedient, passive, simple beings.

What If She Was Your Boss?

skip about 25-30 sec of the beginning of the video

 

The Movie Horrible Bosses is easily one of the best comedies of the year. The premise includes 3 middle-aged men working for bosses that they absolutely detest. One of the guys in particular, Dale (Charlie Day) works at a dental office with a hot,sex crazed boss(Jennifer Aniston). She tries to seduce him daily; knowing full well that he has a wife. But that's the fun in it all.

The film introduces the seductress social construct; the movie displays how women have the ability to use their attractiveness to bring men to their knees and the ability to harness physical, sexual and psychological power over them. What is interesting is that the boss is the head of the dental firm at which Dale works, so she can manipulate Dale into doing almost whatever she wants. Although he undergoes heavy manipulation throughout the movie Dale remains to be unswayed by her beauty and her psychological teasing.

In the interview Anniston, felt as if she just could disappear playing this role because she could be a different person. In society it seems like when women are viewed in a seductress P.O.V they can either gain power or class advancement. By toppling over the male sex , and having us beg for more; women ultimately create their own identity.

Pan Am: Feminim Critique

The TV show "Pan Am" aired this year on ABC. The show is about the Pan Am stewardesses and and pilots. The women all say they became stewardesses because they wanted to get out and see the world. The women had to be pretty, a unmarried, and wear the proper attire to be able to be on their plane. The women are breaking stereotypes by coming out the house and getting a job, but while doing that they have to become a stereotype to keep themselves where they are.

In the first episode, Laura, a main character, runs away from her engagement to join her sister as a Pan Am stewardess because she doesn't want to get ties down. She wants to see the world. Her sister Kate also left the house because she didn't want to be what her mother wanted her to be. By leaving their lives at home and becoming stewardesses they break the stereotype that all women are submissive housewives. However, to be a stewardess you must look, dress, and act a certain way. If you don't, you get fired. The women are leaving the housewife stereotype at an attempt to be free, but at the same time waling into the seductress/sex object stereotype because of the rules they have to follow.

Also, Kate becomes an agent for the government to spy on Communists and get inside organizations. Kate does this because she feels that she is doing something unusual for a women and that it will let her be able to do something important. Again, while she is breaking a stereotype, she is again fulfilling another one. During Kate's jobs she becomes a sex object to be able to find out her information. The government was using her and other women because they were easy to put into those stereotypes.

Overall, the show is promoting feminist views because the women are standing on their own with jobs and are able to show the world that women don't have to stay at home; but the women are also showing the world that even though you don't have to stay at home, you still have to fit into other stereotypes to keep from being a housewife.

She's Not the Stereotypical Girl

    She's the Man is a modernized version of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.  When adapting Twelfth NIght the writers modernized the characters and the situation but also added a feminist viewpoint.  Instead of the using Viola's motive in Twelfth Night of wanting to be with the guy she likes, in She's the Man her purpose of dressing as a man is to achieve her own goals and prove that woman are just as good as guys at sports.  Society tries to force Viola into becoming a stereotypical woman but Viola objects to the role and breaks away from  the stereotype.  Viola's mother forces Viola into a Debutant ball to become a "lady" and the school she is at in the beginning forces her to not play soccer by canceling the girl's team.  However, Viola does not let herself be cast into those roles by not acting like a "perfect lady" at the debutant meetings and by dressing as a boy and moving to a different school.  

    Viola does not conform into the Debutant world that her mother wishes her to participate in.  When Viola is forced to go to a carnival and do the kissing both her ex-boyfriend and Duke, a guy who participates in the kissing both, get into a fight.  Instead of staying out of the conflict like a "proper lady" she tackles them and tries to break them apart.  This action gets her into trouble with both her mother and the leader of the debutantes.  At a debutant luncheon, Viola is in the bathroom with Olivia, who is talking about how she likes Sebastian. Monique overhears Olivia and since she still believes she is Sebastian's girlfriend starts to fight Olivia,  Again Viola joins in the fight and the leader debutant is very upset with her.  Viola does not act with the proper manners or that the leaders of the debutantes and her mother expect leading to anger from both of them for not fitting into the stereotype.  

    Viola is not the stereotypical girl that society wishes her to be.  These actions lead to many frustrations from society and her mother because she is not fitting into the box they have built for every girl to fit in.  But Viola still tries to be on her soccer team and not let what society thinks conform her.  In the end Viola dressing up as her brother to play soccer gets rid of the stereotypes people would think if she was herself.  When the school does find out she is really a girl that already know she is good at soccer and can play with boys.  The way that Viola does not conform to her mother or society's expectations allows her  talent to be accepted and the stereotype of girls not being good at soccer to not apply to her.  

Feminist critique on Commercials

There is a common thought in everday society that women and men are different. While this is true biologically it is not necessarily true physically and emotionally. I was watching tv one day saw this ad for dr. Pepper. The next day I saw an ad for Lipton energy. The two commercials couldn't be anymore different. While both commercials show different stereotypes for women and men the message is still conveyed that one sex is the weaker tuan the other.

 

The dr. Pepper commercial has the slogan that it's not for women. They say this because the drink is ten calorie and usually women drink and eat things low in calories. This implies that women are constantly aware if how the world sees them and that they strive to fit this image. Another aspect to the commercial is that it supposedly feature things that only men are supposed to like. Consequently, this puts stereotypes on men as well as women. Stereotypes such as women can't like car or dirtbikes. Women aren't supposed to like adventure ans action movies and men are supposed to like all of these things. Men are even supposed to have their own catchphrase. but reality is that many women enjoy these things as well as men. An underlying point to the commercial is that you can still be manly while you drink somehting that is only 10 calories. My initial reaction to this that feminist all over the wield are going to sue dr. Pepper and mr. Heidkamp's friend is not going to like this at all.

 
Seeing the Lipton energy commercial was like seeing te feminist version (okay extreme feminist version) of th dr. Pepper commercial. All of a sudden this women drink an energy drink and she magically can chase after two guys driving away on a moped? And of course she gets the purse back and the male police officer can't find the two thieves anymore. Sometimes I really can't believe these commercials. The message in the commercial is that women are strong. This is shown through the exaggerated moped chase where the woman chases the two men on the moped for like sixty miles. The fact that there were two men doin the robbing shows that the men are too weak to attack women by themselves. Another example of their weakness is that they were on a moped which is considerably faster than a human being running on foot. This is meant to show that women can do anything by themselves while men just struggle to do achieve anything with help.

These messages are meant to show that in their own way each gender is strong. of course, each commercial shows us how we percieve the other gender to be different.

More Than Meets the (Doll) Eye

Not only is this picture incredibly creepy, it also says a lot more than what one might first notice. When one initially looks at this advertisement, they see an advertisement for eye makeup. This is fairly obvious from the caption in the bottom left corner and even the remarkably unnerving photograph. These women literally look like dolls. Based on this idea of women looking like dolls, this ad constructs gender by enforcing stereotypes and shaping the ideal body image for women.

Because this advertisement depicts women as dolls, it enforces the stereotype of women as an object. Dolls, being the epitome of an object, have absolutely no say in what they do, they just go along with whatever is playing with them at the time. This is a horrible idea, especially when translated to be applied to women. Women just sitting there limp, waiting on their man and having no say whatsoever, is a sad, sad ideal that this advertisement is trying to get the viewer to buy into.

Furthermore, this ad, playing off of the idea of women as lifeless dolls, shapes the way women feel about how they look. Dolls, often considered to be flawless in beauty, have a sense of perfection that go along with them. Also, this idea of physical perfection goes back several decades to the invention of the Barbie doll. This revolutionary and iconic doll shaped millions of girls' self esteem around an impossible, stereotypical image. However, no woman could ever have perfect looks, even with the dieting, the makeup, and the clothes. When this dream falls short of becoming a reality, the results of the emotional states of these women could be catastrophic. As a matter of fact, almost all eating disorders are developed from a poor self body image.

Based on the fact that it portrays women as a stereotypes of sex objects and creates an unhealthy body image, this ad praises the regressive ideas that women have fought so hard to get rid of. As about as anti-feminist as something can get, this image truly constructs gender in a negative way.

A Feminist Critique of Million Dollar Baby

Million Dollar Baby is a film that received widespread critical acclaim and won the 2004 academy award for best picture. In the film Hilary Swank plays a boxer who seeks out a trainer so that she can become a successful boxer, she works as a waitress to supplement her income. She initially seeks out the help of a marginally successful boxing trainer played by Clint Eastwood, he initially rejects the offer to train her saying he doesn’t train girls. Over time she is able to convince him to train her and they grow to have a bond (not romantic just a bond).

She uses the funds of her boxing in order to buy her mother a house, her mother is by no means grateful and complains that having a house with threaten her reception of welfare payments. Her mother also says that everyone in her old town is laughing at her for trying to become a professional boxer. In her first big fight she is knocked down and her neck lands on a stool, after this she becomes paralyzed from the neck down. She asks Clint Eastwood to end her pain and he reluctantly agrees. This film is definitely a feminist film as the main character exhibits agency, and does not fit into any typical stereotypes.

 In choosing to go into professional boxing, which is typically considered to be a masculine sport, the protagonist is defying typical stereotypes of women. The film shows the difficulty in her participating in the sport and defying stereotypes as Clint Eastwood’s initial reaction is one of hostility to the idea of her boxing and according to her mother, everyone in her hometown mocks her. There is no lingering attachment to the separate spheres ideology as the main character does not have a domestic role, is not submissive, is not particularly pious and does not strive for purity.

Clint Eastwood’s character is initially that of a stereotypical “tough guy” he is unsympathetic to the main character’s cause, and as usually the case when Clint Eastwood is in a film, he is rough around the edges. As the film goes on though Clint’s Character eventually develops a heart and toward the end he is emotionally attached to his trainee, and in doing so he breaks out of his stereotype.

Throughout the film the main character shows agency in her actions and is thoroughly determined to become a successful boxer. She combats obstacles in her way to becoming a successful boxer and is not swayed, by the opinion of others, from her goal.

The film is a feminist film because it’s characters are not confined to typical gender roles. Hilary Swank’s character is not stereotypical in her desire to become a boxer and Clint Eastwood’s character is not stereotypical in that he eventually breaks out of the “tough guy” role. 

Legally Blonde: A Feminist Critique

The film Legally Blonde, starring Reese Witherspoon as Elle Woods, is on of the best examples of the idea of feminism in the modern world. Starting as a soroity sister whith hopes of becoming engaged, Elle Woods is the "perfect" girl. She has everything she needs to be happy in life, but when her boyfriend dumps her on the night she thinks he's going to propose, Elle vows to do whatever it takes to get him back. His excuse for breaking up with her is that he can't be taken seriously in the law school world with her by his side, so, sticking to her vow, Elle applies for law school, and, to everyone's surprise, gets into Harvard. As time goes on, Elle matures and buckles down on her work, eventually forgetting about her ex, and focuses on becoming something she can really be proud of: a lawyer.

The beginning of the film gives into the idea that women need men to complete them and that men have women completely under their spell and can manipulate them any way they want. When she is dumped, Elle wants nothing more than to get back the man who broke her heart because she feels incomplete without him. Her determination to get him back leads her to Harvard Law where she spends her time trying to juggle her classes and impressing her ex. The film shows women as completely dependent on men and men completely independent from women, giving the idea that men can discard one woman for another and be just fine, while the woman who was discarded will wollow in depression for weeks.

As the film goes on, Elle begins to focus more on her school and less on her ex, though he is almost always in the back of her mind, since he's started dating her "worst enemy". Even more determined to win him back from her, she studies harder and becomes more serious about her work so she can become a successful lawyer and he will want her back. With this, the film gives the idea that women use their manipulating skills to make men want them or make men notice them. It also makes women seem completely desperate when they are threatened by other women.

Towards the end of the film, Elle becomes completely independent from her idea that she needs to get her ex back after meeting Emmett, another law student who she begins to fall for. By this time, Elle has become a new person from the sorority queen she started out as and turned herself into a successful lawyer who even won a case for her university firm. The end of the film sends the message that women can be successful without a man and can be free to achieve whatever they want, even in the least likely circumstances.

The Help: A Feminist Critique

It seems like in the past year everyone's been talking about The Help. It was nominated for four Academy Awards, and Octavia Spencer won for best supporting actress. The most obvious themes in the movie are centered around race and class, and the film, while garnering mostly positive review, has received criticism for using racial Hollywood stereotypes like "Mammy". While it's not really gotten a lot of attention for its focus on women, the film also has a lot to say about gender roles and stereotypes.

If you haven't seen it, The Help centers around the lives of two women (Aibileen and Skeeter) and their friends. The movie is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s. Aibileen is black and Skeeter is white, but they face similar struggles as women. The film presents three stereotypes of women: the wife/mother, the seductress, and the old maid. The Help dares its viewers to criticize these stereotypes by creating likeable characters that do the same.

Celia Foot, Skeeter's friend, challenges both the wife/mother and seductress stereotypes. Celia is new in town and, according to the other women, comes from "white trash". She dresses provacatively, bleaches her hair, and wears lots of makeup. Most of the women in the town shun her and feel threatened by her sex appeal. Celia is also child-less; she has suffered many miscarriages and is consequently depressed. When asked if she will have children, she says "Oh, we're gonna have some kids... I mean kids is the only thing worth living for". The women in the town are valued solely on their child-producing capabilities, so not being a mother brings Celia a lot of embarrassment and distress.

By the end of the movie Celia has successfully overcome these stereotypes and expectations. She has made new friends (namely Skeeter), she's embraced her appearance, and her husband told her that he loved her for her, not her baby making abilities. Throughout the movie, viewers are touched by Celia's charm and kindness. We are rooting for her to come out ahead, and she does. 

The Help presents another female character who dares to break the mold: Skeeter. Skeeter overcomes the old maid stereotype. Unlike most women her age, she is single, has a college degree, and wants to start a book. Her mother is constantly encouraging her to find a husband, even going as far as to suggest that she must be lesbian since she hasn't settled down yet. Skeeter is an old maid at 28. She does not give in to the pressure, though. Skeeter successfully writes a book and leads a happy and fulfilled life without a man. She is strong, capable, and independent, something not many women were in the 1960s. 

The Help is a feminist movie. Its characters defy traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and it presents these characters in a way that is inspiring and fun. The Help criticizes traditional patriarchal structure and employs a female gaze. Unlike many films, the women are not objectified and have agency. While The Help has recieved a lot of attention for its racial themes, it should also be viewed as feminist film.

The Game's Heroine

WARNING: If you haven't read the Hunger Games there might be some spoiler alerts in this blog, they are marked in parenthesis before the sentence containing them.

The Hunger Games is a popular book series in our modern day culture. When one takes a first glance at this all they see is a story about 24 kids fighting to the death, an entertaining plot. But if one would look closer they would notice that there is an underlining feminist argument.

Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games trilogy, uses the primary character, Katniss, to present her feminist argument. Katniss is the heroine of the story. She is put into an arena to fight to the death, and is motivated purely on returning to her family.

When we first meet Katniss, although she is not a mother, she has many characteristics described in The Cult of Domesticity. Katniss strives to take care of her little sister, due to her mother's absence, and take care of the house. This shows Katniss's domesticity aspect, she is the caretaker of her home. While Katniss takes up the role of the stereotypical "mother" in our society, her real mother fails to do so. Thus, Collins is making Katniss a stronger character than a women is expected to be, beginning her female empowerment plot. 

Although Katniss does posses the domesticity values, she is nothing similar to the rest of the ideologies in the cult. Katniss is the farthest thing from submissive, with her relationships between men Katniss is not afraid to speak her mind and challenge them. In the novel Collins uses the area of the Capitol to show the norm of women. Women usually are extremely submissive to men, especially President Snow. The Capitol is also an extremely patriarchal structure of a society. No women are in any position of major power, and if they are in some position they are under the rule of a man. 

But in the Capitol women are not the only submissive ones. Due to the extreme stratification, the lower your district (class) the more submissive you are to the Capitol and the men in charge of it. For example, (spoiler alert) in the end of the first novel Katniss stands up to the Capitol's rules of the Hunger Games when she and Peeta almost kill themselves at the same time.

Another example, (another spoiler alert) is when Rue dies Katniss decorates her body with flowers and sings her to her death to show respect to her life. Katniss ends her song with kissing three fingers and raising them to the camera, an old symbol from district 12 to say goodbye to someone you love. This symbol is unwelcome by the Capitol and especially the games because it defies the brutal image that the Capitol wishes to get from the games. This displays the overall agency that Katniss has in this patriarchal society. Although this action came with major consequences, Katniss stood strong like a true heroine. 

Katniss is also empowered when she defies the expectations of purity and piety in the Cult of Domesticity. Some might say that the Hunger Games world could not expect the women to be pure when they put them in an arena to fight to the death, but if one focuses on the pre-game interviews of the tributes they can see how purity is still expected. When other women go up to the stage they have an image. Glimmer is the "seductress" and captures the audience by being blatantly against purity and piety.

Although this captures the viewers attention, the viewers do not gain respect for this tribute. Unlike Glimmer, the youngest tribute Rue plays the innocent pure little girl for her image. This makes her extremely loved by the audience but she also looks weak to the other tributes. Thus, (spoiler alert) when Peeta declares his love for Katniss, she is angered because he made her look weak. 

Katniss's lack of desire to be the perfect woman is the base of Collin's feminist empowerment. In the beginning of the book Katniss seems powerless, just another pawn in the Capitol's games, but by the end of the novel she is holding all the cards. Collins makes sure to make the main aspect of the book to be Katniss and her heroine aspect rather than the men. The strength of Katniss's character makes this feminist argument strong. Every little detail that Collins puts into the female characters, especially Katniss, is to defy the norm of the Cult of True Womanhood. The stereotypical hero is finally, and successfully, portrayed as a woman.

Maybe SHE'S Just Not That Into You Response

While reading the "Maybe SHE'S Just Not That Into You" post on FBomb, I caught myself shaking my head and agreeing with Fiona L. and her input that men and women can both be jerks when it comes to relationships. There are plenty of men and women out there who misconstrue the feelings of a significant other. People always assume that the man is always the one being a jerk in the relationship, which is not always true. This stereotype is unjust and should be put to rest. Women may come off as the victim in certain situations, but in some instances they are the attacker. Different people have different feelings. It is wrong to say that all men are only after one thing in a relationship. Men have feelings too and can be hurt just as easily as women are. Recently, I saw the movie "The Vow" which is about a woman who looses her memory in a car accident and can not remember that she's married. Her husband tries to make her fall in love with him again, but he is continuously shut down. Her feelings changed uncontrollably and this makes the wife seem like the jerk in the situation because the husband tries to do everything in his power to reconnect their love, but she does not feel the same love. Some people don't mean to hurt their significant other, but end up hurting them anyways.  You don't really see a movie like this often, because the stereotype is all about the men being jerks. The way people handle their situations is what shows their true colors.

Women and Weightloss

The two W's women and weight are always a touchy subject. When I recently viewed the Article,What Happens After You Lose Weight on the fbomb.org page, I was interested with the comments the author made about her peers not acknowledging her presence and ignoring her physical unattractiveness until she lost 15 pounds over the summer. Society is truly fixated on social image and its displayed when her classmates constantly asked, “what did she do to lose weight?” Truthfully, she killed herself exercising almost everyday and she was very conscientious about what she ate during the summer. But she did not tell the truth to her peers, she said, “I told some that I hardly even noticed my weight loss and that I had no idea how it happened. I told others I swam a lot and biked everywhere”. Why? Why did she have to lie about her hard work she had done to impress others?

One claim the author stated was absolutely brilliant and it stuck to me she said, “I think it’s because as girls we’re always supposed to be effortlessly beautiful. We can’t admit to trying to become more beautiful because that shatters the mystery around something that’s supposed to be unobtainable.” I believe that society made her think that women need to feel effortlessly beautiful in order to gain the acknowledgment of her peers.

Young Adults are Succeptable To Becoming Baribe Dolls, Not Themselves

http://rookiemag.com/2012/02/other-girls/ (Mr. Heidkamp, for some reason it won't let me link it to a word in my post)

In an article from Rookie, a girl from New York talks about her expiriences in school and in society being an Asian girl. She talks about how people would say racist comments such as, "Are you Chinese or Korean? I’m not trying to be offensive, I just can’t tell you apart".

She goes on to talk about how because everyone in her world thought of her as different, she knew she was different. She mentions that when she got cable she watched MTV and the music videos on it. She dreamed of being beautiful like the women in the music videos because those women weren't different and seemed to be like by everyone else.

Later in her life she moves into the suburbs, where there are a lot of white kids and she is among the few Asians in her school. While she was there she kept feeling more and more left out and she began to study the white girls in class so she could act like them. She even listened in on there conversations to see what stores they shopped at so she could get the same clothes as them so she could look like them.

Racism and stereotypes in America today can be a cause to why feminists are upset. When young girls who aren't white feel left out, they do all they can to become white or become something that they believe society would like better than their real selves. They believe they have to change themseleves to be liked.

I agree with what this article is saying because its true. I went to a small-ish catholic school and when other people in my class would start to wear and do something, i would follow the trend, because it was what was socially acceptable at the time. If everyone wanted Hollister or Abercrombie clothes, i did too because that was accepted. Young adults in America are becoming less themselves because they want to follow the social norm by being the pretty Barbie doll or be one of the beautiful girls in a movie video.

Becoming an Object to Males

The article I just found on http://thefbomb.org/2012/02/jean-kilbournes-killing-us-softly/ has turned my skeptical view on being labeled as a feminist toward the direction of definite support for the issue! The topic the author was covering was a particular sect of feminism, which was the roles women play in society physically, in the most broad sense. She was particularly emphasising the fact that women have so easily become an "object" because the media forces an unconscious feeling that we must fulfill a certain criteria displayed in ads. The fact that most shocked me throughout the reading, and made me realize that feminism is not JUST aimed at men, is the fact that many women who decide to get breast implants have proven to feel LESS stimulation after the surgery; quite literally making themselves an object for men. This little bit of knowledge should be spread to women of the masses because it truly shows how the media has taken something that is so precious to each individual, which is physical appearance, and has shaped it to seem that all women should, in some respect, look the same... as in possessing things that appeal to the eye. It is extremely unfortunate that women have stooped to such low levels that they would give up a natural sense in their body to feel wanted by men. If all women were to understand that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, this problem would not present a problem. And I believe that it is to women and through women that we will be capable of surpassing the external pressures that males have brainwashed us to have about ourselves.

Gender roles and body image

after looking at some of the articles at Rookie, I noticed this article called "The Year of My Eating Disorder". The article talks about how this girl, who was a sixth grader at the time, was anorexic and how she overcame it. My initial reaction was that no sixth grader should ever be that self-conscious of their weight or how they look. However, this got me thinking about the discussion that we had about body image in class the other day. I never realized that the media was starting to affect kids at such a young age. I mean I've seen the Tyra episodes and the Dove commercials that talk about how little girls get depressed about how they look, but I never really believed them. Looking at the article made me think about how much this particular stereotype has shaped the way women think. There are so many advertisement that show women with thin bodies and sex appeal and other images where they are well toned and have defined muscles. I realized that there are so many of these ads that feature women, who are models, that fit that description. It's strange to think that a picture or a video can make someone think that you aren't pretty or that you aren't unique in your own way. i think that this article really opens your eyes as to how thinking about women as sex objects and pressuring body images can change the female psyche.

Rookie Feminist

These days, everyone is talking about equal rights for everyone. Whether is predjudice against race, sexual orientation, or gender, the world is always at war with what is considered to be the "right path" to take down these roads. The beauty of this age, however, is that there are online blog sites that can help troubled people through these times of inequality and injustice. Blog sites like Rookie. Rookie was created by Tavi Gevinson when she was only 13 years old, and even then, she had a different view on the world. She saw feminism as something fun. Something that was to be celebrated and shared with everyone who cared to stop and read. And if you didn't care to read, so what? The point of Rookie is to be whatever it is you want to be with yourself.

Rookie is based around the "be who you are and say what you feel" motto, encouraging Tavi's friends and fellow bloggers to partner with her and write the amazing stories of embarassment, hilarity, seriousness, and all around truthfulness. The blog gives women a place to read about other women who don't strive to be what society sets them up to be. It showcases the importance of being yourself, no matter what the rest of the world wants you to be. 

Rookie, and the online blogs like it, are a beacon to all women who call themselves feminist. You don't have to be the stereotypical feminist that are often poorly portrayed as being crazy. The idea is to break that stereotype and showcase a new kind of feminist. A feminist people will be proud to call themselves. A feminist that can say what they truely feel without being judged or harrassed by anyone else who has the idea that women are inferior to men.

Feminist blogging sites give feminism a whole new meaning by translating it into something that almost anybody can relate it to. The world of feminism is changing all around us with a little help from the Rookies.

Working Towards Gender Equality

While i was on the website WAM! I found an article titled "Still Far from Gender Equity".  This article got me to start thinking about when and how women's portrayal in the media will change.   The article references statistics on how many woman are major participants in the creating of the media we see.  It was eye opening to see that only half or less percent of jobs in the media were women.  

I think that the statistics found in this article gives evidence to why women are often objectified through media.  Since there are more men in the media industry they have the say in what the audience sees.  So when a scene in a movie or an advertisement is objectifying a woman few woman have the power to eliminate the objectification.  

If more women enter jobs involving media women will slowly stopped being objectified and will start to be shown equal to their male counterparts on camera.  Since many people of today's society get there ideas from media this change to equality among genders on camera will be replicated in life as well.  Instead of rationalizing their ideas and action toward woman by what they see in the media they will be pushed to change their actions toward equality.  Although a lot of time is needed in order for gender equity to be accomplished, I believe the people who produce movies, t.v. shows, books etc. and the way they portray the women have a major role in how society outside of media acts towards women.  

Should I Let Him Pay?

After browsing fbomb, I came across an article that discussed the common practice of men paying for women's meals, drinks, tickets, etc. The author of "Let Me Buy You Dinner" claims that by refusing to be paid for, she is keeping her self-respect and working towards her life's goal: "I won't be lulled into just settling down with someone exceptional- I am going to be exceptional."

While most of us don't think much of the men-paying-for-dinner ritual, she describes it as a "twisted tradition". While I agree that the origins of this tradition came from a sexist environment where women were assumed to depend on men for everything, including money, I don't think the tradition still carries those sexist implications. Most modern men probably don't think that women are incapable of paying, any more than they think that women are incabable of opening a door for themselves or pulling out their own chairs. 

The author claims that she is standing up for her "right to equality and self-determination". My question is, will we ever be able to move on from America's sexist past? Yes, chivalrous traditions stem from a place of discrimination. So do political conventions, which were created because the "people" weren't trusted to make good decisions when it came to choosing presidential candidates. Nowadays, however, we have gotten over the original motivations for conventions and hold them to officially determine our presidential candidates. Why can't the same be done for chivalry? We should treat it simply as an act of kindness, just as we would if a woman held a door for a man or bought her friend lunch. By hanging on to and pointing out sexism of the past, we are spoiling unassuming and generous behavior.  

Responding to Feminism

This article from the F-bomb has some very bold and interesting views on how to address the feminist label. The author's overall focus is that despite the negative stereotypes that go along with being a feminist, letting the public know about your opinions is worth it. She explains that publicly labelling herself has definite risks, especially in a college setting, but can be helpful to those who may share the same feelings.

I agree with what she is trying to explain in this article and compliment how outgoing she is toward a topic like this. I think the bold way she talks about this is necessary for someone who has strong feelings about feminism and other difficult topics like it. She expresses what she thinks is important and does not contradict herself in any way. I don't think that all people who have such strong opinions on feminism could be as outgoing because as she explains, being able to hold your ground on what you believe is key and it takes a pretty tough skin to do so.

The Effects of Media

“If we as a culture and society continue to promote shows like America’s Next Top Model, Desperate Housewives, Toddlers and Tiaras, etc., then the entire feminist movement will have been in vain. Women will never be appreciated until they start earning respect for themselves.” The F-bomb

I read an editorial on the F-bomb, which talked about the film “killing us softly”, which is about the representation of women in the media. The author of the editorial essentially came to the same conclusions that we did (or will) in class which is that the media presented to and of women can be thoroughly damaging.

Media presented to women is telling them that they need to be highly concerned with their image and to some extent need to follow the guidelines in the cult of domesticity. If they listen to what they are told in many forms of media women will not rise to positions of respectability.

However I would say that you can’t entirely blame the media, as you would deny woman agency in their decisions. Also there is the possibility that certain media appeals to different genders. For instance I went through a phase where I would watch war movies my sister did not find them appealing. My sister who is by no means a typical woman used to watch America’s Next Top Model and other shows that are geared toward a female audience I watched some of these shows with her and for the most part was just bored.

My sister and me took in different forms of media and it did not affect us to the level that the editorial I read would imply. She is not obsessed with her image and I am not a brutish and violent creature. Maybe my sister and me are not as impressionable to the media as others around us or we just learned all our values early on from Pokémon. 

People who create media are for the most part not trying to press opinions into people’s minds they are trying to sell a product and certain things appeal to certain people. In appealing to people they employ different techniques for different demographics. For instance I recently saw a commercial for “The Gray” a movie in which Liam Neeson fights wolves and immediately felt the need to see the movie, my sister after seeing the same commercial said that the film looked dumb.

Having said all this though I would say that certain people are more impressionabe to media than others and the images of what woman are meant to act like in the media can be thoroughly damaging.

Here is the editorial.

http://thefbomb.org/2012/02/jean-kilbournes-killing-us-softly/

I think this is relavent

 

Becoming a Feminist Critic

For this week's blog post, you should visit one of the following sites:

The F-Bomb ("The FBomb.org is a blog/community created for teenage girls who care about their rights as women and want to be heard. All young feminists who are just a little bit pissed off and very outspoken are more than welcome here." -- learn more about them).            

Rookie ("Rookie is a place to make the best of the beautiful pain and cringe-worthy awkwardness of being an adolescent girl. When it becomes harder to appreciate these things, we also have good plain fun and visual pleasure. When you’re sick of having to be happy all the time, we have lots of eye-rolling rants, too." -- learn more about them)

Feministing ("Young women are rarely given the opportunity to speak on their own behalf on issues that affect their lives and futures. Feministing provides a platform for us to comment, analyze, influence and connect." -- learn more about them).

or

Women, Action and the Media ("WAM! connects and supports media makers, activists, academics and funders working to advance women’s media participation, ownership and representation. Our work is part of an advocacy movement for gender justice in media." -- learn more about them)

On our own blog, write a post that defends, challenges or qualifies the argument made in one of the posts you've read (make sure you *link* back to that post -- and feel free to quote from it as well). Don't forget to give your post a category.

As far as commenting is concerned, you'll get credit if you comment on the websites above or on one of your classmates' own posts.

Titanic: a Romance or a romance

 

Holding the spot as the number 2 top grossing film of all time Titanic is known by many people around the globe.  The surprising thing is that the Producers of Titanic used Romantic characteristics when creating the story.

The movie is based around a upper class girl named Rose and a lower class boy named Jack.  Rose is engaged to a rich man named Cal to earn back her families good name and money for both herself and her mother.  However, on their journey to America on the Titanic Rose meets Jack and already feeling trapped in her life starts to rebel against her mothers and societies standards.

The Romanticism characteristic of individualism is expressed through Rose's rebelling against the expectations everyone puts on her.  Rose not physically rebels in Titanic by being with Jack but also rebels through education.  

In one scene during dinner Rose gets so fed up with the repeated topics of discussions that she brings up a new topic which some of the men do not even know of.  This illustration on how well educated Rose is shows how she rebels against society's expectation that women were not as educated or as well-read as men were.  

Rose rebels against the expectation of society by what a lady should act like.  Rose has Jack teach her how to spit off the side of the boat and when her mother and the other women come they look down upon her.  As with many other scenes the spiting scene demonstrates the improper and unlady-like way Rose acts.

Titanic also uses Romanticism with Jack's character.  Jack is extremely poor and only gets on the Titanic because of a lucky poker hand.  The idea of the individual is used because Jack is able to support himself and get onto the Titanic to head back to America.  Also the way Jack is able to get Rose to notice him shows the power the individual has.

The appreciation of everyday life is also used throughout Titanic because of the plots basis around the sinking of Titanic.  Titanic creates the message to appreciate everyday as if it were your last.  

Overall, the Titanic uses Romanticism to enhance Rose's and Jack's character and to create a message that everyday of your life is important.  

Consumer Review: Mad Men

 

Mad Men is a period drama featuring the American business world in the 1960's. The show is immensly popular across many generations and shows a different way of American life that many young people have never experienced. While the show is entertaining and well written, it in many ways romanticizes an era in which sexism and drug/alcohol use were widely accepted. The show, which ironically centers around advertising, is giving consumers an idealized view of the 1960s. 

Sexism is a prevalent theme in Mad Men but is never really brought to the surface by writers or seen as a major issue by consumers. Most of the women in the show are either housewives, secretaires, or struggling to break into a male-dominated field. Joan, who is the main secretary, doesn't seem to have any problem with her role in the office. She realizes, in fact, that she is there not to enjoy her job, but to satisfy the men working above her. She even tells Peggy (another secretary) to stop "dressing like a little girl" if she wants to be taken seriously. She also tells Peggy that technology in the office was made to be so simple that "even a women can use it".

Betty, the main housewife on the show, is also stuck in a sexist rut. She works at home raising children, is cleary unhappy because of her husband's conspicuous cheating, and doesn't speak up for herself until she finds another man to take care of her. She is always financially dependent on some man, and it is clear that she makes no plans to change that.

Even Peggy, the most self-sufficient woman on the show, is hindered because of her sex. She has to work 10 times harder than any man in the offies to advance professionally. She realizes that she is not living up to society's standards, admitting sarcastically that "it's not as important as getting married". 

In addition to sexism, Mad Men normalizes heavy cigarette use and alcohol consumption. Nearly every character on the show smokes and drinks both in their professional and personal lives. Smoking multiple packs of cigarettes a day and drinking whiskey at 10 in the morning is encouraged. Even Don (the main character), who clearly struggles with alcoholism, is always creatively on top of his game and with some new, attractive woman. Why not drink more than what is healthy when you can make tons of money and get so many women?

Mad Men should be seen as less of a nostalgic look to the past and more of a portrayal of major issures that America is still dealing with today. Most modern Americans believe that we have come very far from the days of Mad Men, and in many ways we have. However, sexism and drug/alcohol use are still very much issues today and Mad Mens should not be glamourizing them.

 

Just curious: Do any Mad Men watchers think the opposite of what I just said? Does the show portray the 1960s through a modern lense and emphasize its demerits as a way to make fun of/ warn against the era's ideologies?

Tide Commercial: Satire or Sexism?

 

When seeing this currently airing Tide commercial, I was immediately offended. The reasons are obvious: Why should girls have to wear pink? Why can't they play with blocks? Why are we pushing gender roles on such young children? The commercial seems so overtly sexist and dated that I was distracted from what Tide may have been trying to do.

After re-watching this commercial, I realized that Tide may be making fun of this stereotypical perfectionist housewife. The elaborately decorated living room, the pink cardigan, sensible haircut; it all fits. Is this commercial trying to present satire? If so, I don't think that they were obvious enough about doing so.

The satire presented is also sexist in its own way. The mother is portrayed as uptight, reserved, and repressed to the point of (maybe?) being humorous. However, society does expect women to control their emotions and perhaps be a little less sensitive. If women cry they're being drama queens; if they get upset they're PMSing. So why is Tide making fun of the controlled, pleasant, put-together housewife that many women strive to be?

Either way you look at it, this ad is probably sending the wrong message.

 

Pink Is Standing Up To The Stupid

 

The artist Pink has a music video for her song "Stupid Girl". Her song is saying that girls in today’s society are not being themselves, but rather following what everyone else does, and if you do what everyone else is doing you might be popular.

 She is talking about how girls think that being themselves isn't good enough anymore. An example is some of the lyrics from the song.

     The disease is growing, it's epidemic. I'm scared there’s not a cure.

 Then she goes on to say that she wants girls to stop being that way and to just be themselves.

       I’m so glad I don't fit in, that will never be me.

 Her video is saying how whenever she tries to fit in she ends up looking like an idiot because that is what they are showing the world they are when they get spray tans, or try to look pretty for a guy.

Pink's work help's girls, in a sense that she is telling them they don't need to be stereotypical hot bimbo to catch a guy or to be popular, you just need to be yourself. She is trying to reshape how girls see themselves and how they are seen in the world.

In the end of her video she shows and old woman who is very wrinkly and has bleach blonde hair, and is trying to be sexy, but just looks scary because she did so much in her youth to try to be “pretty”, she ruined her body.

Pink is trying to say that you should just be yourself and everything will be ok.

Insuring Teenage Girl Stereotypes

 

 In this Allstate Ad the mayhem guy is pretending to be a teenage girl while driving a car.  There are many stereotypes for teenagers and girl drivers portrayed in this ad.

At the beginning, the viewer sees a pink SUV in a parking lot.  THe pink SUV is the first example of a stereotype by implying all girls like pink.  

Next, the commericial supports the notion that all teenagers and especially girls are distracted drivers.  The first time the Mayhem men is shown he has a cellphone in his hand.  He then says "My BFF Becky just texts and says she's kissed johnny. Well that's a problem 'cause i like Johnny".  All of this dialogue portrays teenage girls as distracted by stupid things.  

Then, once the Mayhem man is upset he says "Now I'm emotionally compromised and whoopsies" and hits a parked car.  This interaction supports the stereotype that girls become emotional over miniscule events. 

The final stereotype the commericial supports is that teenage girls don't care about anyone else's problems.  After crashing into the front of a parked car the Mayhem man just continue driving out of the parking lot saying "I'm all OMG Becky's not even hot."  The idea that the teenage girl seems not to even realize she's destroyed someone's car supports the notion that teenagers are oblivious to other's problems.  

Even though, many may say this commericial is just trying to say "We'll protect you from accidents that are not your fault" it has many undertones that support several different stereotypes about teenage girls.  

Nude is the New Black

 
A few days ago, my younger sister was reading through Teen Vogue, and she asked me, "Why do all of the ads for perfume have naked women?" I had never really questioned this before; I was used to seeing ads like this. However, I found the ad in Teen Vogue a bit disturbing. The magazine targets young teenagers and is always filled with articles encouraging girls to feel comfortable with their bodies and love their appearance. But, ironically, just a few pages after an article like this, the magazine shows an advertisement with a picture-perfect, thin, airbrushed, and, no less, nude model. Images like this tell young girsl that it's important to be thin, pretty, and sexy.The magazine is completely hypocritcal - it includes ads that entirely go against the advice it preaches to young girls.

Like I said, after this encounter I started paying more attention to ads like this. I found an ad for Levi's Jeans that showed a topless woman wearing nothing but her Levi's. When I searched for more Levi's advertisements, I found that almost every single ad for the brand features a topless woman (in fact, I found an extremely shocking European ad that had been banned. It compared the comfort of Levi's jeans to actually wearing nothing, and did so by drawing a pocket on a woman's bare bottom). The logic behind the ads makes sense - they say, "Levi's: all I need is all I got," suggesting that all one needs is a pair of Levi's jeans. So yes, it makes sense to have people wearing only jeans. But why is it almost always women? Why not men?

It didn't take much attentiveness for an Urban Outfitters ad to catch my eye. Urban Outfitters encourages young people to buy their t-shirts with a picture of six young people wearing them: three boys and three girls. But the apalling aspect of this ad is that while the men are wearing the shirts, the women are naked, holding the shirts up in front of them. This particular image struck me because the logic behind it made no sense at all - Urban Outfitters is trying to sell t-shirts, a clothing item, yet the girls in the image are not clothed.

What are advertisers getting at? Are they trying to catch men's attention to make them buy the product? It seems that advertisers use something like a "male gaze" to sell their products. It makes sense, then, to assume that these advertisers target male purchasers. But what about the perfume? It's a scent for women, so the target is women.

Aside from the purpose and target of the ads, we can say that the ads depict women as eye candy, or maybe even sex objects.

 

 

Is one celebrity's baby bump really killing America?

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a possible presidential candidate for the Republican Party, recently criticized Oscar-winner Natalie Portman's pregnancy because she is not married. During a radio interview last week Huckabee said "it’s unfortunate that we glorify and glamorize the idea of out of children wedlock." He argues that Portman sends a distorted, unrealistic message to the women of America and that in reality, "most single moms are very poor, uneducated, can’t get a job, and if it weren’t for government assistance, their kids would be starving to death and never have health care."

While some of Huckabee's statement may be based on a little bit of credible statistics, Jos from Feministing points out that the bigotry and injustice here is pretty obvious. Mike Huckabee along with many other Republicans want contraception inaccessable and abortion illegal and government assistance to the poor stopped. Well what if by some strange impulse of sexuality a woman is to get pregnant? Is she to get married? Well that sure is Natalie Portman's highly publicized plan. She is getting married to her child's father, with whom she has been in a stable, long-term relationship, and she's wearing a ring. What else is she supposed to do? Should she cower at home in shame and not carry her situation with happiness and acceptance? Should she not go out an accept one of the highest honors someone in her profession can recieve? If you ask me, Natalie Portman is a role model.

Cyber Cold War

We all knew what we were getting into when our entire web of social lives went online with sites like Facebook. Everyone figured that the crude and sexist ideas would eventually make it up there next to our "Spring Break Pictures '08!" and an article on fbomb adresses this growing epidemic.

The article in question brings up facebook groups such as "Punch a Slut Day" which it says are supporting violence and hate towards women. I certainly do not support either of those, but I fail to see how this is a way of supporting either of those. First of all, not only women are considered sluts. Second, the article talks about how it can't just be considered a joke. I don't see why not. Just because you think physical comedy or something along those lines is funny, it does not mean you think abusing women is a good thing. And third, the idea that this is "violent" is blown out of proportion because someone can be punched without actually hurting them (as in, in a playful way).

Though I was pleased with the end of the post that had an MLK ring to it. It advises that people who were offended by the group should not retaliate in the same way, but rather they should find peaceful means of protest.