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Desperate Housewives: A Feminist Critique

 

The ABC series, Desperate Housewives depicts the lives of five women struggling to maintain the stability of suburbia. Wisteria Lane, where each housewives lives may seem to be a prim and proper neighborhood yet is full of deep and dark secrets these women hide behind their conservative facade. Throughout the course of eight seasons, these women have proven that they are capable of anything ranging from being a nurturing mother, to murder. Though at first I did not notice, this show reinforces the stereotypes made through the media to an extreme degree.

If you haven't seen this show before, some of the main characters are Lynette, Gaby, Bree, and Renee. Lynette who is a mother of five children is a stay at home mother. Bree like Lynette is an accomplishes business owner who prides herself on her home and cleanliness. Both of these women represents the stereotype of the domestic wife and mother. Gaby, who is a former model prides herself on her personal appearance and her outward beauty. She represent the role of the sex object. Finally Renee, the newest character to the show is a New Yorker who has recently moved to the suburbs. She recklessly sleeps around with many men and is known to be a cougar. She represents the stereotype of a seductress. The show presents three stereotypes of women: the wife/mother, the seductress, and the sex object. Desperate Housewives reaffirms to its viewers the stereotypes that have been implanted in contemporary media and lacks to show the true agency women have over their lives.

Both Bree and Lynette are stay at home mothers, who face the challenge of balancing the task of maintaining their social status and the welfare of their children. They portray the roles of the wife/mother by sacraficing their individual dreams to support their families. Throughout the beginning seasons of the series, Lynette could be seen to challenge stereotypes through successfully attaining a high management position at her job by hard work. Yet, when her husband needs her to be more for their children she is faced with the desicion to give up all her hard work for her home. Instead of showing agency and  defending her years of hard work, she surrenders her achievements for a broom and an apron and leaves behind her job. 

Gaby and Renee reaffirm the stereotypes of the sex object and the seductress. Renee who constanly reciceves criticism for her promiscuious ways. As an older women she dresses provactive, and is not afraid to speak her mind. Unlike the other women in the community she is constantly bringing home different men from bar and various other places but never acheives to have a stable relationship with a man, until later in the show. Once Renee has tamed her ways, and the viewers might actually think that stereotype has been broken, it is once again promted when Bree takes on those qualities. 

Desperate Housewives is not a feminist show. Its characters strengthen societies views on gender roles and stereotypes. By captivating its viewers through a male gaze, women are further encouraged to sustain their gender roles. Even before a person views this show, the name Desperate House wives objectifies women. Unlike, feminist films the women in this show do now show the freedom of agency in their lives. 

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.

The Bride of Blackenstein

Due to many stereotypes that have developed in society, the image of many races, has been corrupted. These racial stereotypes that began towards African- Americans in the pre civil-war era, have continued to develop and mature into the minds of everyday Americans. Snl is commonly known for spoofing, and over exaggerating this stereotypes of many races, especially in the skit below featuring Nikki Minaj.

 

A few months ago when female rapper, Nikki Minaj was the musical guest on snl she poked around with many racist stereotypes of African-American women. I must admit the first time I saw this clip on snl I laughed because it is such an exaggeration of the African- American women. However, this clip further embeds stereotypes that black women are bossy, demanding, and obsessive with their physical attraction.

When the Blackenstein character asks his bride a simple question, she responds in a bossy and harsh attitude towards him. Also using the stereotype that black males cannot find a job. This part exaggerates that black women have no tolerance, and are are demanding. Further throughout the video, more of these stereotypes are portrayed. These examples of stereotyping are funny because they partially are true, but these stereotypes cannot be used to fully define any race. 

These stereotypes of not only the black race, but all races have been around so long that we no longer know the truth of an individuals character. Instead, of actually getting to know the character of a person we "judge a book by its cover" and categorize them with the different images society has formed for us. 

 

10 Items To Finish On Top

Watch this video before reading!

 

Superbowl ad's are always trying to outdo each other, trying to have the most comedic commercials of them all. This FedEx commercial tries to entertain their audience by listing out the top ten criteria to make a successful commercial. It starts off with "1.Celebrity", saying if you have a celebrity in your commercial everyone else will buy it because of them. Then it goes down a list, "2. Animal 3. Dancing Animal 4. Cute Kid" and so on. 

The fallacy used in this commercial Non Sequitur. The overall meaning to this ad is because you have all these things listed in our commercial, you will have a successful commercial. There are no others options to choose from in this commercial but the one's presented. Many other brands have presented good ads that include non of the following yet have became very popular and effective. 

This fallacy was used in a comedic way in order to capture the attention of millions of viewers watching the football game, yet it nonetheless is still a misconception. 

Breathe In, Dead Soldier. Breathe Out.

First off, I really really like this book. My favorite book of the year hands down.

I mean, yes, my squeamishness comes out in full force during many stories in this book (Ted Lavender, anyone? Curt Lemon? BABY BUFFALO?) but still. I can feel this book.

And I don't mean "feel it" like "Hey man, I totally feel you", but more as if there is a tangible presence to this book, and it's taken up residence in my lungs.

Breathe in, Vietnam. Sunshine demise and baby buffalo and blood in my mouth.

Breathe out, Tim O'Brian. 43 years old, a writer who still breathes in as a soldier and out as a father who tells his nine-year-old daughter that of course he didn't kill anyone.

Breathe out breath out breathe out.

And alright, yes, I admit I might have read ahead. A little. Or a lot, maybe: I finished the book.

And I can only think "Well damn."

Because what about all the soldiers we're still sending out?

Are they pulling their brothers out of trees, peeling them off the dusty, explosion-riddled road, digging them out of a sloppy, mushy shitfield in the pouring rain?

Probably.

Are there men out there like Tim O'Brian, who don't really want to fight but they do it anyway, because they'd feel like they were betraying everyone they know but themselves if they didn't?

Absolutely. 

I've been reading a lot of war stories lately, and I gotta tell you, I cry. At all of them. Sob my eyes out like there is no longer any rainbows or unicorns or happiness in the world. None.

I cry like a five year old who has just been informed that Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny have all been heartlessly massacred.

And I wonder what would happen if the head honchos, the men and women who start the war but send others to end it, would they feel like a different decision is in order if they read one of these books?

Do you think maybe, that if people who felt like war was necessary to solve whatever problem they have, do you think if someone made them read these war novels, this book, The Things They Carried, would we maybe get somewhere towards convincing the world just what a stupid idea it is to go out and shoot at people, and get shot at, and die, and watch your friends die, ( "Four guys go down a trail. A grenade sails out. One guy jumps on it and takes the blast, but it's a killer grenade and everybody dies anyway. Before they die, though, one of the dead guys says, "The fuck you do that for?" and the jumper says, "Story of my life, man," and the other guy starts to smile but he's dead.")...

Will anyone care at all? Will anyone try their damndest to make a dead soldier breathe again?

 

Will anyone listen to the breathing of a dead soldier? 

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.

Louder Than an F-Bomb

It is impossible to persuade someone who already agrees with you.  Persuading the disbelievers is the only way to advance your ideas.

With respect to the F-Bomb blog, the female writers have fascinating thoughts but they speak to the wrong people.  I am sure that men read this blog, and maybe, on occasion, some chauvinist stumbles upon the website.  I do believe, however, that the majority of people visiting the F-Bomb already support the feminist movement.  

Women need to progress their ideas through the internet, but creating a website that women read, women write on, and women support, does not make enough noise.  Women clearly want equality for women and men.  The only problem is that many men don't.  Therefore, now that women are on board the modern feminist movement, the movement cannot remain exclusively female.  

Rather than post a blog entry on the F-Bomb (which can still be somewhat useful), why not craft and submit a column to The New York Times?  In this morning's paper, The New York Times  featured an article entitled "Girls and Boys Together".  Women should shoot for publishing articles like this.  Millions of people could read about the feminist movement every day if women moved from the blog to the mainstream media.

While sharing ideas on a blog provides a great way to generate thoughts, women need to take a step towards expanding their audience to the people they actually need to convince.

Let's Not Blame the Media

Yesterday, I was discussing our feminism unit with my mom. Our conversation went something like this:

I of course believe in equal rights. But I was reading the blog Mr. Heidkamp showed us, and they had an article about how sexist a Swiffer commerical was - in part because it depicted a woman mopping."

My mom replied, "I think that you're fine with feminism and just hate that they blame the media."

It was like the "lightbulb" moment of a psychotherapy session. I like TV, and news, journalism - media as a whole. It annoys me when people blame the media for things. Sure, it over exaggerates news all the time. They lie, and are biased. However, I feel that people should try to be aware of this themselves and look at the information they are being sold. I always ask myseld, "Do I buy this?"

To be fair, the article was also talking about the sexism behind a woman being in love with a mop. And here's me answer to that: Advertisers know their consumers.

In 2006 (old, but the most recent statistic I could find without hacking into Proctor and Gamble's computer system... which I lack the knowledge to do, and not because I'm female) Swiffer's parent company spent $3.5 Billion on adversiting. You could feed 29,166,666 hungry children in Africa for a year with that much money. They don't throw that money away. Big companies hire the best advertisers they can get and a lot os research goes into what they put out there.

The ads reflect what pleases Americans. I'm sure that they had many, many test groups watched and responded to the commerical before it was put out. They liked it.

Media refelects our society's values and preferances. We should think about what we take in, and not blame the media for putting out seeminly (or overtly) sexist things. We should be more worried about society's acceptance and favortisism towards the things that the media refelects.

EDIT: If you care about women, show your support by coming to V-Day on March 18!

Great Gatsby: My Professional Opinion

I really liked The Great Gatsby.

Well no that's not exactly true. I really liked the last three chapters of The Great Gatsby. I've got to say, the book didn't really catch my attention up until the "Myrtle-gets-run-over-and-dies-horribly!" part of the book. After that, it was FANTASTIC. 

I feel like virtually nothing happened in the first, oh, six chapters of the book. It was simply kind of... stale. Very stagnant, as though everyone were trying to accomplish something specific to only them, and by doing so ground the entire operation of life to a halt. And then their issues catch up to them, and everyone ends up dissatisfied, or dead. But it was very dramatically carried out, the way everyone got their not-so-just desserts, and I think that was the primary reason for my fondness.

Though I must admit, I'm a sucker for pretty writing, and those last couple of chapters were nothing but.

 

All in all, my Professional Opinion is that one should slog their hardest through the beginning of the book, and much of the middle, because the payoff at the end more than makes up for the stagnant beginning.

The Protruding Nail Gets Hammered- A Reflection on Individuality

Throughout this semesters reading, I (and, evidently, my peers) have noticed a strong theme of individuality in each of the texts.

However, I feel like you can interpret this individuality in two ways, strange as that may seem. Each of the strong characters of our readings, prime examples being MacNolia, Hester, Douglass, and Holden, all seem to both benefit from, and be absolutely destroyed by, their individuality.

Hester, who is able to grow stronger under the weight of the blazing "A" and the scathing eyes of the village, is also worn down by the very existence of Pearl, and by Dimmesdale's untimely end. She retreats back into the edge of the forest, the most distant possible place while still being "inside" the town. Hester is able to assert her individuality, but it leaves her old, weary, and alone.

MacNolia was able to express her originality by being a highly intelligent black child, and an intelligent, strong, and capable black woman. However, by standing out, she draws the fear, disregard, and hate of her racist world. 

Douglass is much like MacNolia, a brilliant black individual with an insatiable thirst to gain a higher education, and to be free. But though he had proven himself to some Northern abolitionists, he still causes fear and anger to strike deep into the hearts of Southern slave owners. No one really knows what to do with a slave, former or otherwise, who can think for himself. He becomes an oddity.

Holden, whose brash and oftentimes irritating personality isolates him from his peers, is certainly a unique individual. His life views are so different from those of everyone around him, and he seems to simply slip through life without a set destination. But this also means that he has virtually no one and nothing he loves, and almost no one or anything to love him in return.

So I wonder- is being an individual such a good thing after all, when it often times seems to be tainted with loneliness and isolation? Should we follow the American ideal that individuality is the thing to strive for?

What about the Asian idea that interdependence is the way to go? That individuals are to be contained is the common way of thinking, and there are two sayings which translate this sentiment well: "The Protruding nail gets hammered", and "The Crying bird gets Shot".

So, which is truly better? A unique lifestyle, no matter how lonely or isolated you are? Or is it best to keep your head down and work with the group to a goal which benefits everyone?

Coming of Age

On "The F-Bomb", there is a post called Coming of Age, by Shira and Dina, about women in the Israeli Armed Forces. The post talks about how many Israeli women consider joining the army to be their duty, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Women make up one third of the Israeli army while in America, women represent twenty percent. That's a considerable gap, but when women are still seen as needing a man's protection, does the number of soldiers really matter? "Israelis, mainly boys, spend their high school days planning their future in the army in the same way Americans study for the SAT's." Most boys want to go out and be heroes, whether it's in Israel or America, while many Israeli girls want to be a "jobnick", someone with an office job, in order to be close to home.

I do not think that the country matters, or how many women are in the army. I think women will always be seen as someone who needs protection. It has nothing to do with the roles we play or the jobs we take, there will always be something, or someone, out there that projects that.