MAKE UP FOR BLOG # 4

The other night I watched the movie called "Baby Mama" with my boyfriend. At first I just watched the movie and laughed through the whole thing, but afterwards I realized that the main character was going against the stereotype society has for women, and was in a way punished for it. In the movie a woman puts of marriage and dating for a long time and just focuses on work. She becomes the vice president of the company she is working for, but finds herself wanting a baby. So she hires a surrogate mother and the film takes off from there. The movie shows how hard it is for society to accept you if you happen to be an independent woman. In one scene her mother bascially says she'll never get married because shes to focused on herself and her work. It's also hard for her to adopt a baby because shes an independent woman, which I think is stupid. In the end this movie was yet another example of the constraints society sets on women.

MAKE UP FOR BLOG # 3

Yesterday I was watching one of my favorite childhood movies called The Borrowers. In the movie there are tiny people who "borrow" from human beings to survive in the floor boards of the house. But although these tiny people live amongst humans they cannot be seen by humans. If they are seen they are squished by the humans(or so the myth says). In the beginning of the film and throughout the gender roles were very prominent. The women in the family were supposed to stay behind while the men went out to "borrow" things from the house. Because the outside world was too dangerous for clumsy women. Contrary to the roles the movie shows the young girl and boy have reversed gender roles. The young girl loves to go out and "borrow". She gets angry when she is not aloud to explore and often goes against the rules out of curiousty. The young boy is completley opposite. He would rather stay in the house beneath the floor boards and doesn't like adventure, and he rarely deviates from the rules. I think this movie is an example of how society is changing over time with gender roles and socialization.

Karate Chopping Gender Reversal

As usual I was watching an episode of Spongebob Squarepants today. In today's epidsode Spongbob and Sandy were karate fighting the entire show because Sandy thinks she is, and is, tougher than Spongebob. After watching this episode it really got me thinking about Sandy in general. Sandy wears a pretty flower in her hair and wears a bikini, but all of her manurisms on the show contradict her physical appearence. What girly girl could really kick somebody elses butt, and love doing it. Sandy is also very independent and assertive. These characteriscs mirror what society says about masculinity. Spongebob is weak, passive, and very dependent on others, this mirrors the definition of femninity in society. Could this role reversal be trying to even out gender roles in society? Could this mean that the producers want boys and girls to know that they can be how they want? After watching this episode I think they were trying to let children know that they can act how they want regardless of gender roles. Maybe society is changing after all.

Just Like Larry

As always I was watching an episode of Spongebob I'd already seen multiple times, but for some reason I have an unconditional love for the show. This time while watching it I noticed that the episode was all about being "masculine." In the show Spongebob and Patrick want to be like Larry because he gets all the ladies and everyone depends on him. Larry is a brave, confident, and muscular Lobster. Throughout the episode Spongebob and Patrick attempt daring stunts and do things that would make them seem brave infront of the other sea creatures because otherwise they are considered immature or weak. After watching this episode I noticed that society's definition of masculinity is even applied to a lobster in a childrens television series. When I described Larry the lobster my definition was as if I was describing a "real man" in our society. Larry is muscular, assertive, brave, demanding, and more. This episode is just another reminder of society's definiton of masculinity, and it's also another demonstration of how young children are taught gender roles in society.

Girls Only!

Today while watching cartoons a commerical for a toy came on. The toy was a cupcake decorator machine. The commercial started out with my definition of girly pop music and girls giggling in the background. The girls then ran into the scene and started icing their cupcakes with smiles on. At the end of the commercial the advitisor explains that you can share you cupcakes with your girlfriends. After watching this commercial I was reminded of how young society starts embedding peoples minds with traditional gender roles. While it seems fun these little girls are being taught that baking cakes is fun, and its what little girls do. At the same time I know there is atleast one little boy out there who will watch this commerical and want the Girl Gourmet cupcake set. I also know that when he asks his parents they will more than likely say no and suggest a Hot Wheels set instead. This commerical is yet another way society is forcing traditional gender roles on children.

Taco Bell

Today I was watching the same Taco Bell commercial I've seen a ton of times. In the commercial a guy asks a girl if she wanted to have dinner sometime, and he seemed very confident about asking her. When the girl gives him her number he immediately calls her cell phone and she turns around to find him there with a new platter from Taco Bell. Then her parents show up suggesting their moving so fast that they are going to get married. After seeing this commercial over and over I realized that it represented gender in a different way that I usually look for. Usually I look for gender stereotypes or discriminations, but this time I saw gender stereotypes but they dealt with manners and how one should act around a woman or man. The guy is very confident and asks the girl out because in society today it is not considered polite for the girl to ask the guy out. Well atleast where I live that is the case. The guy also buys dinner just as he does in the commercial, and the girl is swept of her feet because of all this. I found that this was gender "manner" stereotyping. Although many people in society today live up to this stereotype.

Mrs.Potato Head Loses Her Dominant Lips

During the Superbowl this year I saw a commercial about Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. In the commercial Mr. Potato Head is speeding down a mountain highway and Mrs. Potato Head is in the passengers seat screaming and whining about how he needs to slow down. Then suddenly a flock of sheep appears in the middle of the road and Mr. Potato Head slams on the brakes, as he does this Mrs. Potato Head's lips fly off, still whining, and fall down the side of the mountain. Mr. Potato Head chuckles to himself and drives of leaving his wifes whining lips behind. At first I thought that this commercial depicted being feminine as being catious and responsible, and I thought that it depicted being masculine as being reckless and fearless. But after reading the Beauty and the Beast article for class my point of view changed. I found that this commercial showed the woman be dominant, but only on the surface. It still comes back to the man being in charge in the end as he leaves her lips behind. This also reminded me of the gender roles my parents play my mom always whines and corrects him, but in the end he is always right and gets his way.

Burgers or Babies?

Today I watched a commerical about Burger King's mini burger shots. In the commercial one guy has a big whopper and the other guy has a little tiny burger shot. The guy with the whopper looks at the other guy basically conveying to him that he's a wimp for buying the tiny burger.Then the tiny burger guy opens the wrapper and was immedietely swarmed with beautiful girls! I found this commerical to be the perfect example of gender roles in soceity. It showed how men are supposed to eat alot of food, big burgers, and how they are considered wimpy if they eat a tiny burger. It also shows that women are supposed to worship tiny babies, Burger King mini shots, because they are so cute. This kind of angered me because I know so many girls my age that swear they will not have children due to the fact they hate children. But overall this commercial showed the advertising world's views of masculinity and femininty.

Baby Beauty Queens

While flipping through the channels the other night I stopped on one channel for a particular reason. This reason was because I saw little girls 12 and under competing for a beauty pageant crown! There were different sections of the competition and there was even a section for toddlers. How can a toddler compete in a pageant? The very young girls would get on stage and basically goof off, because of course they are not very good at dancing at a year old, then would exit with their moms smiling from ear to ear. They even had a section for babies! The mothers or fathers would dress their baby up and present them on stage. After watching this I realized this is another example of labeling a gender from the minute the baby is born. These babies were being dressed up in pink dresses even though they probably had no idea about the difference between boys and girls. I bet when these little girls grow up their view of the word female will mean, poised, gentle, kind, polite, etc. Although those are all good traits parents should not limit their childrens individuality by assigning them certain roles for their gender.

Spongebob as a mom :)

A couple days ago I was watching my all time favorite television show, Spongebob Squarepants. The episode was about how he and Patrick had found a baby oyster (or clam i'm not quite sure) and were going to raise it together. Spongebob immedietly filled the role of the woman and Patrick filled the role of the man. I found it interesting that the role of the woman, Spongebob, was to stay at home with the baby clam, and cook and clean all day. The role of the man, Patrick, was to go to work come home and expect dinner on the table. I thought to myself "hey this is not a good way to portray the roles of men and women to small children." I would not want my little girl to grow up thinking her only role in life was to serve a man. What child would want to grow up thinking "i'm going to grow up to cook, clean, and watch the kids!" Its amazing that society labels genders like this and incorporates them into even childrens television. But whats even worse is I associate certain chores around the house with each gender as well. I associate cooking with the woman and mowing the grass with the man. The way most of society wants to raise children is to label genders in this way, although i'm not sure why. This episode definately opened up my eyes in the way I view the jobs for each gender.