Gendered Slang

I believe language in today's society is gendered. Simple slang in the English language, that usually go unnoticed, are derogatory towards women or praising toward men. This slang, or sayings, are used on an everyday basis. Some examples, "dont be a pussy", "dont be a girl", "tough guy", "wise guy", "Mr. KnowItAll", and other quick sayings like that are all gendered. The sayings referring to men are calling someone tough, or strong, or wise. The sayings referring to women are negative, as if being a girl is a bad thing, or the female genitalia is something associated to be negative. Another example of female genitalia being used for negative implication is the word "cunt". In today's culture, people use the word "cunt" or "pussy" when describing either a terrible person or a weak person. As seen by timeline ling of genitalia slang, one could see that there were far more slang words for a vagina than there were for a penis. The slang used for a penis also seemed to be more praising. Another common saying that is gendered in the English language is used when describing an object. When people are talking about a car's paint job, they'll say "she looks great", or "she...". This is significant because it is equating women to objects. One rarely hears "he..." when describing an object. Overall, language in today's society is highly gendered, as shown by the several examples provided. On an everyday basis, we communicate through slang that is commonly derogatory towards women or feminism. On the contrary, slang referring to men or masculinity is used in a positive light. To really note the impact, we all should take note for one day the gender references in our language. I am sure we will all be shocked at what we are really talking about in the slang we use.

Hetero Barbie Summary

The hetero barbie article proposed an idea that I was not expecting. I never thought of Barbie in any other way but a doll which promotes feminism and stereotypical gender roles. All Barbie's are very thin with long legs, long hair, and loads of makeup. There has always been controversy on whether Barbie's were good for young girls. Many studies attempt to link Barbie with low self esteem and eating disorders in young girls. Hetero Barbie proposed a different theory about the Barbie doll, one I have never heard before. In the article, Rogers mentions how Barbie is not married, she is not a mother, she does not bend to Ken's will, etc. Barbie shows a strong sense of independence, with different occupations and travel involved as well. The article also suggests Barbie could be a drag queen; as she dresses ultrafemine, similar to drag queens. Barbie is often criticized for her heterosexual normativity, but in reality her sexuality is up for interpretation. In the article, Rogers writes, "In the extreme Barbie might be a lipstick lesbian, a lesbian fem, or a lesbian closeted more tightly than most who choose not to "come out". She might be a bisexual woman who once cared about and pursued a relationship with Ken but now prefers her "best friend" Midge....Barbie might be asexual". The article also focuses on a young homosexual man, Osborne, and his extensive Barbie collection. Osborne is an example of how Barbie's sexuality and image can be up for interpretation for people of all sexual preferences. He has collected Barbie's since he was thirteen and for him they are more than just dolls. Overall, the article is very eye opening to the uncommon interpretations of the Barbie doll. Although Barbie is criticized much in the media for a variety of reasons, there is much good it does to society. Giving individuals like Osborne comfort in their sexuality, and the reality that it is okay to stray from the normal gender classifications.

All in the Family

By definition, a nuclear family is a family that is centered around a married couple, and includes their children. The shape of a nuclear family has been fairly consistent leading up to the 21st century. The man, or the father, or the household was considered the 'breadwinner' and was responsible to provide for the family. The family relied on the father's job and the income he provided. The mother's role was the caretaker. she was responsible for looking after the children and doing household chores. The mother usually spent her time at home cleaning, cooking, and tending to children's needs. In today's society, the roles of the father and mother have been changing rapidly. The presence of women in the workplace, along with the recent economic recession, have altered the past vision of nuclear family and their gender roles. The mother, in many families in the US, has entered the role of the 'breadwinner' in the family, as the family relies on the income she provides. The increase in stay-at-home dads due to lay-offs or unemployment has changed the identity of a nuclear family as well. The father has suddenly taking over the gender roles of the mother, based on the old idea of a nuclear family. I do believe it is a good thing that women are beginning to take charge and providing for their families, whether it is because of husband lay-off or personal desire. It is beneficial to the family if there is an equal opportunity for the mother, and the father, to support the family financially. I believe it also makes the family more secure. If something were to happen to one spouse in terms of their employment, the other can step up and take on the burden. Nuclear families today provide more of a team work atmosphere in a way, as both spouses can 'play" any position. The enforcement of gender roles from an early age is far less present, as children now are seeing their mothers working and their fathers being more family oriented. Seeing both spouses take financial responsibility in certain circumstances blurs the gender roles formed in the 20th century and before. Overall, this family change is a good thing for society.

Sex, Lies, and Advertising summary

The Sex, Lies, and Advertising chapter summarized the efforts of Ms. magazine to defy stereotypical gender ads that are usually placed in women's magazines. Magazines for women commonly have the same types of ads: shampoos, fragrances, cleaning products, food recipes, etc. Ms. magazine hoped to bring in ads that were usually directed only toward the male gender, or only placed in magazines for men. In order to obtain these ads, Gloria reached out to these companies and attempted to persuade them that women contribute to a large portion of their product sales. Ms. magazine ran into several issues along the way. Companies usually directing ads towards men were stubborn in using them in a women's magazine. The companies feared it would not sell as well and that it would be waste of advertising. For example, Lionel was contacted in hopes to acquire toy train ads in Ms. magazine to attract young girls. Lionel was afraid that if they were to put young girls in their ads for the magazine, young boys would suddenly become less interested in their products. Ms. magazine also attempted to attract beer companies to place ads in their magazine. It took 8 years for a beer company, Michelob Ultra, to provide ads for their magazine. Food companies were asked to provide ads without recipes, as recipes promote stereotypical gender roles that women should be cooking. In some instances, companies saw results and were on board with the change of advertising. United airlines was the first airline to cross over, and saw beneficial results. Several car companies also joined the bandwagon. Ultimately, the experiment performed by Ms. magazine had its successes and failures. I believe it was an inspiring idea, as many people do not realize the enforcement of stereotypical gender roles from advertising in magazines. It is a shame it was such a struggle for the magazine editors to influence masculinity promoting companies to provide advertisements. Advertisements should be uni-gender, as both men and women purchase technology products, automobiles, airline tickets, etc. It is not fair, and it is quite ignorant for companies to provide certain ads exclusively to one gender, as the company could be losing sales.

Modern Love

Love, to me, is an important emotion and contributes greatly to overall happiness in human beings. Love is the feeling of comfort, belonging, and overall happiness one experiences when in the presence of someone or something. The word love should not be commonly used, as it is a powerful word than can only describe your feelings toward something that is extremely important to your overall well-being. Although those are my opinions toward the word 'love', I believe it is far less meaningful in society today because of the overuse of the word. Media and Pop culture are largely to blame for the degradation of the word love and what it means to truly love someone/something. People use the statement 'I love...' quite frequently throughout their day, to refer to something or someone that really may not be that important to them. On social media, I constantly see girls commenting on other girls Instagram posts, or Facebook photos, and the usual response is  'I love you'. Media sources such as magazines often drop the word 'love' when referring to celebrities spotted in public together. Musical artists use 'love' all the time in their lyrics and song titles. Dating has also changed greatly in the past 5-10 years. The amount of dating websites and phone apps have increased dramatically, and so has their popularity. Society is getting lazy about going out and meeting people, person to person, and seem to prefer sitting at home swiping right right on their phones. Rarely do you see men approaching women asking then on a date face to face anymore. Relationships these days usually begin with a text, or a photo like, or any other form of communication through social media. Meeting your significant other using a dating website or app is not a bad thing, it is not any less meaningful. However, it is sad how often it is used, and the lack of effort from society today to go out of their comfort zone and interact in-person. Personally, I find meeting people in person far more exciting. To me, there is something about finding out about a person in face to face conversation that makes it far more impactful.

Constructing Masculinity Summary

The Constructing Masculinity article was very interesting and I feel the information it provided flies under the radar. The article provides insight on how men and their masculinity are often influenced through the media; most of the time in negative ways. The article covers thoroughly how American sitcoms today mock the male gender and the perception of masculinity. Examples shows such as Two and a Half Men, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Home Improvement are referenced in the article as shows that "escalate the masculine parody". I used to watch Two and a Half Men when Charlie Sheen still played the role of Charlie Harper and can attest to the mocking of masculinity and the large portrayal of a stupid, incompetent male gender. The men in the show are often the butt-end of the joke, and portrayed largely as stupid or inferior to women. The quote, "The contemporary American sitcom tends toward a perceived analysis of male-incompetency and failures both in the home and more classical male domains", describes accurately how television continues to destroy hegemonic masculinity, but not necessarily in the best way. The article mentions how women are the main audience of American sitcoms. That being so, women tend to be the ones who define masculinity in that context, and "men can only lay claims to the old parts of their masculinity through irony, by falling right in with the joke".
Later in the article, Robertson discusses another example of how masculinity is influenced by the media. He touches on the propaganda used by the New Zealand military during the Great War. The New Zealand military challenged the masculinity of New Zealand men in hopes to encourage more soldiers to enlist. New Zealand adolescent males were largely exposed to histories of war heroes, which established physical and behavioral guidelines for them. Exposing young men to these stories encouraged them to 'prove their manhood' by serving their country in war.
Overall, I thought the article referenced many quality perspectives. I find it interesting that female misrepresentation on TV is widely talked about, but male misrepresentation is barely known.

Youtube, I Tube, We All Tube

The first clip is the Axe billions commercial. In this commercial, a man is spraying himself with Axe body spray. As he is spraying himself, millions of attractive women all over the world are dressed in bikinis and are running toward his location. The smell is “irresistible” to them and makes them act like hunting animals. They run, or swim, through a variety of intense climates and terrain until they reach the man on the beach. The women in this commercial are all model women, dressed in revealing bathing suits. They are also portrayed almost like man-thirsty beasts that clearly have an intense sexual desire. The camera angles in the clip seem to draw attention to the women’s figures and mainly their breasts. The depiction of women in the commercial is overall demeaning. Men are shown as the dominant sex and they control female sexual desires. The audience for this commercial is clearly young men. Axe wants to send the message that if you wear Axe body spray, all women will find you uncontrollably desirable. If you use Axe body spray, you will increase you sex appeal and gorgeous women will want you. I believe this commercial was quite effective in reaching its target audience. In middle school and high school, you could never go into a guy’s locker room without being exposed to the overwhelming smell of Axe. Clearly an effective way to gain hormonal teenage boys attention to a product is through the use of sex appeal and model women. The other clip I found was a student-made Axe commercial that reversed these gender roles. A woman is seen running through a park. Later in the clip a group of men begin chasing her and eventually tackling her, finding her irresistible. Once she is caught an Axe for women bottle is shown. This commercial was very comical as it completely reversed the gender roles. It was also quite disturbing to see grown men tackling a woman to the ground as she is screaming. In this commercial, women are the dominant sex as they control male sexual desires. Men are depicted as mindless sexual robots. 

Axe Billions commercial

Axe Billions (Reversed)

Feminism without Feminists Summary

This article provided a lot of insight and research to examine the influence that gender, race, and social class has on the opinions of people on particular shows, movies, and other sources of media. The specific show the research focuses on is the popular TV series Sex And The City. From the gathering of data and citing of past research, it was concluded that gender, race, and social class all had major impacts on personal opinions. Throughout the article, Kim references interviews with various fans of the TV show and their personal opinions. The fans interviewed varied in social class, gender, and race with the vast majority finding the show offensive or unjust. Several fans believe that the show's main characters are all upper middle-class, heterosexual women and that their everyday lives and interactions with one another are a privilege of their class and wealth. It is also believed that the show discriminates, because biological women are higher in the hierarchy than transgender women, and the SATC women are not attracted to men who have become homosexuals or that lack wealth. It is also stated that bisexual, lesbian, and gay characters are clearly dominated by heterosexual people. Pregnancy and maternal instincts are also depicted throughout the show in a variety of ways. The show was praised that motherhood is shown as a learning experience rather than a maternal instinct. More opinions are referenced throughout the article, which provide valid arguments to why the show could be realistic, or offensive and belittling. Many believe the show portrays feminism as a lifestyle rather than a political ideology. The article also provides a quick history of Feminist theory and how the first civil rights movement mainly benefited middle-class white women. Black women and women of color benefited from their own movements as white feminists did not address the issue of race or class. This idea was grouped with SATC as it is sometime considered “too white” and middle-class women are the dominant group. Overall, the article was quite interesting. It was very fascinating to see how people of different classes, races, and genders brought up different arguments as to why SATC was either positive or negative. I will not be able to watch a television show the same again, as I will be thinking of ways the depiction of characters or settings could be offending certain groups of people.  To be fair, TV producers look to air shows that will receive the most viewers, not necessarily the shows that are the most politically correct. Even today, I see changes in the shows that are aired on TV. Instead of the older shows in which the main characters are all men or all white people, there are shows such as Blackish or two broke girls in which all the main characters are of color or are women.