Tag Archives: chapter 11

So Hot

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Planet Fitness… who decided this would be a good idea? Sure, in the communications field you sometimes have to do risque things to get your advertisements noticed. Especially because the competition is so steep in the advertisement industry but some people believe they took it a little too far this time.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQfmpXsLV_4[/youtube]

Planet Fitness completely contributes to societies view of the gender role that women are sex objects. The commercial starts with a young woman in a locker room who’s hair is wind blown, make up done, shirt that only covers her chest, saying the words “soooo hot” repeatedly. Two other “hot” women join in as a middle aged woman with no make up on stares at them in confusion. If you look in the background, two women are in bath towels stroking one another as well. The commercial then shows the middle aged woman walk into a Planet Fitness and says to an employee “…and thats why I don’t like gyms.”

Was the point of Planet Fitness’s commercial to say they don’t have women like that in their locker rooms? I hate to break it to you Planet Fitness, but I highly doubt any gym has women in the locker rooms that are acting that way. People will never stop turning women into sex objects if society doesn’t make a change.

“Don’t Risk Dudeness”

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I came across a Veet commercial that I saw as society saw as comical but was full of gender stereotypes in advertising. Veet was trying to portray a funny story line of a wife and husband and if you do not know what Veet is, it is a hair removal creme that lasts longer than simply shaving your legs or underarms. This supposedly funny commercial turned into pressure for females to conform to femininity.

The post goes onto fight that “America can no longer take a joke” and although yes it can still have some laughs connected to it, but this commercial is still publicly advertised and does not help the progression of society to which we have already created.

Take a look at the video!

#DearFutureHusband

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As I look through my Facebook news feed yesterday and today one of the popular things I am seeing is the Meghan Trainor video.  Trainor has a song out now called “Dear Future Husband.”  Within this song she is telling her “future husband” how to treat her right just by following a few simple things, like making sure that he gives her flowers every anniversary.  The song goes on just listing things that he should follow so he can treat her like a lady. To me though she was a little demanding with all the things she wants just so that her future husband can treat her like a lady.  Yeah it would be nice for those things but all females want their future husbands to treat them right in their own way.  I also think that the way she is dressed and dancing shows a little to “sexy” for mass media.  I thought that some of the outfits that she had on were low cut and tight which could be shown to be sexy during the music video.  Also with this video it can be a little sexist because you have a woman her asking things to be treated right by her future husband but what about the men?  They are also need to be treated right by his wife, so where is his video?

 

“If she was a man, we wouldn’t be having this conversation”

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One of my best friends came to me and said that she had to show me something. She played a song and I really did not think that much about it, it was pretty catchy, but I couldn’t figure out what was so great about it.

In the beginning of the video, it shows J Lo and her friends sitting down with a guy from a record company who is presenting her with ideas for her music video. After some really horrible propositions, her friend states that “if she was a guy, they wouldn’t be having this conversation” because they would have the video be set at a mansion or on a yacht with half naked girls. So, for this video, the decide to objectify the men which reverses the roles.

I love J Lo because she has always been a strong woman that owned her image as a real woman with real curves. I highly suggest watching the video because it uses humor to bring to light the issues of objectifying women by turning it on men. I almost feel like it is a gab at the music industry that supports these kinds of videos by saying how does it make you feel when your sex is portrayed in this way.

I must warn you, the video does have some bad language and sexuality.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4oiEhf9M04[/youtube]

Grey Area to Bridge the Gap

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A popular ABC primetime show Grey’s Anatomy never ceases to amaze viewers on what the patients and staffers might do next. If you are an avid fan but have not watched Season 11 or the episode from Feburary 19th you may not want to continue reading, blog post contains spoilers.
The Feburary 19th episode of Grey’s introduced a new character Kurt Warren, Dr. Ben Warrens brother.  Kurt and Ben were shown in the beginning of the show spreading their deceased fathers ashes and when trying to return home Kurt collapsed and fell down a rocky hill.  Once Kurt was admitted into the hospital the doctors found out that his lab results showed very high levels of hormones and drugs that should have not been there.   Kurt later told sister-in-law Miranda Bailey that he was trying to be come a she.

On a gossip tv website TVLine the secret is revealed that Kurt’s storyline and transition is going to become a primary theme in this season of Grey’s Anatomy.  Why is it so important that Kurt becomes a story line rather than a family member who shows up for an episode or two?  Many times the writers of Grey’s introduce new cases, some family members, to relate to things going on in the world.  However, Kurt is here to stay because more of the American population is coming out as transgendered and our society needs to be aware of what that really means and how to need to adapt.   In Chapter two of Gendered Lives queer theory is moving beyond the two binary labels.  This theme in Grey’s Anatomy is helping to close gap between the “black and white” binary labels.

More controversy will be on the rise from this because Kurt was using illegal drugs to become a woman?  Now the hospital is going to help him transition?  According to the TVLine article Kurt will gain a love interest.  Do you think there should/ will be more characters and shows like this on tv?

Goddess Glorious Female Warrior

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Have you heard of the show called Parks and Recreations? I was watching it today and this episode was about a camp like girl scouts and boy scouts. One of the boys in the boy scouts wanted to joined the girl scouts camp. Soon all the boys wanted too because they were tired of the dirt/out doors and they wanted to play with puppies like al the girl scouts were doing. This was breaking the gender norms. When the boys were initiated in the camp they had to call themselves goddesses and they looked proud to do so.

Like A Girl

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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs[/youtube]

Every year, millions of Americans religiously tune into the NFL Super Bowl and this year was no different. Some for the football, some for the commercials, and some just to have Super Bowl parties and eat a lot of food. I didn’t get a chance to watch the Super Bowl because I had homework to do, but I made sure I went back and watched the most talked about commercials played during the game. One that caught my attention and probably my favorite commercial that I saw was Always’ “Like A Girl” commercial. In the commercial it has a variety of people, mostly children, act out what they think it means to do different activities “like a girl.” The boys in the commercial all made it seem like girls were very incapable of doing anything they were told to do. However, they then asked young girls to do things “like a girl” and the results were very different. They did everything with as much effort and power as they possibly could. This reminded me of our first couple of gender classes where we talked about the different gendered boxes everyone in put into by our society to be the “perfect” boy or girl. I love this commercial so much because it challenges what everyone thinks it means to do things “like a girl.” Our society discourages girls to be athletic, intelligent, assertive, daring, etc. because that “isn’t what girls are supposed to do.” I think we should have more commercials and campaigns like this one to help encourage young girls in our society to be themselves and let them know they can do anything they want, and do it just as well as any boy can.

Ford’s Speed Dating Breaks Gender Norms

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Nyr1Ao7iZA[/youtube]

This Valentine’s Day, instead of breaking hearts, Ford is breaking gender norms with their ad titled “Speed Dating”. In their ad, Ford recruits a professional female stunt driver to go on a series of blind dates with unsuspecting men.

While on the date, the stunt driver offers to give her dates a lift in her new 2015 Mustang. Upon first entering the car, her dates clearly pull from the stereotype that “women can’t drive”. Her dates make comments such as, “Should I drive?”, “I could show you a thing or two”, and a few even instruct her on when to switch gears. Little do they know they are in for a big surprise.

During the drive, the stunt driver tries to “turn around” in an empty parking lot. However, instead of turning around she puts the pedal to the metal and reaches speeds of 120mph while doing a series of doughnuts. The guys are clearly surprised at their date’s capabilities and feel that they had wrongly stereotyped her.

Ford is showing the world this Valentine’s Day that women can break out of their gender boxes.

Glee Does it Again…

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If you watch Glee, then you will see they have been raising another issue on gender. This time they have brought attention to the transgender and transsexual community. To define transgender, it is when one doesn’t feel that their biological sex matches their gendered identity. A transsexual is one who surgically changes sex so that their physiology is a physical match to their gendered identity.

Despite Sam’s obvious misconceptions, this scene is probably the most heartfelt scene the show has ever produced. However, Sam’s linking gender to sexuality is a common mistake many of us make. We need to stop assigning sexuality to gender. While they are often times related they are in no way linked together. I think the show did a good job on directing our focus to the inner turmoil that leads to the decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

 

Gendered Commercials

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This past week our class went to Walmart to lead a first hand investigation of the differences in children’s toys.   I think many of us “know” the differences in toys that are made for a boy vs. a

girl; however, when we were actually looking we found so many minor details of separation that we did not realize even existed.

This lead me to thinking…. the youth today absorbs so much media. So I wanted to look at kid’s toy commercials, because these are the media items the really attract kids interest.  [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VIwOkbN0qE[/youtube]
This video is a commercial for “Barbie Mix n Magic”.  In the commercial you see the girls doing all the cooking and only talking to other girls.  Then at the end a boy finally exists, but the only thing he does in the heavy moving of the table.  Even commercials for toys are extremely separating in what is suggested in roles for young men and woman.

My challenge is to find a commercial that is inclusive to all kids with out gender separation in ideal roles. Can you do it?