Gender and the Media

I am kind of at a loss as to were I should start the blog this week. While the overarching theme is gender and media, the readings and class discussion covered so much. From ads that are horrifying when examined to tv shows that target gender specific audiences to today and the empowerment of women. One of the main themes that kept appearing in this week, as well as the entire course, is the theme of power. Who has the power and through power control. The advertisements are a great example of this. Jean Kilbourne's article "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising," combined with her video "Killing us Softly" really drives home this connection with what we see an hear and who has power over society. Over and over again Kilbourne points out that most people like to claim that advertising does not affect them and that they simply ignore the ads. Yet, as Americans we see countless advertisements everyday. They cannot not affect almost every aspect of life just by sheer quantity. Yet, as in other realms of society, patriarchy goes unnoticed and is considered noraml. Images of naked women that sell beer do much more than that, they sell an idea. When one says that they don't pay attention to these images don't affect them simply ignore that these ideas sold with the actual tangible product become part of our idea of normal. As the week progressed, especially with the reading about Guerrilla Girls and Kilbourne's writings that it is important to take notice of such advertisements and most importantly message.

I found it very interesting how gendered televisions shows are and tv networks even more so. This made me think of a coffee mug that I saw while staying with my best friend last week. It must be noted that my friend has been obsessed with sports since she was very young. She and I both grew up watching ESPN, never thinking that this was unusual in any way. We can both ramble off stats and rules for many of the sports shown on ESPN. This coffee mug is all white with pink writing and the classic ESPN logo in it usual bold red print. Yes I am a woman. Yes I know the game. Yes I watch ESPN. This fits perfectly into this week. What makes ESPN so special that a woman would buy a coffee cup? Is it because it shows sport? Or that the advertisements on that particular network target men? Of course the reverse is more than likely true. I am sure there are a number of men who watch TLC or Halmark or Lifetime. I doubt any of them own a coffee cup showing off the fact that they watch these shows. I can only image what those coffee cups would say. Perhaps Yes I am a man. Yes I know all the characters names and back stories. Yes I watch Lifetime. Or, maybe: Yes I am a man. Yes this movie made me cry. Yes I watch Halmark.

Family

I like to think I am pretty open when it comes to families. I still think I am but this week’s readings really did stretch my understandings of family. More importantly the readings challenged me personally to examine why society sets such ridiculous expectations on family. The “good” American family has it all: a mother, a father, siblings, with the parents each working, taking part in raising the children, and the parents maintaining a healthy loving relationship. How can this be a realistic expectation? For one thing, nearly half of all marriages end in divorce and while not all marriages involve children this still plays a huge factor. Many families have gone through a divorce, thus, they don’t meet the expectations set. However, if you were to look at advertisements you would quickly assume that every family does in-fact meet this set expectation. These ads do so show some realities. The distribution of work clearing is un-portioned with the women being shown to do most of the household work. The father was, for the most part, only was shown with children doing outdoor activities.

I felt particularly challenged by this weeks readings in an extremely positive and beneficial way. Reflecting on all of these readings I can’t help but start to examine how odd our society is at expecting so much—so much that is all mutually exclusive. These readings all boil down to expectations. We expect men and women to work equally, yet women do not make as much money for doing the same work as men. We expect black fathers to be irresponsible or not around. We expect women to want to have children. We expect that sons and daughters will be born to plays with trucks and Barbie respectively. These expectations are set by society in a very old-fashioned style. Everywhere you look you can see these ideal portrayals of families. Portrayals of families are not actively changing the way families actually are changing. Therefore, it only makes sense that these expectations remain. However, the authors of these articles are working to change theses norms. It is empowering to read articles were the author offers a challenge to society by how they are living their lives and raising their families.

I am a proud product of a non-traditional family. My mom raised me single handily, at the same time as she was working fulltime and going to graduate school. To this day I am amazed at all she did and continues to do. I always knew that my friends’ families were different, but it was usually they just had more people in my mind. I knew that sometimes my mom had to rearrange and run around a lot more than the other kids’ moms but never once did she stop me from doing something. She was determined that being just the two of us would not be an excuse for anything. She really did let me try everything. Now it is clear I am not athletic but I did try: softball, soccer, ice-skating, gymnastics, and basketball. All with an amazing cheerleader who would go do her homework after dropping me off at practice. The other kids may have had the typical families but I had my mom which do this day, I will argue, for me is the best kind of family. My own experiences made me wonder about what the authors think of the role that extended family plays. My aunts, uncles, and cousins all played a huge part of who I am. I can’t imagine trying to tell someone about my family without mentioning these key people. My cousins and I are all around the same day and literally grew up together. These articles never mentioned the family I think is so critical. I think this is a huge part of the family experience.

Globalization and Power

I don't feel like I can say I liked the readings this week. It just doesn't seem right. However, the power and voices encompassed in these readings truly moved me, moved me in a way to make really like reading these articles. This week I learned so much. I learned about genital mutilation, sex-slave trafficking, comfort women, issues around reproductive freedom and sterilization. While these are all things I vaguely had some sort of small concept of (with the exception of comfort women) this week took my understanding to an all new level. These things are all related, not on the surface but through the week I grew in my understanding on how each of these demonstrates the power and control that dictates each of these horrific realities of our world today.

The quote from the National Latina Health Organization entitled, "Norplant Information Sheet," had a quote that really exemplifies the underlying connection all of these readings have. "An 84-year-old Mexican Catholic woman sums it up very neatly: "If women don't have that (right), what do they have?" Before this week I thought I had a pretty good handle on the concepts associated with choice. I now have a completely different understanding on how choice is such a pivotal part of empowerment. Each of these examples shows another way that power is exerted over women. Each of these horrific events takes away choice from someone. Without choice the woman does not have any power. The context of this loss of power is demonstrated quite differently in each of the readings. For genital mutilation this is embedded in the traditions. Genital mutilation is literally a rite of passage for girls to become women. This poses an interesting contrast to the traditions associated with menstruation we discussed last weekend. The final articles about reproduction also took a different view of choice. Contraceptives are supposedly there to give women a choice, yet, (as we talked about in class) this choice becomes a burden of responsibility. Finally the sex-slave industry is the most obvious example of choice being taken away from women. Women are forced to make a living in this horrific manor.

Personally, the stories of women moving north and west really touched me. It is hard to imagine what it is like for a mother to leave her own children, travel across the world, raise someone else’s children, and send all earnings back to her children. We looked at cases primarily in Asia and the Middle East but it is not hard to realize that this is literally a global issue. For the most part, globalization is almost always seen as an incredible phenomenon. A never before achieved feat that allows for immense amounts of exchange of: knowledge, goods, and people. The European Union is the prime example of this. Countries that are members have free-trade of commodities and citizens of those countries can travel and work in any other EU nation. This flow of goods and people reflects the global flow of people, as most people who are from the poorer EU nations are moving North and West. Countries like Poland and Turkey struggle to get EU membership. Yet, the majority of low wage earners in western European countries are from those places. There has been a plethora of news coverage on immigrants to Germany, France, England, and Scandinavia. It amazes me that there is this global wide trend of moving north and west. I can’t say I am all that surprised after this weeks reading. It all boils down to power. The power lies in the North and West so they can use that power to hire outside and while it may seem like people are given the choice to move how much of a real choice is that? The concepts of choice and power are huge issues that factor into every aspect of globalization. Understanding how women are oppressed by power and choice only opens the possibility for a broader understanding of how these two huge ideas contribute into nearly every relationship—from individuals, to nations, to the entire world.