In the pop culture of toys, what people give their children to play with is almost entirely gender stereotyped. For the girls they are usually given stuffed animals, baby dolls, and cooking toys like easy-bake ovens. Whereas, for boys they are given sports equipment, action figures from popular action films, and violent video games. Such a difference can drastically affect the viewpoints children have about who they are supposed to be and how they are supposed to act even from an early age.
First, let’s consider girls’ toys. According to Dipika Mirpuri for About.com, the top ten girls’ toys last year were all either dolls, animal games or toys, decorating kits, or spa toys.. These toys even in their description on the website are described as “the very things most girls enjoy” and “girls jump at the chance to try their hand at conjuring up perfumes from far away lands and body scrubs.” Even looking more trivially, most of these toys are stereotyped “girl colors” of pink and purple and other pastel colors. The others are soft and fuzzy. Also, in most commercials for girls’ toys there is usually some kind of light and happy music playing in the background of the commercial. What do these clues tell girls about themselves? First, with the claims from the advertisements that most girls enjoy these, what if a girl doesn’t like perfume or glitter or stuffed animals? These claims from the ads tell a girl that if she doesn’t like these items then she may not fit in with other girls and could potentially be outcast from them. Then with the colors, not all girls like these stereotyped colors and to make most toys that color is not fair to them and also pressures them to conform the same way that they claims in the ads do. With the soft and fuzzy toys, and also with the pastel colors of the toys, this is a more subtle clue to girls that they are supposed to be delicate and gentle and like gentle things. The same message is heard from the music in the commercials, that as a girl you should like light and happy things and be happy. But these clues can place undue pressure on girls to be contrary to who they are. What then happens to the girls who are more tomboyish and like sports or, dare I say it, more boyish colors like blue or green? They are told that what they like doesn’t matter and that they should conform to the world’s standards and not be themselves. These types of toys also influence girls that their play style is to be nurturing and submissive (as fuzzy puppies and dolls and pastel colors are all characteristic of submission and are less prominent as solid lines, sharp edges, and bold colors). This play style then translates in to the girls’ adult life and pushes them to be less independent and prominent for whom they are.
Now let’s look at boys’ toys. According to the same source as the top girls’ toys, the most popular boys toys of 2008 were all active games (like Nerf guns and laser tag guns) or action figure toys (like Star Wars masks and Transformers figures).. These toys are bright and boldly colored and hard (made from solid plastic). These toys, in contrast to girl’s toys, tell boys that they should be more active and should be more violent. The colors themselves, as being more bold, also tells boys that they should be bolder in their actions. Usually, too, in boys’ toys commercials the music played is more energetic and intense, almost signaling the boys that they need to be energetic and boisterous. This active and aggressive play style in childhood can also come into power in adulthood for boys when they enter the workforce and strive for the top position often in very aggressive manners. This aggressive view of themselves can also lead males to think they are more important and daring than women. Also, a lot of these toys for boys come from more popular films. These films have fairly high ratings (PG to PG-13), significantly higher than the G-ratings of the girls’ toys. This almost goes so far as to say that boys should not be shielded from violence and gore in films, but girls should. That girls should maintain their innocence for as long as possible. Shouldn’t that work both ways? Children are only children once and not for a very long time. Shouldn’t both genders be shielded from violence and taught that violence really isn’t the answer to life? The same problems from stereotyped girls’ toys happen with boys’ too. The toys pressure boys to behave and think certain ways about their gender and if they don’t then they run the risk of being outcast or ridiculed by their peers, pushing them to conform.
That’s not to say that I myself haven’t conformed to these stereotypes in my own life. I personally like stuffed animals (as long as they’re cute) and glitter and my favorite color is pink. But I’m more than that. I like action games too. I enjoy laser tag (I would like it more if it weren’t so expensive) and I enjoy Star Wars and Lord of the Rings toys like any “good” boy does or did when they first came out, just as much as I enjoy action and epic films as much as romantic love comedies and stories. But just because I was able to grow beyond the stereotype doesn’t mean that all kids these days are. Hopefully though, they are getting the message from somewhere that they can be interested in other things and are free to do what they like.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Blog #4
The tough guise, described as the male depiction of only strong, powerful, independent, and promoting of violence in men, carries with is many heavy consequences. More consequences than benefits. In fact, the only benefits from it that I can see are maybe if a man encounters a situation that he does not know how to react to he can span his knowledge of how other men have dealt with it and adapt their response to be his own, almost like a guide for male reactions. But at that same time, this can be a very self-destructive and dangerous response to situations. In doing this, men can start to feel like they are only worth something if they fit that model of men. Or they can begin to react only in violence as many of the sources for the tough guise promote violence as an acceptable response to a situation (i.e. films like Fight Club or even in the scenes of romantic comedies when the women the male loves is insulted). Its almost as if the tough guise view takes the verse and saying from the Bible “eye for an eye and tooth for tooth” literally, to the point that there is no other response choice but to fight back, leaving the whole world to quickly become eye-less and tooth-less. It can also become a problem for the strong muscular image given to men because, much like with women, men can develop eating disorders or consider themselves as less than what they really are based only on their body alone. It is for this reason that men and women have issues with gender.
Many people today consider “gender issues” to apply only to the plight of women. Instead of looking at what different sexes have to deal with in their respective genders and daily lives, gender issues become what trouble do women face being a woman everyday. People assume that because men can go so far in this society and because the images for women are so strikingly different, that man must just not face many if any gender issues. What they fail to realize in that statement is that men face just as many stereotypes and problems as women; its just that men’s issues and stereotypes are different. Men still have the pressure to look certain ways, behave certain ways, and have those ways reflected in their lives by a certain age. Men are also pressured to fulfill certain roles that are often different that the pressured roles placed on women. But because each gender is so blinded by their own pressures and their ideas about the other sex, they rarely come to a point where they can communicate and understand where the other person is coming from, thereby leading both genders in a never-ending cycle of gender misconception and miscommunication.
Within the male portion of gender issues is where one can find the pressures men face to conform their bodies to the stereotype (that of strength and muscle). While in some cases, this pressure can lead men to eat right and exercise, most fall prey to the negative extremes. Some men can succumb to the pressure and work out so much they never do anything else. They seek only to build muscle at any cost, sometimes leading to the taking of steroids. Most men will not just start out with a jump to steroid usage. They begin gradually as they begin to feel less and less worth in themselves and how they look. Then they begin to eat differently and work out differently. Then when they begin to feel that these methods aren’t working, they begin the dangerous path of steroid use, which can ultimately lead to their breakdown of their bodies and health. The second extreme comes when men feel they have no hope to be like the media image. This can lead men to serious emotions and psychological depressions. And it can lead men to the opposite of being healthy, resulting in obese couch potatoes that gave us trying entirely. If only men were being told to be body outlaws like women. To take what they have and work it like there is no other option, can you even imagine how much different the media output and influence would be? Or can you imagine how much stronger in themselves men could be, if only the media would tell them to strive at being their best whatever that may be?
The way media depicts males seems to influence the society they are shown in. It is not that media reflects what society feels at that moment, media does the opposite dictating where society goes in the future. This is seen in how males have consistently been portrayed as strong, muscular, cold in feeling, and independent. Media controlling society can even easily be seen in the way people of both genders dress, with this year the return of 80s style clothing for women and fraternity style clothing (complete with the pastel colors and leather loafers) for men. People become susceptible to these media pressures for three reasons. Reason one, is that in today’s society there is a lack of guidance from the older generations (mentors, leaders, parents, etc) to resist being put in a box. Even in the messages from celebrities to be oneself, they say that but then turn around and conform to the stereotypes themselves. Second, there are so much of the stereotypes around us everyday, we just can’t ignore them. They are in every part of our lives, from music to magazines to TV/movies to textbook pictures. We can’t escape them. Third and most importantly, we can’t ignore the pressures and become susceptible to them because we as a society have a deep psychological desire to conform. We don’t want to appear different or stick out in any way. Of course there are exceptions to these reasons as some people are anti-conformist or have really strong mentors in their lives, but it comes down to these three reasons that the world today is so susceptible to the media.
Many people today consider “gender issues” to apply only to the plight of women. Instead of looking at what different sexes have to deal with in their respective genders and daily lives, gender issues become what trouble do women face being a woman everyday. People assume that because men can go so far in this society and because the images for women are so strikingly different, that man must just not face many if any gender issues. What they fail to realize in that statement is that men face just as many stereotypes and problems as women; its just that men’s issues and stereotypes are different. Men still have the pressure to look certain ways, behave certain ways, and have those ways reflected in their lives by a certain age. Men are also pressured to fulfill certain roles that are often different that the pressured roles placed on women. But because each gender is so blinded by their own pressures and their ideas about the other sex, they rarely come to a point where they can communicate and understand where the other person is coming from, thereby leading both genders in a never-ending cycle of gender misconception and miscommunication.
Within the male portion of gender issues is where one can find the pressures men face to conform their bodies to the stereotype (that of strength and muscle). While in some cases, this pressure can lead men to eat right and exercise, most fall prey to the negative extremes. Some men can succumb to the pressure and work out so much they never do anything else. They seek only to build muscle at any cost, sometimes leading to the taking of steroids. Most men will not just start out with a jump to steroid usage. They begin gradually as they begin to feel less and less worth in themselves and how they look. Then they begin to eat differently and work out differently. Then when they begin to feel that these methods aren’t working, they begin the dangerous path of steroid use, which can ultimately lead to their breakdown of their bodies and health. The second extreme comes when men feel they have no hope to be like the media image. This can lead men to serious emotions and psychological depressions. And it can lead men to the opposite of being healthy, resulting in obese couch potatoes that gave us trying entirely. If only men were being told to be body outlaws like women. To take what they have and work it like there is no other option, can you even imagine how much different the media output and influence would be? Or can you imagine how much stronger in themselves men could be, if only the media would tell them to strive at being their best whatever that may be?
The way media depicts males seems to influence the society they are shown in. It is not that media reflects what society feels at that moment, media does the opposite dictating where society goes in the future. This is seen in how males have consistently been portrayed as strong, muscular, cold in feeling, and independent. Media controlling society can even easily be seen in the way people of both genders dress, with this year the return of 80s style clothing for women and fraternity style clothing (complete with the pastel colors and leather loafers) for men. People become susceptible to these media pressures for three reasons. Reason one, is that in today’s society there is a lack of guidance from the older generations (mentors, leaders, parents, etc) to resist being put in a box. Even in the messages from celebrities to be oneself, they say that but then turn around and conform to the stereotypes themselves. Second, there are so much of the stereotypes around us everyday, we just can’t ignore them. They are in every part of our lives, from music to magazines to TV/movies to textbook pictures. We can’t escape them. Third and most importantly, we can’t ignore the pressures and become susceptible to them because we as a society have a deep psychological desire to conform. We don’t want to appear different or stick out in any way. Of course there are exceptions to these reasons as some people are anti-conformist or have really strong mentors in their lives, but it comes down to these three reasons that the world today is so susceptible to the media.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Blog #3
Within the text of The Beauty Myth, which we are reading in our class, Naomi Wolf traces the plight of the working woman here in America and abroad. First she describes the struggle to manage the working world and the house-care world. She even points out that Western women only do housework six hours less than Middle Eastern women. Wolf also explains the massive amounts of money it would take to pay housewives if they were in fact paid, and yet in the regular workforce, hit the glass ceiling everyday with what they are paid. Wolf then goes on to explain the issues regarding how women should dress and behave by describing the professional beauty qualification and its function in the sex discrimination policies. Wolf explains that this qualification is not only vague, but is very open to interpretation, hence all the lawsuits behind the way women are hired and dress (either more feminine or more masculine). These policies aid in the sex discrimination so far that women almost do not know how to dress for work, because every option available to women in clothes has been the subject of a lawsuit that has failed the woman in question. All of this to say that women face much more obstacles than just being genetically different, they face the glass ceiling and the inability to wear anything and yet to have to wear something. How are women supposed to finagle their way around the working world?
This issue of how to dress come into sharp conflict with the social construction that we have placed on women. According to most people, women should be feminine, medium height (or at least not taller than guys), have long flowing hair, and wear they perfect amount of make-up to where they look "naturally" beautiful. Also, women should then reflect their outward appearance and behave more gently and submissive, despite whatever else is going in their lives. This social construct of women tells them they can only look one way and behave one way as a woman to be accepted. This is the opposite of the truth. A woman can be beautiful at any size with any height or weight, and any hair type and color. A woman can also behave anyway she wants (but with the same stipulation that I would put on men, they they behave morally and kind) and they are beautiful in my book.
This chapter in the book on the workforce most shocked me in the lawsuits regarding their clothing. I never knew that women had such trouble regarding the way they dressed. Also, other than jobs like working at the playboy mansion or in a restaurant like Hooters, I never knew that women were being judged by their youth "beauty" alone regardless of who they are as a person and the quality of work they do. I had heard of discrimination against women and I had even heard of some women being assaulted in their jobs, but never the discrimination to their age or their clothes. I asked it above already but I will ask it again, how are women supposed to manage with these extra pressures placed on them?
These ideas of how women should behave and look can not only affect their perception of themselves and their own worth, but it can go so far as to prevent them from trying. They may just give up on that promotion or that new job, because they think that a more "capable" man or a more "beautiful" woman will come along to fill that position. It also helps contribute to the glass ceiling and even reinforces it. It can also affect the way employers view the women that work for them, expecting them to behave submissive and dress certain ways.
Women are constantly being forced into a very small box and are expected to pop out and look like the perfect woman and employee. The only problem here, and its a big problem, is that no woman is like another. Each one is unique and beautiful in her own way. The sooner everyone, men and women alike, figure that out the sooner the glass will break and success in work and in women's opinion of themselves will grow and break through all other boundaries.
This issue of how to dress come into sharp conflict with the social construction that we have placed on women. According to most people, women should be feminine, medium height (or at least not taller than guys), have long flowing hair, and wear they perfect amount of make-up to where they look "naturally" beautiful. Also, women should then reflect their outward appearance and behave more gently and submissive, despite whatever else is going in their lives. This social construct of women tells them they can only look one way and behave one way as a woman to be accepted. This is the opposite of the truth. A woman can be beautiful at any size with any height or weight, and any hair type and color. A woman can also behave anyway she wants (but with the same stipulation that I would put on men, they they behave morally and kind) and they are beautiful in my book.
This chapter in the book on the workforce most shocked me in the lawsuits regarding their clothing. I never knew that women had such trouble regarding the way they dressed. Also, other than jobs like working at the playboy mansion or in a restaurant like Hooters, I never knew that women were being judged by their youth "beauty" alone regardless of who they are as a person and the quality of work they do. I had heard of discrimination against women and I had even heard of some women being assaulted in their jobs, but never the discrimination to their age or their clothes. I asked it above already but I will ask it again, how are women supposed to manage with these extra pressures placed on them?
These ideas of how women should behave and look can not only affect their perception of themselves and their own worth, but it can go so far as to prevent them from trying. They may just give up on that promotion or that new job, because they think that a more "capable" man or a more "beautiful" woman will come along to fill that position. It also helps contribute to the glass ceiling and even reinforces it. It can also affect the way employers view the women that work for them, expecting them to behave submissive and dress certain ways.
Women are constantly being forced into a very small box and are expected to pop out and look like the perfect woman and employee. The only problem here, and its a big problem, is that no woman is like another. Each one is unique and beautiful in her own way. The sooner everyone, men and women alike, figure that out the sooner the glass will break and success in work and in women's opinion of themselves will grow and break through all other boundaries.
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