With over
Looking at this list it is clear that there is a lot of room for improvement. People need to realize that women are just as competent or more competent leading a nation than men.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Women in Power
Two of our classmates picked women in politics as their presentation topic. It was very interesting to hear about the first women engaging in political activities and trying to make a difference. The presentation made me think about women leaders outside of the United States.
With over
190 sovereign countries in the world, how many are really ruled by women in this day and age? Turns out, not that many. According to guide2womenleaders.com, there are currently 27 female leaders. This is a really small number and it includes monarchs such as Queen Elizabeth II in Great Britain, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. The other female leaders are comprised of prime ministers such as Julia Gillard in Australia , chancellors, such as Angela Merkel in Germany, and presidents including Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Argentina.
Looking at this list it is clear that there is a lot of room for improvement. People need to realize that women are just as competent or more competent leading a nation than men.
With over
Looking at this list it is clear that there is a lot of room for improvement. People need to realize that women are just as competent or more competent leading a nation than men.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Stereotypes in Cartoons
Listening to one of my classmates' presentation about stereotypes in cartoons inspired me to do some more research and not only look at stereotypes pertaining to race, but also gender.
I thought back
to watching Tom & Jerry growing up. I loved that show! Looking at the usual characters though, there are quite a few stereotypes. There is an African American maid, whose head is almost never seen.
There is pretty much only one female animal character that is recurring on a regular basis. This character is Toodles Galore, a white cat who is Tom's main love interest.
Donald Duck was another favorite of mine. I used to get the comic books and read all the
Donald Duck stories first. Out of the seven main characters there is only one female, Daisy Duck. She is portrayed as a flirt, big eye lashes and loves Donald. One interesting thing is that Daisy is portrayed smarter, more sophisticated than Donald and also often exhibits greater self control. This is in contrast to regular television, where women were not able to solve their own problems until late in the second half of the 20th century.
I also found an interesting study about stereotypical gender roles. It looked at various cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety, and Spiderman and analyzed their gender stereotypical portrayal. One of the most intriguing findings was that male characters exhibited a wider range of traits, while female characters were usually dull. Male characters were seen as strong, dominate and powerful. Going along with our class discussion the study found females only worked in traditionally female jobs, very few were seen as doctors, or other traditionally male positions. Male characters were also found to be more involved in aggressive situations, feeding into stereotypes.
As a child - and sometimes even now - I thoroughly enjoyed watching cartoons. On the one hand I think it would be wise to create cartoons without stereotypes, but on the other hand thinking back I didn't really pay much attention to them. Only analyzing them for a class like this made me really become aware of the stereotypes, so I am not sure children are affected that much.
I thought back
There is pretty much only one female animal character that is recurring on a regular basis. This character is Toodles Galore, a white cat who is Tom's main love interest.
Donald Duck was another favorite of mine. I used to get the comic books and read all the
I also found an interesting study about stereotypical gender roles. It looked at various cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Tweety, and Spiderman and analyzed their gender stereotypical portrayal. One of the most intriguing findings was that male characters exhibited a wider range of traits, while female characters were usually dull. Male characters were seen as strong, dominate and powerful. Going along with our class discussion the study found females only worked in traditionally female jobs, very few were seen as doctors, or other traditionally male positions. Male characters were also found to be more involved in aggressive situations, feeding into stereotypes.
As a child - and sometimes even now - I thoroughly enjoyed watching cartoons. On the one hand I think it would be wise to create cartoons without stereotypes, but on the other hand thinking back I didn't really pay much attention to them. Only analyzing them for a class like this made me really become aware of the stereotypes, so I am not sure children are affected that much.
Friday, March 23, 2012
]
For our class assignment we had to find a song from popular culture dealing with gender, race or ethnicity. I showed "I'm A Barbie Girl" from Aqua and talked a bit about it, but wanted to elaborate on here. I have to admit I never played with Barbies as a child. It was just not something we had at our house. My two sisters and I had plenty of other dolls and toys, but never got into the Barbie-thing. I also have to admit that I have this song on my iPod and at times actually like listening to it. It is quite upbeat, until you pay attention to the words and the intended audience of the song.
Singing about how you can undress her everywhere and she can beg on her knees just makes me question who came up with these lyrics and thought this was a good idea or in any way appropriate associating them with a very popular toy for young girls. It just promotes outer appearance, materialism and being an object for men.
Other classmates brought in some more excellent examples. I think a lot of us listen to music without paying too much attention to lyrics and meaning, making songs popular that really should not be. We should pay more attention to things like that, because people get things stuck in their heads and think maybe because it is in a song and so many people are approving of it (by buying the record instead of speaking up about it), it is okay to think that way about women, etc. This can spiral out of control really quickly...
For our class assignment we had to find a song from popular culture dealing with gender, race or ethnicity. I showed "I'm A Barbie Girl" from Aqua and talked a bit about it, but wanted to elaborate on here. I have to admit I never played with Barbies as a child. It was just not something we had at our house. My two sisters and I had plenty of other dolls and toys, but never got into the Barbie-thing. I also have to admit that I have this song on my iPod and at times actually like listening to it. It is quite upbeat, until you pay attention to the words and the intended audience of the song.
Singing about how you can undress her everywhere and she can beg on her knees just makes me question who came up with these lyrics and thought this was a good idea or in any way appropriate associating them with a very popular toy for young girls. It just promotes outer appearance, materialism and being an object for men.
Other classmates brought in some more excellent examples. I think a lot of us listen to music without paying too much attention to lyrics and meaning, making songs popular that really should not be. We should pay more attention to things like that, because people get things stuck in their heads and think maybe because it is in a song and so many people are approving of it (by buying the record instead of speaking up about it), it is okay to think that way about women, etc. This can spiral out of control really quickly...
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Sunday, March 11, 2012
Primetime Characters
In our class discussion we talked about the number of white primetime characters versus the number of African American, or Latino ones, as well as the number of women versus men. We also briefly touched on the number of gay characters and doing a bit more research trying to find the most current numbers, I came across a report released by the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) in 2010. It stated another interesting fact I hadn't thought about. Out of the 587 series-regular roles on scripted primetime TV, only 6 of them have disabilities. What was even more striking was the fact that only one of the six actors portraying someone with a disability actually had one him-/herself.
This made me think of our discussion of the early portrayal of African Americans and how it used to be white males with painted faces. How come the networks don't employ actors with disabilities out there if the role calls for it, yet they make an able-bodied person pretend. Something is very wrong with that picture. According to the article that published these results, there are plenty of actors with disabilities looking for auditions and roles. Sometimes the type of character they are able to play is limited by their disability, so depriving these actors and actresses of the few roles that call for someone with a disability seems illogical. Just like we don't have whites play African Americans anymore, we should give people with disabilities their shot at being on primetime TV.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Print Ads and an Update to the Lego Post
Talking about advertising in class, I was actually quite shocked to see some of the ads that ran a few decades ago. Some of the copy printed on the ads was just terrible! The sad thing is that the way women are portrayed now in advertisements hasn't really changed all that much. They are still often dismembered or simply an object. Dr. Pepper is even going so far as to excluding women altogether in their new campaign for Dr. Pepper 10 - apparently NOT for women...This in itself is insulting. Not that I want to drink this particular soda, but just to exclude consumers based on their sex is wrong. You would think in the 21st century ad executives could come up with a better campaign to entice the male market segment to buy their product, without discriminating against women.
I also found another interesting article about the new Lego Friends line I had talked about in an earlier post. In this article they talk about the backlash against Lego for engaging in such obvious gender-based marketing. It also showed an ad from the 80s and one recent one. It's amazing how that changed.
While back then it was not only okay for girls to wear jeans and a normal t-shirt, they were also 'allowed' to play with the regular Lego pieces of all colors and build whatever came to their minds. Today, girls are only wearing tank tops in girly colors, and play with pink and purple colored pieces and more girly sets such as the cafe featured in the ad.I think while it is really bad that advertisers primarily portray women as half naked objects, who are only good for seductively gazing at the camera selling various products, it is really bad what the advertising industry is doing to the children. Little girls are younger and younger when they learn to look sexy, be skinny and how to cook for the man. While we should empower little girls and get rid of the notion that 'girly' activities are worth less in the male dominated society, we push girls into these stereotypes, robbing them of their imagination and setting them up for future image and self-esteem problems.
Below is a short video, in which a 4-year-old questions why girls have to buy only pink stuff. If only marketers would listen...
Thursday, February 23, 2012
What teens learn from magazines
Whether their parents buy them a subscription, their friends have one or they are just at Barnes&Noble waiting for mom to finish picking out books, teens read magazines specifically catered to them. There are countless of them out there - Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Girls' Life, J-14, American Cheerleader, M! Magazine and Popstar! just to name some of the most popular ones.
As we discussed in class, teens get a lot of information from those magazines and take it seriously as well. They are more dependent on and influenced by these than adults reading Glamour or Cosmopolitan. This made me interested in what topics exactly are covered by these magazines. I went on the Seventeen Magazine website and at first just looked at the different tabs teens can click to get to articles in the various categories. This alone was slightly shocking.
The tabs are:
1) quizzes, games and fun
2) fashion
3) beauty
4) celebrities
5) love life
6) health
7) college life
8) parties and prom
Aside from the college tab - and maybe the health one - all others promote superficial things that might lead to the teens questioning their appearance, their love life (or lack thereof, which could throw them into a crisis easily), and their fashion sense. If they don't have the latest trends, they are either going to bug their parents to spend a ridiculous amount of money on brand name stuff, or are going to be depressed that they have such a boring, last-season wardrobe. They also learn everything about the best parties, which is really exactly what they should focus on at that age (and I definitely mean that in a sarcastic way).
The cover I selected for this post shows the winner of the TV show America's Next Top Model, a show where one can witness tiny, skinny models on a weekly basis. I think it is time for editors and parents who buy these magazines for their daughters to reconsider what to promote to future leaders of this country. Do we really want girls to only focus on looks, parties and fashion?
There are more and more stories in the news about bullying, depressed teens, and those with eating disorders, starving themselves to look like the airbrushed person on the cover of their favorite magazine. This is wrong and does not help girls turn into successful business women.
As we discussed in class, teens get a lot of information from those magazines and take it seriously as well. They are more dependent on and influenced by these than adults reading Glamour or Cosmopolitan. This made me interested in what topics exactly are covered by these magazines. I went on the Seventeen Magazine website and at first just looked at the different tabs teens can click to get to articles in the various categories. This alone was slightly shocking.
The tabs are:
1) quizzes, games and fun
2) fashion
3) beauty
4) celebrities
5) love life
6) health
7) college life
8) parties and prom
Aside from the college tab - and maybe the health one - all others promote superficial things that might lead to the teens questioning their appearance, their love life (or lack thereof, which could throw them into a crisis easily), and their fashion sense. If they don't have the latest trends, they are either going to bug their parents to spend a ridiculous amount of money on brand name stuff, or are going to be depressed that they have such a boring, last-season wardrobe. They also learn everything about the best parties, which is really exactly what they should focus on at that age (and I definitely mean that in a sarcastic way).
The cover I selected for this post shows the winner of the TV show America's Next Top Model, a show where one can witness tiny, skinny models on a weekly basis. I think it is time for editors and parents who buy these magazines for their daughters to reconsider what to promote to future leaders of this country. Do we really want girls to only focus on looks, parties and fashion?
There are more and more stories in the news about bullying, depressed teens, and those with eating disorders, starving themselves to look like the airbrushed person on the cover of their favorite magazine. This is wrong and does not help girls turn into successful business women.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I have noticed a lot or articles online helping people deal with this day revolving around love, flowers and candy. Topics range from "What to get her", "How to survive this day" to "Last minute preparations." What I have noticed throughout the headlines though was the focus on women. They provided tips on what to do when you are single, which made it seem like it's tragic for a woman to be single on this day, yet perfectly fine for a man. They talked about how to get through this day of seeing so many happy couples, while knowing one is alone and without a man. This made me wonder how all those girls survive the rest of the year, since society clearly focuses so much on relationships and one's status of it. You go get your hair done and one question almost certainly revolves around whether one has found a boyfriend yet. Same thing at nail salons and similar gossip prone venues.
It made me think about the movies we watched in class and our subsequent discussion about what had or hadn't changed since the 50s. During the 50s many girls simply wanted to get married, find the perfect man and lead a happy life at home, caring for the children and playing housewife. Then came the 60s and women wanted to do things on their own, be more respected and have the same rights as their male counterparts. Yet you come across articles like the ones mentioned above today, just to realize that there is still so much focus on relationships. As if a woman can't be happy without a man by her side at all times. She has to read articles on how to survive being single and how to find a man as soon as possible so she is not alone another day. Inequalities still persist and women are not helping their cause by thinking they need a hot boyfriend or a new man to be successful. Women need to learn how to be happy on their own and society needs to accept single women, not look down on them or pity them. It is perfectly fine for a man to play the field or stay single for a bit, yet women are judged and others wonder why she can't find or doesn't want a leading man in her life right now.
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