Traditional Gender Roles & "Funny Pictures"

Is it just me or does every semester seem to go by faster and faster? I cannot believe this is my last post and I have to admit, I'm kind of going to miss blogging. However, it is pretty time consuming to think of an idea, do some research, and then (thoughtfully) write.

For my last entry, *sniffle* I'm going to talk about traditional gender roles. It will be somewhat difficult to keep this post around the correct length because these issues are what sparked my interest in taking a gender course in the first place. In other words, I feel like I could babble on and on forever. This idea of men working to be the breadwinner of the family and women belonging only in the kitchen has long since died. Since the economic downturn and a priority for a higher standard of living, more and more couples are now equally employed in order to support a family.

My main argument is: “Funny pictures” tend to reinforce very traditional gender stereotypes, and are not healthy in the time of nearing gender equality. I went to the facebook page “No Hope for the Human Race” and found some material to support my claim. Behold:

The above photo highlights two negative things about male and female gender:

1. Women are absurdly detail-oriented and slow in making decisions.
   Since women have absolutely nothing else to do but shop, cook, and take care of the kids, they have all the time in the world to think about the 12 characteristics of each beauty product they're buying. I'm pretty sure if a woman went through this many steps in order to buy one single product, it would take her days to go through a store and get to the checkout counter (I have a sarcastic attitude today, just in case you couldn't tell.) Though it is true women still currently have about 86% of the buying power in the United States, we are getting closer to an era of equality among women and men dividing the shopping, household chores, and childcare (gendered division of labor.)
2. Men make fast decisions [because they don't care about hygiene.]
   Men do not value the way they look enough to care about which brand of shampoo they purchase. The photo also reinforces the stereotype of men as bread-winners who thus have better things to do than to be wasting time picking out shampoo.
   On a side note, though some men may not have a preference, I care about which shampoo I buy. I've been using this shampoo for a couple years now and I like it a lot. It's a great brand, love the way it smells. You can get it for around $6-7 at Target.

I just wanted to mention a couple things about the following pictures, since this is already starting to get lengthy...

The above photo almost killed me. The picture is two-fold. The general theme is: a woman's only role in life is to take care of a man. It provides two implications. EITHER women use a flat-iron to cook bacon instead of a stove or a microwave because they're THAT incompetent. OR women are so infatuated with the way they look, they can't even get out of the bathroom long enough to make their husband/significant other bacon in the morning.

Again, the same theme:

Moral of the story is...

Ladies: If you're still scrubbing the kitchen floors on your hands and knees while your other half drinks beer and works on petty projects in the garage with his buddies all weekend, you're only contributing to gender inequality.

Men: Start caring more. Start cooking dinner sometimes. Step up. It won't be long before women just swear us off altogether and we become only needed for reproduction. I'm half kidding – half not.

I figured I might as well go out with a bang and incorporate a little bit of my humor into my final post; hope I didn't make it too sassy. At any rate, thank you for visiting throughout the semester! I hope you've enjoyed my blog and have at least learned something from it. Happy Gendering! :)

"Bar-B-Que Babes"

Hardees. Home of the Monster Thickburger (which, by the way, I've never had in my entire life.) The chain is also well-known for its more provocative advertising campaigns, featuring several models including: Kate Upton, Sara Underwood, and Emily Ratajkowsk. My old roommate loves the commercials – so much that he had this picture as the desktop background on his computer:

The commercial I would like to share has never been aired on television. Hardees calls it The Director's Cut, which is apparently “Just too hot for TV.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsqUshEERvE&feature=related

This media is going to become a representations analysis paper for my Gender and Discourse class, which will examine the entire one minute and eights seconds. But for now, there are two themes I would like to briefly talk about from the commercial.

1. It sexualizes the two models. 

I don't think I need to explain that the women are a focus throughout the media, but to some degree it normalizes their behavior. At about 57 seconds, they are posed on bails of hay and the blonde is seductively wiping the Bar-B-Que sauce off the brunette's mouth. The commercial dialogue calls it “Bar-B-Que's best pair,” [between the beef and pork] which is ironically used as an innuendo to also implicate the two women. In fact, what is most interesting to me is that we don't know what is being advertised until a minute and two seconds into the commercial.

2. It portrays the male as a loser. 

It's unclear if the two men are supposed to be working as a team or independently – they're both wearing the same yellow shirts, so I would assume as a team... At any rate, they're both so distracted by the two women that nothing is cooking on their grill, let alone is it even lit? They can only view [the women] from afar and simultaneously take pictures with their cell phones.

There was also another commercial Hardees produced which actually WAS aired. It features a women at a drive-in movie who, while consuming a Southwest Patty Melt, becomes sexually aroused. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlLtnjSiTUE I think this commercial is just as a bad as the first one, and even worse in some details. Regardless, there is definitely a certain following to these commercials – and it will be interesting to further investigate the themes in more detail.

Election and Michelle Obama

Happy Election Day! I've never been so happy for the first Tuesday of November in my entire life. Republican and Democratic parties have been doing whatever it takes to sway the voters right up until the last minute. The internet, radio ads, billboards, door handle fliers, junk-mail, and social networking websites to name a few, have been blasting information regarding the election. I mean, despite the fact I have no land-line phone hooked up, both parties frequently try to call the house unsuccessfully (the number shows up on the TV screen.) It's a little disgusting.

Last week as I was going through my news feed on Facebook, I came across a picture and it got me thinking about a blog post idea...

Considering it is the year 2012, it's about time we had a female president. So what about Michelle Obama? She is a “heavy hitter” when it comes to supporting her husband's campaign, as well as taking matters of civil duty into her own hands. She frequently speaks across the nation about her project of childhood obesity awareness. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/us/14michelle.html?_r=0 She is a very effective speaker, well educated, passionate, and in touch with the real issues of Americans. Prior to Barack's presidency, Michelle was earning a significantly higher income than he was (almost twice as much.)

In short, I think she is just as capable of running the United States as Barack. In actuality, Michelle Obama's ratings are more favorable than her husband's. http://www.gallup.com/poll/117232/Michelle-Obama-Favorable-Rating-Eclipses-Husband.aspx Whether it be Michelle or another candidate, in the days of increasing gender equality, I'm confidently sure I will see a female president in my lifetime.

Michelle is clearly an influential leader across the nation, a feminist icon, and definitely a positive role model for women. I think she has an uncanny ability to standout and create an awareness of the issues most important to her. Since she is the first African American first lady of the United States – it is this position which allows her to propagate and evoke change in race and women’s oppression.