Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Snickers, the Two Time Offender
During the Superbowl, I think two years ago, Snickers released the following commercial that many did not like (including myself) because of the standards it places on men and how it restricts the flow of gender, so to speak.The commercial starts of pretty funny then the whole "do something manly" and hair ripping is ridiculous and only strengthens the hegemonic standards of masculinity.
With the amount of negative feedback they received from the commercial you think they would have learned their lesson, but instead they recently released another commercial which also attacks men (literally) who may not be so confined by gender. Take a look:
Hearing someone say a guy has to do something like a "real man" is like hearing nails on a chalk board because people should be able to do whatever they want to do, so long as it does not hurt anyone else, without fear of being insulted or assaulted.
Unfortunately that will never happen, but you can always boycott companies that promote crap like that. Everyone loves a good boycott.
Labels: consumer rights, hegemony, lgtbq, tv
¶ 9:13 AM - 1 Comments - Links to this post
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Wall-E: In depth Non-Review
Yesterday I went and saw the movie Wall - E. The movie was about the environment, human sloth, and of course love. Before the movie was released there were rumors that the movie only had 10 minutes of dialogue; there is more than 10 minutes but not much, but even with the lack of talking I thought the movie was excellent. The one and only bad thing about this movie is that it is a Pixar movie which means the theater was packed with kids *shutters.*One kid directly behind me decided to dictate everything that was going on in the movie, and continued to do so after his mom asked him to stop. He did eventually stop but before he did he said something kind of interesting. When the second robot was introduced, Eve, this boy immediately said "That's a girl robot," and then referred to Eve as a she and Wall-E as a he for the remainder of his in depth analysis. This got me thinking:
1) When in a kids education/socialization do they learn the necessity to assign gender to things like robots?
2) What about Eve made it look female and what about Wall-E made it look male?
3) And what sort of consequences does this have in long term conceptions of gender and gender roles?
And my conclusion:
1) From the second they are born. "It's a boy" or "It's a girl" posters are plastered everywhere to announce the sex of the child. I propose that, instead of describing the sex of the baby it should say, "It's alive and healthy, and that is all that really matters."
2) I have no idea, here is a picture, maybe you all have some insight? http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/features/wall_e/wall-e_3.jpg
3). I think if kids are taught gender and gender roles at a young age then it simply reinforces the strict concept of roles which can only slow down feminist and gay rights movements.
Anyway, the movie was really good, if you hate kids it may be smart to wait a couple of weeks to see it or just rent it. Or you can see it now and just listen and analyize what they say.
Labels: hegemony, kids, lgtbq, movies, patriarchy
¶ 9:51 AM - 5 Comments - Links to this post
Monday, May 12, 2008
Embroideries
I recently read Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi and the book is about Iranian women's experience with love and sex. The title comes from a word commonly associated the the practice of hymen reconstruction to re-give a woman her virginity, this way she wont be a social outcast for having premarital sex or for being raped.
I think it is pretty pathetic that procedures like this even exist and that women feel they need to get it to ensure they are marriage material. Also, do not think this entirely religious because I respect Islam. Virginity is not something that can simply be reconstructed in the eyes of God, thus hymen reconstruction is not to appease a God but to reinforce strict standards of masculinity and femininity and the double standard that is imposed on women as being asexual and men being overly sexual.
Although this book is about a pretty serious topic it is actually really funny (purposefully, I should add). I think the reason for this was to sort of create a bridge between the very oppressed women of Iran to the not so oppressed western women. With this connection we can begin to see how patriarchy has become so hegemonic that it is hard to see how it oppresses women in our own culture.
Anyway, if you are looking for a good read I would suggest this book, it is very good and it is really short, and there are pictures on every page!
Labels: book review, hegemony, oppression, patriarchy, school, sexism, violence
¶ 4:26 PM - 5 Comments - Links to this post