Anaconda

Many of todays music video are quite the same, women dancing and showing off their figure in the videos. The music video “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj came out in 2014. In this music video it shows many women in revealing clothing and shaking their hinds quarters. Matter of fact, the open scene of the video starts with two women shaking it. The music video uses the women to appeal to the man's eye in a sexual way, also known as these women are being shown as sex objects. The music video is half visual and half hearing which means that the lyrics of the song are also giving a message to the viewer that they have to be a certain way in order to fit in.

The music video is for everyone to see but everyone knows that the main target for the music video is for men. From the opening couple seconds of the song to the ending moments of the songs it's all directed to appeal to the man's eyes. The director made sure to get women with a pretty face but also good body parts. The women in the video are dressed very similar with their butts hanging out of their shorts and their breasts popping out. These women are all being viewed as sex objects. The women in this video are telling the girls that are watching this to dress and act like this in order to fill needs of a man. On top of that, the actual women in the video dress like so are also being used for men's sexual pleasure. The target audience is the men and the gaze that the men show to women. Everyone in the world can almost say that because of what the women are doing. This is showing that the only way to entertain a man to by having women dress up like that and dance like that. What type of message does this send to the younger girls watching this? This video can connect to the real world because often times in the media women are always being shown as sexy and slim but thick in the right places. This almost impossible figure to get is telling these ladies that to please a man you have to look like that and have that type of body and are willing to show it off.

The music video is half visual and half hearing. If you listen to the lyrics it sends a direct message to women. In the song it says, “ My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun.” This is also sending a direct message straight to the women because its saying that without a body no man will want you. Women have to fill that position of having a nice body or else a man will not want them. Also in the song it reads that, ”F*** them skinny b*****s in the club I wanna see all the big fat a** b*****s in the motherf****** club F*** you if you skinny b*****s. What? Yeah. Ha-ha, ha..” This here is literally calling out skinny women in the world. It's literally saying that if you are skinny, that has to change because the only way you will be accepted is that if you have a thick body in the right places. This connects to today's situation because for so many years women have been trapped in this box where they have to fit this perfect image or they won't be accepted.

To conclude this music video portraits the women as sex objects to the men and the lyrics speak to women that you need to fit into this or you are out. This video is like a two in one effect for visual and hearing.

Anime, More feminist then real life?

In today’s t.v shows women are usually viewed in two different ways mainly. One being viewed as a trophy/sex object or being the damsel in distress really. You don’t really see strong women in t.v shows. You do but it's not common to see a strong women in a t.v show. The show I decided to do my feminist critique on was Inuyasha Season 1 episode 7 which is mostly a damsel in distress critique.

The episode has the two main characters Inuyasha, and Kagome the female who is usually the damsel in distress and can be strong at times/show signs of strength. Inuyasha is a half demon and Kagome is a human. Inuyasha is fighting his brother who is trying to kill them both and Kagome is in fear for her life and during this time Inuyasha stands in front of her and tells her to move out the way so he can protect her, and she ends up running into cover screaming and watching while Inuyasha fights his brother. That moment shows weakness in females and how a man is needed to protect them at all points of time.

The work is not feminist although it shows times. Inuyasha shows agency throughout the show too. Another female main character is a very strong demon slayer. She is not stronger than the male but she is pretty strong. Kagome tries to be strong and always ends up having to be Saved by Inuyasha himself. Kagome kinda runs everything else but is not that good at fighting. She is like the mom and the best friend, kind of like the housewife because she takes care of everyone and makes sure they are healthy and safe.The show as a whole is pretty equal, it keeps it as a balance with women and men and doesn’t objectify women at all really. It upholds all characters and keeps them together to show their strength as a whole.

Inuyasha is like other Japanese based anime t.v shows with a fighting main character and the women being strong somewhat and it is also like American based cartoons and t.v shows. It has some type of feminist stereotypes like i said with the damsel in distress and some others. As a overall the Inuyasha is pretty high on the equality scale and not very feminist at all seeing how they play out the characters

The End Justifies The Means

Many chick flicks and romance movies that were produced from the early 2000’s to around the turn of decade portrayed women to be stereotypical. One of the more classic chick flicks, Mean Girls, was released in 2004. Many people view it as a comedic, funny movie; while this may be true, I think the movie has caused a lot of controversy due to the way women are portrayed in the movie. Mean Girls, directed by Mark Waters, is about a teenage girl named Cady Heron who was home-schooled in Africa by her zoologist parents before moving back to the United States. When her family moves to Evanston, Illinois, she is thrown into the seemingly overwhelming transition of being homeschooled to hectic public school atmosphere. Cady starts to notice the cruel hierarchical ways of popularity that divide her fellow students into tightly knit cliques. She unwittingly finds herself in the good graces of an elite group of cool students called the plastics. This Movie reflects ideologies of a patriarchal society because it shows that women should conform to men’s wants and also supports the idea of having the ‘perfect’ body standards to please men, which is all very evident throughout the entirety of this movie. This movie is one of the most popular movies of the 21st century and the effects of that contributes to the formation of stereotypes, like the ideal body shape and relationships with women and men.

The movie Mean girls supports the stereotype that women should do anything for the man they like, including change themselves. This is very obvious throughout the movie as Cady and Regina George, the leader of her adopted friend group “the plastics”, go toe to toe for most of the movie over, Aaron Samuels, Regina’s ex-boyfriend. When Cady first meets Aaron she immediately develops a crush on him, Cady tells the plastics (Gretchen & Karen) about her crush on Aaron and they both inform her of how Aaron is Regina’s ex-boyfriend and is declared 100% off limits for anyone but Regina. Even though she was told he’s off limits she still tries to do whatever she can to get Aaron, even turning on Regina. A prime example of her doing whatever necessary is telling Regina about these Polish Nutrition bars that make you “skinnier” and giving them to her. While in reality, these Nutrition bars are specifically made for people who want to gain weight the only thing that stops Regina from reading the label, is the fact that it is in polish. So Regina takes Cady’s word and eats them, thinking she would lose weight, but in reality she slowly gains a few pounds. Cady’s goal by giving her these bars was to get Aaron to stop thinking Regina is attractive which would make Regina lose her popularity thus giving Cady no competition. Cady also throws a party going against her parents words and breaking their trust for the goal of hooking up with Aaron, which was unsuccessful, and ends up pushing him away. Her attempts to win over a man and please him, not only led her to turn against one of her friends, but also defying her parents in an unsuccessful attempt to get closer with Aaron. These examples in the movie spread the subliminal message that going to extremes and risking other things in life is ok if it is to please a man, which is the wrong message to be spreading and has consequences in society.

My argument applies to my piece of culture because it shows how the movie enforced the stereotype of how the man should come first. It teaches women that changing who they are to get a man is acceptable even if theirs or others images are tarnished in the process. I have seen in my life people who have changed how they act to please someone they liked a lot.

The Vampire Diaries: The Feminine Stereotype?

    Feminist Critique: The Vampire Diaries

I have chosen to compose on a standout amongst the most well known shows for high school and youthful grown-up ladies: The Vampire Diaries. The TV program publicized on the CW is about a young lady named Elena and her contribution with two vampire siblings. She is continually confronted with numerous powerful difficulties, however for the most part and essentially to the gathering of people of this show, her association with the siblings named Stefan and Damon. Since 2009, the show has placed Elena in a cliché, deceived, and vulnerable lady in-trouble part. Elena is continually in an inward fight about whether to remain with Stefan, say a final farewell to him, or to get nearer to Damon; she is controlled by Damon while likewise being associated with Stefan. Her fascination in both of the siblings is a contention that focuses the whole arrangement. The way that Elena is human (for the greater part of the seasons) and weaker than the vampires that control her life demonstrates that she is placed in this part as the female casualty. She is always writing in her journal, shouting, crying, and moping over various parts of her life that are practically debilitating for a few watchers to watch. It is sheltered to state that in the past scenes I have watched, it is obvious that Elena doesn't have strengthening over her life.

This is show isn't ostensibly sexist, however all things considered, a great deal of the scenes contain subjects of force and control over the female characters. It concentrates on two vampire siblings who crave a young lady. It's genuinely somewhat dreadful, seeing as they are both more than 100 years of age pursuing a 17-year-old young lady, yet that is an entire distinctive issue. Damon, one of the vampire siblings, sees Elena, the primary female hero, as somebody he can "win." He may appear to be innocuous, it can make watchers feel this is the thing that young ladies ought to really need, which is not the situation. The possibility of the "awful kid" coming to spare the "blameless young lady" is to a great degree sexist and uncool, to be honest. Elena needs control of her own life. She needs a man to be glad. Elena is not finished inside herself, she is always seeking inside Damon and Stefan to locate a manly, legitimate part to submit to. She is viewed as the Innocent, virginal character/Sacrificial sheep/Damsel In Distress, who endeavors to yield her own life set up of Damon's and Stefan's. While Stefan is depicted as the "great sibling," despite everything he deceives his better half Elena about a past relationship to secure her. This proceeded with conduct shows a false thought to youthful watchers that it is okay to be misled and abused on the off chance that it is for your own great.

From pondering past periods of The Vampire Diaries, I have seen the specific topics that surface continually: control, control, exploitation, and sexism. The article that I read made an extraordinary point about how Damon makes numerous sexist jokes, remarks, and even dozes around with different ladies (alongside drinking their blood). Damon treats ladies like creatures, not individuals. He regards them as a wellspring of life and furthermore an approach to fulfill his sexual nature. Indeed, even Elena, the young lady his identity in affection with, is recognized easily as a sexual success. What does the greater part of this mean for the watchers? There are youthful high school young ladies that watch the Vampire Diaries and want to be Elena, stricken by both the great vampire and the "terrible kid" one. The male characters are required to thus be solid, unbreakable, and intense. The ladies of the show are viewed as powerless and defenseless. What is that showing our childhood? From my point of view, the media gives the youthful and naive personalities thoughts regarding what life ought to resemble. They hope to be thin, excellent, and impressed them by men with outwardly satisfying characteristics instead of discovering somebody that makes them upbeat. The young ladies watching this show are having elevated requirements about themselves and those that they are wanting to pull in. The show likewise educates our childhood to acknowledge that being the casualty isn't negative, that there is no hope when all goes into disrepair. Despite the fact that Elena is for the most part crying over a few things she can transform, regardless it influences the watchers of VD. The show, all things considered, is not one that I loathe by any methods. In any case, from my point of view, throughout the years, the demonstrate The Vampire Diaries has indicated cliché female parts.

Cultural Analysis of Avatar

Feminist Critique of Avatar

During 22nd century, humans colonized a planet, Pandora, in the Alpha Centauri star system. Humans want to mine the mineral unobtanium under the ground of the native humanoid species homeland. In order to convince the natives, humans invented avatars, which have to use a person’s mind to control it. Avatars can breath on this planet’s air and complete physically difficult tasks outside. They use avatars to convince them to give up their homeland. The main character, Jake, chases by wild animals down a fall, meets with the princess of the omaticaya clan, Neytiri. She teaches him how to become a part of the clan, and also the importance of nature. At the end, they defeated RDA and gained back their homeland from humans. This movie is among many popular movies in 2009 that didn’t pass the bechdel test, such as Hangover, District 9, and Watchmen. The trend of representing men as strong and muscular, and representing women as weak and needing protection from men.

Jake’s boss, Dr. Grace Augustine, is in charge of the Avatar program. One time after Jake has done his video log, he falls asleep in front of the camera. Then she puts him into bed. (1:10) When Jake come back from his Avatar life, she cares about Jake by saying that he is losing weight. He needs to take care of his avatar as well as himself. She also prepares food for him. (1:12 in the movie) She employs the housewife and mother stereotype by caring for Jake’s health and preparing food for him. Those roles of women from 18th and 19th century are still active in people’s mind. They are taught by our society and continue influence people’s thoughts. The film director let her act this way to make an appeal to people she is nice and caring.  After Jake rides his own Mountain Banshee and earns his place in the clan, Neytiri falls in love with Jake, and they mates in front of the tree of voices. After the night, The RDA comes with bulldozers and crushes the trees. Jake wakes up and destroys the camera on the bulldozer. (1:36-1:40) At this scene, Neytiri becomes attracted to Jake because what he did. However, Jake falls in love with her not because of what she did. Jake and Neytiri fit into the stereotype of “men do, women appeal”. Neytiri conforms to the seductress stereotype because she has little or no agency and fall in love with Jake automatically as the story flows. At the end, when Jake needs the omaticaya people to save Grace, He use his intelligence and bravery to jump onto a Great Leonopteryx. When he return to the clan, he wins the recognition from the clan members and Neytiri. Neytiri forgives him as soon as she sees him with the Toruk Makto. (2:11) Again, Jake wins Neytiri’s heart by his action. Jake conforms to the tough guy stereotype because he accomplishes the impossible thing. Jake also conforms to other stereotypes such as being smart as well strong. The character of Jake is set up to be perfect, and he conforms to a model of what men should be. The film is teaching men how to behave so you can become perfect and attractive to girls.

The stereotypes represented in the movie also applies to many other movies. It is representing part of a trend in the American film industry. The men and women are setup as the what people would expect. When I think about my own life, gender roles are still taught by my parents and my environment. Unless everybody realize it and do something, it will keep to be the dominant ideology in American society.

Pixels:Patriarchy Remains Even in the Face of Destruction

In the summer of 2015 Adam Sandler through his production company Happy Madison, made a movie based on video games. With some of the most popular video games of all time being sexist (Tomb Raider and Dead or Alive series) Sandler could have chosen the higher road and taken the movie in a more positive direction. Instead he chose the far easier and misogynistic path, Sandler and his crew chose to continue the trend of sexism in video games with their film Pixels. Pixels presents a patriarchal society where women are sex objects, who have no substance and little dialogue. Pixels makes out an ideal patriarchal society where a woman's only purpose is to please a man.


In Pixels, the world is invaded by aliens who use and replicate video game characters to take over the world. The three main characters, Sam Brenner (Sandler), Ludlow Lamonsoff (Gad) and Will Cooper (James), are tasked with using their past video game skills to defeat these aliens. With an uninspired plot and even worse execution the true mediocrity of the film lies with its treatment of its female characters. Ludlow Lamonsoff throughout the whole film is obsessed with an overly sexualized video game heroine, Lady Lisa (Benson). When the aliens form a replica of her, she is portrayed as a sexy and scantily clothed woman, despite being based off a pixelated game. Lady Lisa is the only character, based on a video game, in the entire film to appear non-pixelated. When Lamonsoff finally encounters Lady Lisa, they almost instantaneously hit it off and form a relationship that at the end of this film leads to marriage. Lady Lisa never says a word to Lamonsoff, because she is mute. This makes Lady Lisa the ultimate fantasy and sex object. Lamonsoff never learns that women are more than sexual fantasies, neither do any of the other male characters. Peter Dinklage plays another main character in the film, who has an obsession with having a threesome with Martha Stewart and Serena Williams. Serena ends up going on a date with Dinklage's character because she was promised an island if she did. This scene turns a twenty-three time Grand Slam champion into a trophy. This movie manages to objectify or ridicule every woman that steps on the screen.


Despite being another sexist and blatant cash grab film by Sandler and his crew, the movie does show a few upsides to the current standing of American ideology.The film did not do to well opening weekend at the box office. Not only are audiences tired of Sandler´s constant stream of terrible comedies, they would rather see more gender neutral movies with strong female and male characters i.e The Hunger Games Series. Though the script, characters and acting in Pixels are all quite poor, the film succeeds in one aspect, opening the eyes of the people to sexism that plagues today's media. Hopefully this movie will be the beginning of the end for these flagrantly sexist and objectifying movies.

Feminist Critique

Bryant Allen

Feb 18th

History

Feminist Critique

Today in our society the way we construct gender came from many different places. It all started around the 1950’s, when women were forced into a box by society. Which was considered as domestic work in the house. This then became social, family, or cultural norms they had to conform to. Later on, these stereotypes of women were later put in the media. Magazines and television have played a big role in how we look at and construct gender roles for women and men. Also, popular music is starting to play a part as well. Being able to understand how we are affected by different stereotypes in media is very important because the media is becoming one of the things we are always using daily. Popular music plays an important role in our society because usually a popular song will be played over and over again on the radio and no one will care about the messages in the song, but only the quality of the song.

Many rap and hip hop songs are about men having control over women and viewing them as sex objects. Some songs use curse words toward women to show how much more men are dominant than women. Either way, there are very few rap songs that portray women in a respectful way. It is crazy because even though these songs say negative things about women, women will still listen to them and support the artist by buying their CDs. It is horrible that we are programmed to be okay with men referring to women in a negative way and acting like they are better than women. It's crazy but I can name over 20 songs that shows this but I will only name a one. This is a very popular song, the song “Gold Digger” by the famous iconic artist, Kanye West.

“Gold Digger” had a lot of sales when it came out. It was at number one on the charts in 2005, it stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 list for five weeks straight. Many people listened to this song and it was continuously played on the radio. This song was heard by many different people and actually a lot of people were affected by it in a different way. Since this song was so popular everyone who listened to it heard the way women were represented in this song. This song was dominantly for a male perspective and I believe that men will start to believe that it is alright to treat and view women in a negative way or as a sex object.

Popular songs like, “Gold Digger” has a huge impact on the way gender is constructed in our culture. If a song is played over and over and everybody likes it, then people will think its cool. Right? Since men they think the song is cool then they see the way women are being treated in the song must be cool too. For example, Kanye West used a word (derogatory term) to refer to a woman in his song, by basically saying all pretty women are trying to steal money and using men for things they don’t have. Also, he was calling women other names. But the chances of other people starting to use the same term to refer to women is very high. Also, in his music cover their is a woman wearing a tight dress. This has affected our society to because girls are starting to wear clothes like that just to get a male gaze. will think that they should be wearing the same kind of clothing. In most songs men are viewed as strong or and in charge while women are viewed as an object or submissive. There is rarely a song that talks about a woman having more power than a man. Most songs represent something in favor of the men. Usually, it will be a man with a lot of money has girls all over him and controls them like he owns them. The fact that a song can make person change their actions or how they feel about themselves shows us how the music industry and the media plays a big part in gender construction. Popular music today has the strength to construct the how people view each gender box that society puts us all in. The song, “Gold Digger” portrays women as submissive and men as the dominant figure.

feminist critique

     The work of both gender roles have changed ever since the 1960s has begun. Women have been paid less than their male counterparts since men were meant to be paid more. Both males and females have different salary wages. Both are separate in terms of gender, and the type of jobs they do. Men were meant to be paid more than women because they have been working harder than the women. Women prefer higher paid jobs more than less paid jobs. Women had to be paid less because the men were more important in terms of gender working in certain jobs. Females were demanding to be paid more than the males because they described the salary as unfair because of the genders being paid differently. Being a man involves in being masculine, and being paid more, while the women were meant to be feminine and paid less. The jobs represent each of the gender traits of which belong to the men, and women. Some women have better jobs such as nurses, athletes, and teachers. Women that were unemployed were paid much less than women who are employed. Some certain jobs do pay more to women than men. Women were tend to have payed wells jobs to pay everything they need, and have better salaries. in their salary, women are paid less than $10,000, while the men are paid more than $100,000.

In conclusion, women would be willing to be paid more than men in order to have an equal amount of salaries, and no longer have any complaints.

Different Understanding of Television

      Social norms have been constructed in social media and TV for a long long time. Men and women play a significant part in social norms and how society wants them to be and appear to others. Though men and women play very different roles, both genders have been assigned ideal characteristics that make them a man or a women. This is called a stereotype. These stereotypes are assigned to a person’s nationality, sex, gender and even sexuality. People can be based off these “stereotypes” because it has been portrayed everywhere. The television show Two and a Half Men focuses on the objectification of women and the men’s behavior towards them in order to show that women are sex objects and do not seem to respected unless they are older and less attractive. Only when humans acknowledge and become mindful with the truth, then society can begin to solve the problem of stereotypes being held towards anyone.
       In “‘Camel Filters and Pheromones” (season 1, episode 12), the most important stereotypes being portrayed are the player, the seductress, the old maid and the sex object.  For example, Berta’s granddaughter asked Charlie if he could play the piano which was pretty obvious he could as she was staring at him play but she gets closer enough to the point where she starts asking for one on one lessons but he said no but she still tries to come onto him. She desired to get their attention. Prudence would be stereotyped as the seductress but also the sex object. She enters the show in almost half dressed and she has to clean and while she is cleaning she is wiping the window in the most provocative manner right in front of Alan and Charlie. Her appearance conveys a powerful erotic impact, the camera focuses on her body, mainly when she has a bikini or her other provocative clothing rather than us seeing her face of something. This is a construction of women being objects in men's eyes.  She is being watched and drooled over by Alan’s 10 year old son.  Plus, she was not the brightest person. She is not viewed for her intelligence or her cleverness or any other characteristic, only her body is what matters. Nothing else. Another example is Berta herself. Berta was a single mother but she was a housekeeper for the men of the house. She is a very outspoken, over 30 woman. She was barely put into the show, she had a little part and when they show her, the camera is not focused on her body but what she is saying and even her face. She is very well respected by the men. While the character Charlie is a very sexual, uncommitted man. For example, the reaction from Charlie of when Berta entered the room and. when Prudence entered the room. Charlie was very shocked and he had to maintain his boundaries because she was underage but if she was older, he would have taken the chance. Another example is his neighbor, Rose. She is  very much in love with him and she hopes that they will sleep together again but he all he does is reject her. Charlie uses Rose to make Prudence stop coming on to him, only using her to his advantage and benefit. He slept with her once and after that, he just messes with her emotions and uses her whenever he needs her. He does not care for these women, he just uses them.

In conclusion, this work is just one of the many examples of where you can find stereotypes within media. It can be portrayed in life as well. In my life, my dad always feels as if a man should always care for the woman. He believes that because I am a female, I do not lift heavy objects and I am to cook and clean the house when necessary. While my brother cannot help with his sister’s hair because it affects his sexuality and it is making him not masculine. He is not allowed to let females do heavy labor because it is not meant for a female. Stereotypes are within our nation and more around you then you realize. It is fair for my brother to be put on with so many expectations and pressure just at the age of 13. Honestly, being a son to a father might just be harder to be a daughter to a father. There is more of a expectation to be just like “his old man” and if he does not, there might not be an acceptance. That is what social norms, pressure from society and stereotypes have constructed for people to believe.  It is only when we pay attention it and do not further allow it is when we have end it for good.

Outdated Values in Modern Commercials

With the rise of the internet, television, radios, and any other form of media, commercials have become more and more incorporated into our lives to the extent that some of us think nothing of them anymore. Some commercials push new ideas and break stereotypes and fixed roles in our society, and others enforce them. Some people don’t even notice them. One particular commercial is Cascade’s Platinum Dishwashing Pods. This commercial does an arguably excellent job of hiding the gender role in plain sight, but it’s there. It enforces the gender roles of women, the “old maid” stereotype, and the outdated values of women and their domesticity. This commercial features a woman who is doing the dishes with her son helping out, but she’s disappointed with the results when she finds the dishes dirty. She then stacks the dirty ones on her son’s arms in a humorous sequence. This enforces the “old maid” stereotype that implied that it’s a woman’s job to wash the dishes and it’s up to a woman and only a woman to do it right.

This ad enforces the old stereotype that a woman’s place is to be cleaning the house, a stereotype common in the mid 1900’s. When she finds the dishes dirty, she stacks them up in the son’s arms while saying “No, no, no, nope”. The way that the woman shuns her son for not doing it right, implies the “never send a man to do a woman’s job stereotype”, which enforces the gender roles even more.

Along with this sequence of events, the commercial has a voice over as well. In the beginning, the voice over says “baked on alfredo?”, which is showing that this is what they had for dinner and why the dishes are dirty, but it also implies that the woman was the one that cooked the dinner, another gender role of the domesticity of women.

The commercial ends with the woman smiling at the clean dishes as a result of the commercial’s product (the detergent pods). Yet again, enforcing the old maid stereotype, she remarks “Nice!” when she sees the clean dish, pushing the idea of “a job well done”.

In the end, this commercial although less than thirty seconds long, is full of these stereotypes, gender roles, and old values. In particular, the “old maid”, the domestic woman, and the gender roles of the woman being in charge of cleaning the house.

How Modern Music Brings Back The 1920's

The song “Be Together” by Major Lazer is old school. It expresses many different stereotypes, but there are a few prominent ones for men and women.  This work also expresses a few ideologies, one of those being “women in the roaring 20’s.” The gender stereotype expressed for men in the song are the gangster. For women the seductress / mistress stereotype is shown.

The group that made this song is called Major Lazer. They are a group of guys who use many different people to perform in their songs. They recently made album with many different singers, men and women. One of the songs in the album “Be Together” is performed by Natalie Bergman, and the song is from her point of view.

There are many examples of the “women in the roaring twenties” in this work. The first line of the song is a great example of the ideology of the twenties Natalie Bergman says: “Let me escape in your arms, baby I'm yours, baby I'm yours.” This supports the ideology of the twenties because in that decade women were expanding their ideas about how they were allowed to act and talk. They wanted it to be socially acceptable to be attracted to men. Women wanted to break the stereotype that they were supposed to be pure and chaste sexually. Another example of how this song expresses the ideologies of the 20’s is: “Maybe on the dark side we can be together, be together.” This expresses 20’s ideology because women in the 20’s wanted to show their, “dark side,” more. Women wanted to be more disobedient and more out of the home, and this line connects to the 20’s idea that women wanted to disobey their parents in order to be with men.

Beyond 20’s ideologies, “Be Together” expresses a lot of stereotypes of men and women. The first stereotype of women the song expresses is the seductress stereotype. A great example of this in the song is: “Maybe on the dark side we can be together, be together.” This quote shows that she is trying to seduce the man to the, “dark side”. This is part of the seductress stereotype. One of the stereotypes of men in the song is the gangster. This stereotype is expressed by this quote: “Tell me, is this freedom, baby? Chasing after danger, making my heart race.” This expresses the gangster stereotype because the guy is trying to impress the girl and win her over. This is also expressed by this quote because he is being a bad boy. Another quote that shows the same thing is this quote: “He was a dreamer at heart chasing the stars, chasing the stars wings spread to the sun I miss you so much, I miss you so much.”

The idea of women expressing themselves and still being accepted for it hasn’t been around for very long time. But popular culture and modern media are accepting it by leaps and bounds. This song isn’t the only piece of culture that expresses these ideologies and stereotypes.

Dust To Glory

The movie Dust to Glory is about a bunch of racing teams at the hardest race in their series, the race they are in is over 1000 miles in the desert compared to their other races that are only a few hundred miles in a circuit track. The movie shows positive aspects and the negative aspects of the race through many different ways. The movie challenges some of society’s dominant ideologies about gender, while reinforcing others. The first stereotype that the movie presents is that men should be the ones doing challenging or demanding activities for fun. The next stereotype that the movie present is that the wives and mothers should be supportive but should not really take part in it. The movie immediately challenges this stereotype by showing one of the teams that is made up of some of the wives and mothers of some of the men that are taking part in the race. The last stereotype the movie present is the stereotype that men should be the tough guy and aren't really affected by pain. As a result this movie reinforces the male stereotype and the ideas around male activities. On the other hand it challenges female stereotypes and the ideas around female activities.

In the beginning of the movie it starts out by show all of the different men that will be in the movie trying to finish the race and one of them say “let's face it this race is not for wusses”. This is reinforcing the idea that men could only take part in challenging activities like this because stereotypically women can't handle the same challenging task men can. This is immediately challenged when it presents the next stereotype. The next stereotype that the movie presents is the wife/mother stereotype that it immediately challenges along with the previous statement. The way it does this is by interviewing some of the wives and mothers of some of the men in the race. After some time though it starts talking about how a few of them have started their own team to go against their husbands and kids to prove to them that they too could complete it without the men's help. The last stereotype that the movie present is the male stereotype of the tough guy or the guy that does not show pain. The movie accomplishes this by showing one of the dirt bike riders that got into a bad crash and broke his leg, wrist and a few ribs get up and get back on his bike and finish the last five miles of the race without any problems.

This movie would not be considered a feminist story because it is mostly focused on the men in it and the women are there just to diversify the movie a little bit. Even though this happened in the movie it did present some stereotypes that are still present today in our society and are very influential on both men and women.

Does Disney Stop Loving Little Girls Once They Hit Puberty?

Walt Disney’s The Story of Menstruation is an informative video sponsored by Kotex discussing periods to school age girls. It was made in 1946, a time between the first and second wave of feminism.Despite the good progress it does for reproductive education The Story of Menstruation is very patriarchal in nature. It it uses stereotypical images of women, features derogatory comments toward young girls, and sugar coats the process of menstruation.

Throughout the video, the girls shown are all fair skinned, wear lacy dresses and skirts, act air headed,and have makeup on. The film does not consider women of color, and does not let the characters speak for themselves. Real women of the time had much more brains and not all looked like housewives or innocent. Women have more personality than portrayed in the film.

The video also features a seemingly nice narrator, who makes comments toward the viewer that would not be acceptable now. At 7:36, the narrator says ”After all no matter how you feel, you have to live with people; You have to live with yourself too.And once you stop feeling sorry for yourself and take those days in your stride, you’ll find it’s easier to keep smiling and even tempered.” The narrator has failed to explain the reality of menstrual pain, minimizing it to something women feel sorry for themselves about.

Periods are made to sound like no big deal. For example, the video has a soft art style and ballroom type elegant music in the background playing. The narrator is also very motherly sounding. By putting on a sweet spirit to menstruation, the creators can make girls feel as though they should not complain or take menstruation as something to be too concerned about.

This work is shrouded with patriarchal images, and expects to seed sugar coated sexism into young girls in the seemingly innocent disguise of an educational video. Do not be fooled, this Disney film reeks of sexism.

The Simpsons

Episode 590 of The Simpsons reinforces dominant ideologies about gender roles with exaggerated portrayal of society’s gender stereotypes shown through a comedic lense. This is apparent in the actions of the female characters, in private conversations about women between male characters and in interactions between male and female characters.

The Simpsons promotes dominant ideologies about gender and gender roles through the actions of female characters. When Homer finds he is too fat to sleep comfortably in his space pod, Marge adjusts it to fit obese people. Marge figures out how to be a scientist by relating the experiment procedures to household chores. She says,

“Mom’s spend their whole lives obsessing over unlikely catastrophes. In space, that’s what you’re supposed to do”. This rhetoric propagates the stereotype of the women as the nurturer. It depicts women working in STEM fields as a laughable concept and irrational as their proper place is in the private sphere.

The Simpsons promotes dominant ideologies about gender and gender roles in private conversations about women between male characters. The men are stupid and clumsy, but ultimately, they are in control. Homer and Bart “support” the women in their lives through the same robotic support scheme despite the differences in their relationships (wife and sister). As they are alone throwing a ball in the backyard together, Bart says to Homer, “That listening to women junk you taught me really works!”, Homer responds by saying, “The trick is in the nodding”. Bart then delivers a more explicit commentary on gender roles and gender stereotypes. He says to his father, “Dad, after seeing mom and Lisa go at it, I’m glad our relationship is about physical abuse, not psychological”. While this line does outline one of society’s gender stereotypes, it presents the stereotype through a sarcastic and comedic lense framing it as something that it laughable and insignificant.

The Simpsons promotes dominant ideologies about gender and gender roles through interactions between male and female characters. During the scene on the Martian colony, the men in charge compliment Marge because she can do chores more efficiently that the robotic arm. This is an example of comedy being used to promote gender roles and gender stereotypes. It perpetuates the notion of the woman’s proper place being the private sphere. Portraying a woman as being able to do household chores more reliably and more effectively than a robot not only reinforces the dominant ideology of the woman belonging in the private sphere, it also objectifies women. Later, during the rocket launch, Homer and Bart freak out over the idea Marge and Lisa going to Mars because they don’t know how to survive on Earth without a woman to go grocery shopping, cook and wash dishes for them. This joke, while at the surface appears to present the importance of women in the lives of men and how stupid and useless men can be, the fact that the men are worried about tasks as simple as dish washing and grocery shopping demeans women and asserts that they are inferior to men.



These are examples of dominant ideologies about gender being reinforces through comedy. While The Simpsons appears at the surface to be an innocent comedic cartoon, underlying the comedy is a more sinister system of reinforcement of society’s dominant ideologies of gender and gender roles.

"Pretty Hurts"

Many people consider Beyonce a big influence and role model to every generation. People admire her because she is a successful singer. In her song “Pretty Hurts”, Beyonce is representing a woman who is struggling to keep up with society's beauty standards. The video and song are defying the stereotype that women should only be valued for their looks and not their personality. The video shows different beauty pageant contestants constantly trying to be “attractive” and it also shows how much pressure the women feel.

Beyonce criticize the different beauty standards by showing how pop culture influence women to look a certain way. In her song she sings “Blonder hair, flat chest TV says bigger is better South beach, sugar free Vogue says thinner is better”. In society the ideal woman is suppose to be skinny, have light hair and skin, and healthy. The media also has a strong influence on children. When the media is telling girls to look a certain way and the girls don’t, the girls would start to develop insecurities. Another way Beyonce shows how harmful the standard are is by singing. "Mama said, "You're a pretty girl What's in your head, it doesn't matter Brush your hair, fix your teeth What you wear is all that matters". Beyonce video mother only wants her child to be beautiful rather than being intelligent . Mothers have a strong influence on their daughter as they grow up. This lyric shows that the idea that a girl should only be pretty and not care about her education comes from the girl's family and from people they look up to. The chorus of the song is another good example. She sings, “Pretty hurts We shine the light on whatever's worst Perfection is a disease of a nation, Ain’t got no doctor or pill that can take the pain away The pain's inside and nobody frees you from your body It's the soul, it's the soul that needs surgery”. People who will get implants and surgeries to fix themselves up wouldn’t be satisfied with their looks because the beauty standard are always changing. No matter how much we try to fix our appearance, there is no miracle surgery or temporary fix can make us truly feel better if it doesn’t come from within.

Part Of Me

American culture is dominated by gender stereotypes and ‘ideal’ gender roles.  These gender roles, pressured onto Americans through the media prevent people from living their life they want to.  One of the most common and widespread gender stereotypes is that of the domesticity of women.  This gender role can be portrayed in many different ways, but the main idea is the same; Women are expected to be dependent on their boyfriend or husband.In the past few decades, women have been trying to disprove this ideology and show that women can be just as strong and independent as men.  In her song and music video “Part Of Me”, Katy Perry uses a female gaze and defies female stereotypes to show that women can be just as strong and independent as their male counterparts.

Katy Perry’s “Part Of Me” is all about becoming independent from a man.  In the chorus of “Part Of Me”, Katy sings “This is the part of me that you’re never gonna ever take away from me”.  This is in reference to her independence.  She is saying that no matter what her ex boyfriend does, he can’t take away her agency.  Agency is an important part of feminism because it allows women to be independent and to take control of their own lives.  The song lyrics and the music video project the same message.  In the music video for “Part Of Me” Katy joins the Marines after breaking up with her boyfriend.  This defies female gender roles because the military is a predominantly male thing.  The sticker she sees in the gas station reads “All women are created equal, then some join the Marines”.  Putting a female in a male dominated position is a bold way of promoting equality.  It shows that if a man can do it, than a woman can do it as well.  In the music video Katy also burns a letter that her ex boyfriend sent her, again promoting agency.

In conclusion, Katy Perry uses visual and auditory statements in “Part Of Me” to show agency and power on her own and away from her boyfriend.  This is just one of many modern day examples of female artists trying to break gender role stereotypes that have been deeply rooted in American culture.

The music video for "Part Of Me" is blocked on the OPRF servers and chromebooks, however the lyrics are posted below.

Katy Perry - Part Of Me

Days like this I want to drive away

Pack my bags and watch your shadow fade

[Standard version:] 'Cause you chewed me up and spit me out

["Complete Confection" version:] You chewed me up and spit me out

Like I was poison in your mouth

You took my light, you drained me down

But that was then and this is now

Now look at me

[Chorus:]

This is the part of me

That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no

This is the part of me

That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no

Throw your sticks and your stones,

Throw your bombs and your blows

But you’re not gonna break my soul

This is the part of me

That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no

I just wanna throw my phone away

Find out who is really there for me

[Standard version:] 'Cause you ripped me off, your love was cheap

["Complete Confection" version:] You ripped me off, your love was cheap

Was always tearing at the seams

[Standard version:] I fell deep, and you let me down

["Complete Confection" version:] I fell deep, you let me down

But that was then and this is now

Now look at me

[Chorus]

Now look at me I’m sparkling

A firework, a dancing flame

You won't ever put me out again

I’m glowin’, oh, whoa

[Standard version:] You can keep the dog from me

["Complete Confection" version:] So you can keep the diamond ring

[Standard version:] I never liked it anyway

["Complete Confection" version:] It don't mean nothing anyway

In fact you can keep everything, yeah, yeah,

Except for me

[Chorus]

[Standard ending:]

This is the part of me

That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no

This is the part of me

That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no

Throw your sticks and your stones,

Throw your bombs and your blows

But you’re not gonna break my soul

This is the part of me

That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no

["Complete Confection" ending:]

This is the part of me, no

Away from me, no

This is the part of me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me..., no

Throw your sticks and your stones,

Throw your bombs and your blows

But you’re not gonna break my soul

This is the part of me

That you’re never gonna ever take away from me, no

The Lego Batman Movie and Masculinity

The Lego Batman Movie presents a much more progressive version of gender roles, where men don’t have to be strong and stone cold and women don’t have to be passive and can hold high ranking positions.

Batman is shown to be old fashioned and behind the times. We see this when Barbara Gordon, the new police commissioner, points out that Batman is ineffective with any permanent solution to the amount of crime in Gotham City. He insists on solving everything on his own. Batman is living out the expectations most men have for themselves. He bottles up his emotions and pushes everyone away to deal with every problem on his own. All of this proves to be ineffective and out-of date.

Barbara Gordon/ Batgirl is a well rounded character not based around stereotypes. Barbara is the police commissioner, the voice of reason in the movie, a capable negotiator, and eventually becomes Batgirl. When we are first introduced to Barbara Gordon, it seems like she will be a generic, uninteresting love interest for Batman that by the end of the movie Batman will serve as a reward for whatever character development he accomplishes. But, we immediately see that is not the case when she doesn’t take Batman seriously as he tries to outdo her. At one point, Batman tries to pull one over on her instead of working with her, since he thinks he knows better. She arrests him.

The film’s message is about dealing with emotion in a mature way and treating others with respect in a way that would seem unmanly 10 years ago. Batman is a jerk during the entire movie, constantly taking advantage of the people in his life and not allowing himself to express how he really feels. All the other superheros don’t like Batman, and don’t want to be around him. Batman clearly doesn’t like any of them either, especially Superman, because they are able to healthily deal with their tragedies and form positive relationships with one another. As most people know, Batman is the way he is because his parents died. This film explores how the cultural expectations and Batman’s own expectations for how a man should act have made that tragedy in his life turn him into a terrible person. Batman only redeems himself after learning to healthily express his sadness and let other people into his life.

I have seen that recently more and more works of culture, like the Marvel movies, Mad Max Fury Road, the Harry Potter series, and even this film’s predecessor, The Lego Movie, have promoted more positive gender roles where men are allowed to have emotions other than anger, and that women are more than rewards’ for the title character.  Ironically, some of the only movies I haven’t seen any signs of this trend are DC’s mainstream live action movies. These have shown almost all  male characters as angry muscle men. All their female characters are set dressing, defined by their relation to whatever action hero they fall in love with.

I have found, in recent years, as I have started to lose people, that there isn’t an easy way to deal with loss.  I have found myself often questioning my own priorities when this happens. Every once and awhile, I have found a dying animal and tried to help it but it would always die, sometimes within hours of me finding it. I find myself getting emotional afterwards, and I always feel weak or think something is wrong with me.  It would just be an animal that I only knew for a short time. While what I feel is nowhere close to what someone losing their parents feels, I am familiar with that feeling of not wanting to get emotionally invested in other people.

Family Guy Feminist Critique

Many shows have gender roles and gender stereotypes but not as much as The cartoon show “Family Guy”. This show has shown many stereotypes of race, religion, and male and female stereotypes. Some of the most often shown stereotypes are of the female.replace with better word

In one episode of Family Guy the main character “Peter Griffin” is always doing something that gets him in danger and his wife “Lois” has to come along and fix it. This show that women always have to clean up for men. After she is done fixing his problem, she has the chores one for the kids, beds made, and dinner ready as the episodes come to an end. This shows that women stay in the house and can’t do anything but care for the children, clean, and cook dinner, all while the husband is out doing whatever he's doing.

In another episode of the show, Lois becomes a adult movie star, with her body on billboards, internet pages, and TV commercials. This makes her look like a sex object and shows that men can have sex with her whenever they are pleased. This relates to the real world by showing that women can be shown as sex tool where men can have sex with them whenever they want to. This also happens to Lois” daughter Meg when she is low on money and her boyfriend won’t give her money because she thinks she will spend it on clothes and makeup, so she has to become a stripper and please men when Meg doesn’t want to do it. Even if she doesn’t want to do it, she has too because she knows if she doesn’t she will get fired and will have no money. This shows that women can’t make money on their own unless they get a job that shows off their body and makes them look like a sex object.

The show also shows some brute stereotypes in men. In one episode, the families house gets intruded by several armed masked men. Peter has no choice but to become the hero of the family and take down the intruders. This being a cartoon show, it has him end up winning at the end and Lois and all the kids hug into his muscular arms as if he saved their lives. This shows that if there is anger that a women and kids are in danger the man has to come and save them as if they had no power or were too weak to save themselves.

In the show there are no rich women, there are only rich men and boys. There are some rich women but that is because they are married to the rich man.; This shows that the man is the only one that makes money even though they are rich and all the women has to do is keep the man happy. This relates to the real world because a lot of millionaires and billionaires are rich men and have wives that only stay home and keep the man happy.

There are many other shows that show these few stereotypes such as “South Park”, “King Of The Hill”, “The Simpsons” and “Full House”. This shows that the gender roles and stereotypes have not changed on television since the late 1990’s. This is what make feminist mad, especially when the see these TV shows and movies that have the gender roles and stereotypes.