Benjamin Cudmore: Gender

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“Gender” by Benjamin Cudmore

Gender is how people perceive their sexual identity and is not necessarily determined by the biological difference of male or female. By walking through a convenience store, there are many different products that appear to look more feminine or masculine. When examining brands that produce shaving products, soaps, or other cosmetics, typically men’s are blue and women’s are pink. Similarly, brands also create names that try to get people to conform to gender norms. Without blatantly labeling a product as for a certain sex, some products for men sound more masculine like “Old Spice” or “Axe.” In contrast, products targeted for women might sound feminine like “Dove” or “Secret.” Nevertheless, if I am asked to choose between using a “Dove” product or one made by “Axe,” I am choosing “Dove” in a heart beat. Brands like “Dove” that create products for women are also trying to cater to men. One way this brand tries to get men to buy its product is by making deodorant that is essentially the same as the ones marketed for women, but with different packaging. By simply redecorating a product to make it available for the opposite sex, it leaves me with a burning question. Are brands like “Dove” taking a step towards not examining gender in a black and white lens, or are they encouraging conformity?

Feminism-Zoey Zeng

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Feminism help women get rid of stereotype and fight for equality to men. The stereotype and biases of women in different media exist for a long time. From 19 century, women were under the male gaze. Women in many paintings are naked. These paintings just show how men see women as their ideal image for their pleasure, which is unreal and humiliates women. For today, although the media is change, the image of women is still under men’s perspectives and judgment. The beauty of women is conformed to very narrow standards like tall and thin. The study found that 75 percent of all ads using females were for products found in the kitchen or bathroom, which means women are labeled as housewives. Moreover,  women in backwaters are even hard to get in the chance to get an education.  Fortunately, the development of media brings many advantages. Women who receive education become more confident and share their opinions online. They create themselves and define beauty by themselves. They dress the way they like instead of “to-be-looked-at” and throw away these “social tags” to become new-age women who make decisions by themselves.

Feminism- Chloe Whelan

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Feminism is defined as the advocacy for women’s fundamental rights on the basis of equality among the sexes. Though significant progress has been made since the start of the feminist movement, achieving equality for women has been and continues to be drawn out for far too long. A huge proponent of this issue lies in the portrayal of women in the media. Although many television programs have actively made efforts to promote strong female characters, in this lies several examples of blatant hypocrisy. An example I am often reminded of is the character Renata Klein from the HBO television series “Big Little Lies.” Renata is a successful businesswoman, married, and has a young daughter in school. Although her character is meant to represent an empowered woman, who is known for her ambition and financial success, she is villainized by the other mom’s at her daughter’s school. Because the other mothers don’t have demanding careers outside the home, Renata is ostracized for her reputation of negligence towards her daughter. Despite the show’s efforts to empower women through their successful corporate female character, her success is what causes her to be portrayed in a negative light. Our country is overflowing with powerful and capable women, though this example is one of many that shows the societal villainization of powerful women. We have come a long way fighting to empower women and enforce equality in the world, but with the continuation of negative stereotypes appearing in the media, it is clear there is still work to be done.

Gender – Chloe Fandetti

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Gender is how someone identifies themselves, rather than the sex they were born with. Historically, the media has been full of gender stereotyping and sexism, especially in product advertising, commercials, and tv. With gendered marketing, there is a sharp “pink and blue” divide between what’s considered for girls and for boys. This can be seen in everyday products, like razors, toys, clothing, earplugs, disposable diapers, and more. I think the example of toddler clothing is very interesting. Many young girls’ tops are cropped so their stomachs show and shorts are significantly shorter than the ones for boys, sexualizing girls’ bodies from a young age. Boys tops have phrases about breaking hearts, being a stud, and flexing their muscles, normalizing messages about toxic masculinity. Girls’ shirts say “little and loved,” whereas boys’ shirts say “brave and strong.” I think gendered marketing in toddler clothing is particularly harmful because it tells kids what they should value and how they should act in highly stereotyped ways. In recent years, clothing brands are making more gender neutral clothing for kids, but it’s still pretty alarming to see how gender stereotypes have been ingrained into our society through something as simple (yet still impactful) as kids’ clothes. 

Gender- Bella Kjellen

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Throughout time, the presentation of gender has been highly separated and depicted through two lenses: that of the stereotypical woman and man. Unrealistic images of both men and women have been plastered over various forms of media presenting an overly-feminine and masculine gaze. Media platforms have received backlash for its fostering of unrealistic views and expectations. Over time, we have slowly begun to push to a more empowering portrayal in the media which has extended beyond the two biological genders. Queer contemporary media has made its way into our modern media in forms such as ad campaigns, tv and though has-tags as exposure. Additionally, as women were once portrayed as “sexualized objects” throughout media, we have emptied them of their “political force” and reconstructed them into feelings of power. For example, the well known ad campaign by Always, “Like a Girl”, was heavily shown on various social media platforms, physical/digital magazine, and billboards. This campaign not only normalized once unspoken female necessities, but also built up a sense of confidence in women and girls. Research showed that half of girls dropped out of sports which didn’t fit the female gender-norm until this was released into new media.

Gender: Mary Margaret Clouse

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The text made me consider how gender is a facet of identity that exists purely as another thing to be advertised or advertised to. For example, marketing to men involves affirming their masculinity, whereas marketing to women involves a need to be seen as “progressive” in encouraging female empowerment, but often with products marketed to women, this is counterintuitive as the products themselves further encourage a limited idea of women and their roles. Another aspect of this is the way women, and sometimes men, are objectified in media. In movie trailers, the actors themselves become the attraction rather than the film. It is often said that “sex sells,” in turn reducing women to merely a marketing device. However, gender can exist in media in more positive ways. Seeing gender stereotypes and identities countered or questioned in media can also allow individuals to critique their own cultural expectations and assumptions of gender. This kind of positive representation in media is necessary for further understanding and growth of knowledge about gender and how it impacts individuals’ identities and experiences, especially for young children.

Keyword #3: Gender

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Media has been confirming traditional gender norms and perpetuating unrealistic physical, mental, and emotional standards across centuries. Women, as stated in the reading, are trivialized and both celebrated and condemned for their sexuality. Similarly, men are convinced that they should desire a particular body type and demeanor to be considered masculine. Through endless language and imagery marketed towards these culturally accepted identities, the full spectrum of human expression is underrepresented. This concept has preserved gender discrimination even in a society that has become increasingly progressive. In my Leadership Studies course, we learned about Sarah Baartman, a South African black woman who was paraded around Europe by scholars in the 19th century to show off her “over-sized genitalia”. The media referred to her as the “Hottentot Venus” and used to sensationalize black women. It justified the belief that black women are animalistic, hypersexual and worthy of sexual desire, but not marriage. As well as the idea that only pious, white women were acceptable to reproduce with to prevent similar mutations to Baartman. Exaggerated imagery of Baartman appeared across magazines and newspapers to further sensationalize her body. This example demonstrates an extreme tactic against women that has woven its way into examples of discrimination in modern society such as “desirable” and “undesirable” bodies.

Portrait of “Vénus hottentote” Sarah Baartman, illustration from the 1888 “Le costume historique’ d’Albert Racinet. (API/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Mimi Bainbridge “Feminism” Post

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Through my personal experience, feminism is the fight for equality amongst genders, but the media has made it increasingly difficult for that goal to be reached. Mass media promotes sexist representations of women and continuously objectifys them. This idea has become quite clear through the dissection of roles most women are cast as in movies, shows, etc. Do their characters have depth? Or are they just there to “sit still and look pretty”. The “feminism” reading also sheds light on the blatant sexism in advertisements for women. Typically, women are featured in ads selling kitchen or bathroom supplies. This ides stems from the underlying belief that “women belong in the kitchen” or that they would be most interested in products pertaining the home. These stereotypes are consistently shown across all types of media. However, women are not willing to stand for this anymore. Acts like this have pushed the fight for equality/the feminist movement to pick up speed and continue on until permanent progress is made.

Feminism

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The simple definition for feminism is advocating for women’s rights. Women have been fighting to get treated equally to men for years. It took us a very long time to just be able to vote. Now we’re fighting to get paid the same as men. Men have always been seen as the superior gender. It’s apparent in movies, TV shows, and even the presidents. It’s 2021 and we have yet to see a female president running the country. Women aren’t taken seriously. Men have always said how women “belong in the kitchen” and that they are meant to do “all the hard work”. They’ve grown up on misogyny and haven’t been able to shake it from them. Girls also face an internalized misogyny because of this. From what they’ve seen in media, from the male gaze, it’s apparent that we’re supposed to be girly but not too girly, sporty but not too sporty. It’s very exhausting to have to constantly think about what the best thing to be portrayed as is.

Gender- Thomas Takele

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Gender has been a topic of interest of mine for a while because it really interests me how deep the ways that systems in place for oppression are rooted. In media, especially in television and movies there is a big discrepancy in positions filled by different genders. In movies there aren’t usually women in roles that don’t portray them in a sexual way or solely in the stereotypical nurturing type of way. These portrayals are what reinforce these roles in stereotypes. As these stereotypes are acted upon they become infused in culture and this keeps the cycle going unless people grow to change. As these walls of culture are torn down level by level the life of a woman will be different and they will start creating a different culture.