Gender Relations

I am wondering what the fate of CBS’ anti-abortion ads for the superbowl game is going to be. CBS has a known “Anti-Advocacy” claim in their policy, yet the group, Focus on Family, has paid to run an advertisement about “celebrating life” (in a pro-life kind of way).

Focus on the Family’s “celebrate life” (read: anti-choice) ad features Heisman Trophy-winning college football star Tim Tebow. And CBS approved this anti-choice ad, even though the network has repeatedly rejected advocacy ads in past years including a 2004 MoveOn.org ad that went after then-President Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility and an ad the same year from the United Church of Christ showing them welcoming a gay couple who had been turned away from another church.

There’s a lot wrong with this that relates directly to last weeks overhaul of the legislation to treat corporations as individuals (i.e. they can push as much money into politics as they want). This seems like another fast footed option to give conglomerates more power that relates directly to women’s health issues. Now, regardless of which side on the abortion debate you are on, there becomes a moral issue of multi-billion dollar corporations that can put their money into sensitive and controversial issues (when their goal is to entertain). It’s an unbalanced approach because it’s not like women’s health clinics have the money to push into superbowl ads, thus giving an unbalanced representation of views (which I could also deduct was part of CBS’ thought process in coming up with their anti-advocacy policy, which puts them outside these types of issue).

If you feel strongly about this CREDO Action has a petition to pull the ads. It seems pretty late in the game to pull them, but at least it will show support that people do not agree with this position. The superbowl is masculine enough, do the ads have to promote taking away women’s rights?

SIGN THE PETITION :
http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/superbowl_focus/?rc=fb_share1

Sometimes it’s hard to find A.) Music that does not mention the word “bitch”, “ho”, or another derogatory word

in it, especially on the radio, and B.) go one step beyond that and find music with a very positive AND progressive message (lots of children’s music is positive, but may not be progressive).

In an effort to steer people in some directions of some media that is either hopeful or critical of certain gender related topics, I want to try to post at least 1 “alternative a week”.

That brings me to musician Lily Holbrook. Her sound is very dim, almost morose, and I wouldn’t say as an artist all her music is overly progressive, but one song on the album “Everything was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt” titled “Bleed” has a very positive message embedded about the state of unrealistic expectations (for female body image) and even uses that phrase. Sometimes we can see progressive messages between the lines, but I find it really helpful (especially for teenagers) if there is some media out there that has equally blatant messages as those we hear on the radio on the other side of the spectrum.

It is always my position to educate and not erradicate. Some of the music on the radio has some really good beats. I think the problem comes in when we don’t really listen to the lyrics and wonder why everything has to be about sex, and it cannot be about community or friendship or other positive messages.

Lily’s “Bleed” really tackles the depression and feelings that come about when we feel as if we cannot measure up to the media’s messages.

(Also Note : Gender Relations New Media Player! Playing From PINK to BLUE)

Click Play For – “Bleed” by Lily Holbrook.

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Gloss over all those magazines
Painted with plastic surgery
And replace so easily
By a girl like you or me

Expectations are unrealistic
Between the mirror and the tube of lipstick

You thought you’d be what they wanted you to be
Thought you could be what they wanted you to be
But you’ll never be what they wanted you to be
‘Cause you bleed
Bleed

Sad, pathetic little me
Never thought I’d be so eager to please
And replaced so easily
By a girl like you or me

You thought you’d be what they wanted you to be
Thought you could be what they wanted you to be
But you’ll never be what they wanted you to be
‘Cause you bleed
Bleed

You see, the world is different now
Everybody’s different now
Everybody needs a little fixing up
But when’s it gonna stop
‘Cause I don’t even recognize you anymore
Do you love yourself now?
Do you love yourself now?

Gloss over all those magazines
Painted with plastic surgery

You thought you’d be what they wanted you to be
Thought you could be what they wanted you to be
But you’ll never be what they wanted you to be
‘Cause you bleed

Although music is highly interpretable, the main question becomes what does “Bleed” specifically refer to. It could be quite literal to the problem. Many women (and men), use cutting as a means to deal with their depression and feelings of isolation. It could be a metaphor for the internal pain, it could also mean the literal blood that some women draw in order to look “beautifulI” (she cites modeling and plastic surgery). For me, it means all of these things, and I think it’s a really powerful song for young girls and boys to hear, that they don’t have to look to those places, and feel so alone because they are fabrications.

Although Gender Relations is largely focused on critiquing media, the other focus of this blog is to offer up alternatives to the images, movies, music, and pieces of culture that seem is limiting. This is why I have created two categories : Critique and Alternatives. I think by organizing the mindset of the posts, people can at least navigate to an alternative. With this change, I am also going to try to increase the amount of “alternative” media that I post about because increasing media literacy is one of two primary goals with the other being to show examples of good “gender relations”.

I have also gone through all other posts on the site and added categories to them. Do note that just because something isn’t categorized as “alternative” doesn’t mean there isn’t a reference to something, but if “alternative” is a specific category, then it is a focus of the article.

Thanks for your support!

Let me know if you have any other suggestions for the site!

Although this isn’t specifically gender-related, this is a progressive blog, and I think it is without warrant that we should be actively engaged in what is going on. Media literacy as a method of examining our daily intake of messages is a productive format, and in all fairness the State of the Union was a huge media event. I’m not going to make a bunch of grandiose connections between a more gender liberal society and any of the proposals put forth tonight, but at the same time, I think we can see how becoming a more progressive, well-educated society can benefit change in many directions, so i’ll note a few of those.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Alleviation

This is probably the closest to home for gender progression. Although, it is true I often try to separate sexual orientation, sex, and gender, I think it is a valid point to bring across that the military (which is very gendered towards masculinity even for women) will be absolved of their policies in order to allow openly gay and lesbian people join the military. Although this may not breakthrough as a gender win specifically, I think the more liberal the nation becomes surrounding gay issues, the further they become open to transgender, gender bending, and gender neutral though processes. On a completely separated from gender side of things, this is a great stress and weight lifted off of gays and lesbians living in the closet in the military. This doesn’t come as a complete surprise as Obama has elected a transgender to the commerce department of government. Although he didn’t make a comment on gay marriage. I have a feeling he is for it (given his current mode of thinking and decision-making), but at this point in the game a decision like that could be political suicide.

Education

There were a few announcements in regard to education surrounding loans, grants, and public service loan forgiveness. Although these policies do not directly relate, I think education is key to a liberal environment (or at the very least open-mindedness). This isn’t a fact by any means, but I know from growing up in a very rural setting with a conservative high school education, I did not start thinking overly progressive until I stepped outside of that education system into alternative environments. But, also coming from a low income background, I would not have really been submitted to other viewpoints (where I could choose how I felt), without the Upward Bound program (that helps first-generation, low-income, high school students get to college). With the options to make education more accessible, I think this will pull the nation into a place that remains more open-minded (which hopefully would open up to other expressions – I know its a stretch, but its on my wishlist).

On the very straight-forward side, all his plans go very deeply and intelligently together between jobs, spending, education, etc, and I think it all connects to this really elegant quote :

“In America, no one should go broke because they chose to go to college”

There you have it, I really feel like education is a key part of this journey. A lot of the concerns raised in this blog are about how to read the media, how to digest messages, how to have conversations, and I think those are all abilities we construct through education, discussion, and involvement. I think that is the key point in relation to the purpose of understanding culture and raising media literacy (although a tangential goal)

Just some thoughts for the day, if you have any let’s hear them!

Hello All,

For all those who visit the site, thank you for your continued support. It means a lot that someone is reading the thoughts and analysis that takes place here at Gender Relations. I felt like it was time to actually buy the domain gender-relations (the double r in genderrelations seemed too odd). I will be putting up a redirect for the old address to this one, in the meantime all other content (minus images) should be up and running on the new domain, so update your bookmarks! Thanks again, and spread the word!

Matt

I was just reading a movie blog when an add for the direct-to-DVD (probably because it’s too over the top for theaters) film “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell” popped up on the side. Now, I have seen this book in Borders in the humor section, so it’s not meant to give a totally accurate portrayal of men, but it becomes pretty apparent in the cross-over version of this film (just from watching the preview) or seeing the ad to the right that women are going to be overly objectified in a way that is not even masked  in the littlest sense. The entire film is just about how guys are assholes.

Upon further look at the trailer (end of this article). there are MANY things wrong, even in the first few moments of the trailer.

• Guy asks beautiful young woman what she is doing. She replies that she is talking to the turtle in the tank, and he wonders if they are telling her to KILL “the fat chick” at the bar. When the girl walks away he asks how she could be real because “fat girls aren’t real people”.

I don’t think a lot of this trailer needs to be analyzed because I would hope that everyone realized how over the top it actually is, but just in case a 7 year old gets hold of this film, they are going to both A.) devalue women in general B.) devalue women who are not a size 1 even more. The male goes even further to suggest that the turtles are telling the girl to MURDER the heavier set woman in the film. Not a great message.

• Typical roadtrip to a stripclub, which is featured in a lot of male-centric films.
• Defiance of the law (urinating in public)
• Very typical dynamic between boyfriend who goes on the trip and the girl who stays behind. Although this is not technically cheating, it shows a mask for lying, deceit, and uses the metaphor for cheating. He is usually the “sweet” guy, but is still peer pressured by the others to participate.
• As with a lot of films in a similar nature, the main goal is to get laid, but not before getting extremely wasted. What kind of message does this send about healthy sexuality when these films constantly promote the mixing of sex and alcohol (ability to give consent, anyone?). Although these images are of social drinking as well, there is a major problem with alcoholism in our country, especially with depressed males, so that sends a whole other set of messages.

I am going to have to watch this film to just see how horrible it is, although I will need to find an art in summarizing because I am sure it will be an hour and a half of blantent stereotypical hyper-masculine behavior. Although the film is marketed as “these guys are assholes” (and who wants to be an asshole?), they are still images of men being men. Also, I am not against just a comedic experience in general (I think political incorrectness is funny as well), but I think as to go as far as suggesting a “fat chick get murdered” is outside the scope of satire / rude humor.

I was lucky to be exposed to 6 hours of daytime cable television today while bringing a friend to the ER, and of all the things that caught my eye, a commercial for “Depends” diapers. The part that caught my ear was “Men and Women are different” and a woman proceeded to talk about how uncomfortable wearing the diapers can be when the positions of the diaper don’t align correctly with her body. I couldn’t help but criticize their use of man/woman. Now, I realize this is a little up for debate, but within progressive gender circles I think it’s pretty common to cite male/female as SEX and man/woman/boy/girl as GENDER (man having masculine qualities, female having feminine qualities). There is discussion about the language more in depth in a few other of my posts if you are interested :

A Question of Language // Surveying Meanings

Simple Language Nuances That Matter // Gender & Sex

Aside from the debate over the language used, I thought “This is a male versus female problem”, and these are the kind of differences that I see no problem with. Men and women are shaped differently (everyone is for that matter), so having a diaper that will fit you is important. I tried finding the commercial online (just because I like to have media), and went to the Depend’s website. Sure enough they use the same language and even have separate sections for men and women (male/female), which again is fine because they are marketing to a SEX (regardless of their language use) not a GENDER. That was until I actually went to their site. Gender is one of the strongest components that can be marketed to because we all identify with something and it gender is so prevalent in our culture.

I reanalyzed my stance that they were selling to a specific sex, when I saw their very traditional pink and blue themes for the man/woman pages. I guess in case the old people cannot see to read the pages, they will at least know they are purchasing the correct diaper for their body by identifying almost the #1 fundamental and common gender assignment of pink and blue.

Now, I would be willing to secede from the language debate if they did not use such elementary uses of gender stereotyping. But for all intensive purposes, I guess if someone identifie’s as a woman (girl, feminine, what have you), they should use the “woman diapers” regardless of their biological makeup!

An interesting theory could be that since they are older, these gender norms seem more pertinent, and I suppose if we were to market gender to any group, it would seem most comfortable in the older population, as younger teens seem to reject complete traditions of gender stereotyping (although still struggle with it immensely when developing their identities). At the same time we still see the traditional blue and pink schema when we walk the aisles.

I was listening to Rachel Maddow this morning, and I didn’t get 3 minutes in when she spoke about one of the very odd things Scott Brown said at his victory speech about his daughters.

He suggests after he was kidding, but why make such a preposterous joke at a victory speech, and you can tell it was a backtrack, as his daughters seemed appalled (although publicly appropriate). Now, “Daughters for Sale” is going a little far, but it just reminds me of how some Republ….”Independents” hold on to such old values in our country. It wasn’t that long ago where the days of suitors were the only option in town, which were normally decided by the father of the family (who his daughters were good enough to marry). We aren’t living in medeval times, and even if it were “a joke” aren’t there thousands of other jokes that don’t involve his (very traditional) beautiful, college-aged, daughters? At the very least it was tasteless, and not really appropriate to publicly open that can of date worms.

Although I have yet to get all the way through the book “Packaging Girlhood” by Lyn Mikel Brown and Sharon Lamb, it is a great analysis of how marketing and media extrapolate gender stereotypes for girls and sell them through tv, movies, clothing, and other society “packages”. The authors of that book , including Mark Tappan, have recently released their followup “Packaging Boyhood”. My copy came in the mail today, and I have read the intro thus far, and it sounds really exciting.

Anyways, the authors will be at the University of Maine (in Orono) on January 26th for a few events :

Stodder Hall
10 – 11:30

After this presentation and discussion they will be at the

Women in Curriculum Luncheon in the Bangor Room starting at 12:15

If you haven’t heard of the books, pick them up, they are a great stepping stone into gender based marketing research and are really comprehensive (as much as you can be on the media) with their examples and though process. I am sure after reading Packaging Boyhood I will have a new take on some of the blogging that I do myself. I already am having some interesting realizations after reading the introduction.

See you there!

I am a huge fan of Sarah Silverman. I realize she isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (although I would argue that people don’t take the time to realize she is being ironic and playing an ignorant character), but I think she has a lot of important social messages she puts forth in her comedy. Those who are fans can rejoice at the new season coming up with 10 new episodes. Reading the description, I am sure I will have some insightful response to the episode. Although gender and/or sex isn’t a huge focus of her comedy, I think her writing style allows for a lot of open-minded discussion to occur. The premier episode entitled “The Proof is in the Penis”, should have enough to talk about. Below is the info a la press release : ‘The Sarah Silverman Program’ is Finally Back! The Third Season Begins Thursday, February 4 at 10:30 p.m. on COMEDY CENTRAL

Welcome back to the wacky world of Sarah Silverman.  Follow Sarah and the rest of the gang as she takes on pedophile vans, rigs a mayoral election, takes a stance on “Real Time with Bill Maher” and reconnects with her imaginary childhood friend (played by Andy Samberg), among other adventures in this irreverent new season.  COMEDY CENTRAL’s hit series, “The Sarah Silverman Program,” returns for a third season with 10 all-new episodes beginning on Thursday, February 4 at 10:30 p.m. with a secondary run on Logo beginning Tuesday, February 9 at10:30 p.m.  The new “Important Things with Demetri Martin”/”The Sarah Silverman Program” block airs on Thursdays.

“The Sarah Silverman Program” stars the Emmy® Award winner Silverman who plays a character (aptly named Sarah Silverman) whose absurd daily life is told through narrative and an occasional song.  In each episode, Sarah falls into unique, unsettling and always hilarious predicaments, with her sister (played by real-life sister Laura Silverman), her nerdy gay neighbors, Brian and Steve (Brian Posehn and Steve Agee) and dim-witted Officer Jay (Jay Johnston) never far from her side.

In the premiere episode, “The Proof is in the Penis,” Laura wants Sarah to “man-up” and start taking responsibilities for her life, so she falsely informs her that she was born a hermaphrodite.  Sarah accepts her manhood and decides to move into the woods and live off of the land.  Meanwhile, Brian and Steve are haunted by Mr. Jenkins and must dig up his grave and replace the remote that killed him in his corpse’s chest.

Source : TV By Numbers