Music

The music video I found that relates to gender and sexism is Rhianna and Eminems' "Love the Way you Lie." Essentially, this song is about a harmful relationship. The man is doing all these horrible things and the girl keeps coming back. It talks about abuse and violence and how the girl comes back for more. It's extra controversial because of Rhianna's public relationship with Chris Brown and the allegations that he abused her.

This is only one example of many contemporary songs that either portray women in a bad light or exucse innapropriate behavior for men. This video is significant to the conversation because of its portrayl of women. It seems to show that its okay for a man to treat you badly, and as long as you love each other you should stay with each other. Not to mention the music video is quite graphic. It thouroughly explains the song through the story it portrays.

I also find it interesting that the majority of songs that deal with disrespect to women tend to be rap or hip/hop related. It is rare to find an "indie" song or other type of genre that deals with the same issues.  Country music also sometimes brings abuse and violence to life. Carrie Underwood's song "Before he cheats" makes it seem like it's okay to be violent if someone has wronged you. The Dixie Chicks also have a song about a girl killing her husband with poison because he was abusing her. Although this song has a comedic undertone, I think it can be placed in the same category as the rap songs that degrade women.

Why do muscians take these topics so lightly? What is it that inspires them to sing these songs and perform these stories to the public?

Here is the music video I found:

TV

Most people seem to watch TV to escape from reality. It's a time to relax and not worry about anything. It doesn't seem like many people analyze racism, sexism etc. in TV. Recently, there have been posts on Facebook highlighting animated children's shows from the early 1990's. These pictures show the characters in the shows and each show has at least one asain, one black, one girl and a red head. It's funny how none of us realized those differences till now.

Now days, TV digs deeper into issues pertaining to today. Mostly things like gay rights, relationships etc. The show Glee highlights many of the issues faced by teens today. It makes me wonder if these shows are having any affect on the individulas that watch it or if they don't realize the bigger issues. It is amazing to see how TV has morphed and to see what is acceptable and not acceptable on primetime. Are people really analyzing the characters, the actions etc, or are they just watching to escape their own world and taking time out to relax?

A waste of $4

After bringing a magazine to class, and looking through other magazines I realized what a complete waste they are. I used to love getting magazines, dream about all the things I wanted in them and yes I'll admit it I desired to look like those darn models sometimes too.

Now, as I turn each page I think how ridiculous it was to be spending $4 on something so well boring. The "women's" magazines don't have anything interesting to read and they all basically have the same info written differently. I would rather spend $4 on coffee than another magazine. Typically, I think people got ideas from magazines, all the pictures and the colors gave them inspiration for whatever they were looking for. Now we have the wonderful online pinboard called "Pinterest" (if you haven't checked this website out, you should). I am not going to go into detail about all things pinterest, but to put it simply. It has everything. Recipes, archtecture, clothing, colors, ideas without any worthless articles.

Although I used to flip through magazines when I was younger, I now know that if I want something I can: 1) look online 2) just go to a store and poke around 3) buy a cup of coffee and use my own brain to come up with something creative.


http://www.pinterest.com/

Creative Project

Luckily, my partner for the creative project is someone I have worked with before and would consider us to be friends. I have had a couple ideas for things to present. The main topic I think would be intersting to dive into is women as chef's. The field is full of plenty of men. It's a hot, rough job to have and there is a lot of pressure on those who cook, to make food appetizing and appealing.

I work part-time at Carino's Italian and one of the Chef's is a woman. I think it would be intersting to interview her, some of the male chefs and other people in the restaurant field to see what their opinions and thoughts are.  I ran this by my partner briefly and she agreed it would be interesting, she also said she read an article relating to the topic. I have also donea small amount of research on the topci and think it could make for an interesting presentation.

I have previously talked with the woman chef at carino's, in fact we are friends. She has mentioned that she runs the show in the kitchen, and that the guys she works with wouldn't admit to it but she, in fact is in charge.

I think it would be interesting to learn more about the gender roles in the kitchen and how the two genders work together.

Dr. Pepper 10 Commercial

I saw this commercial for the first time the other day and I was blown away. I think I had briefly heard about it previously but didn't realize the degree to which they took this commercial. I am not even sure I understand the point. Why did Dr. Pepper decide to target the male market with this new product? Was the male market for Dr. Pepper lacking? I wish I could get into the minds of the individuals who 1. came up with this idea 2. said it was a good idea 3. and decided to go through with it.
The part that really suprised me was the end slogan... "it's not for women."

Seriously??

I wonder if guys take offense to the women's deodorant commercial that states "strong enough for a man, but made for a woman."

The whole aspect of this commercial is based off the assumption that all guys like action packed violent movies and girls hate them, which is not always true. I honestly don't understand the angle the advertisers were trying to take with this ad would love to discuss it with other individuals (male and female).

Girls playing boys sports

We discussed in class last week about girls and boys often times not being able to participate in the same kind of activities, whether these be athletics or dance or other "gender specific" activity.

Today there was an article on yahoo.com reporting on this exact issue. A 7 year old girl has played on her brothers baseball team for a few years, and now the coach wants to get into a more "competitive" league. There are several ridiculous points to this.

The fact that the team wants to be more competitive has nothing to do with a girl being on the team or not, if the coach was wise he would evaluate all of the players and find the best players for team (regardless of gender). If the young girl honestly didn't have whatever talent he was looking for than fine, cut her from the team. However, the article states that the coach told the mother that her daughter was better than her son... so what is the issue here? These kids are young and in today's society need to get used to boys and girls being equal, it is no longer like it was in the past where girls (women) were "lower" than men. I don't understand why people still have this thought process.  I believe that women are equal (if not better) than men, and I love when I hear of a woman beating the odds and proving that we are strong and we know how to handle situations. In fact, the CEO of the company I work for, Hewlett- Packard, is a woman - and already the moral of the company has changed. This woman knows what she is doing, and the results can be seen.
The article mentioned above also discussed how the brother (who is younger than the sister) likes having her on his team and is considering not playing anymore if she can't play either. It makes me wonder if there will be some kind of back-lash on the league or the coach for his actions. If this small act is on a mainstream news site, it has obviously already caught a lot of attention. It will be interesting to see if more information will come available in the coming days or weeks.

View the article

Keeping Gender a Secret

The other day I came across an article online about a couple who kept the gender of their child a secret for 5 years. The young boy, Sasha dresses in whatever he wants and plays with the toys he wants. The couple wanted to avoid stereotyping and give their child a chance to develop his own personal identity.

There are plenty of arguments that can be made about this parenting style (as they all can). Will the child grow up to be more confused with his or her own sexuality? Will they be treated differently because they choose to wear clothing that is "not normal" for their specific gender? Should a child really be making these kinds of decsions?

My thoughts on this are conflicting. I do believe that some people take gender roles and stereotypes too far. Children should be able to make decisions about what they want to wear or play with. However, I don't necessarily agree with the parents choice to hide the gender from everyone. It seems like kind of ridiculous and outlandish thing to do. The kid is 5, what difference does it really make what he wears? Why keep his gender a secret? He would still be able to make whatever choices he wants, yes he might be made fun of but that will happen in the future anyways and will most likely have more of an affect on him when he is in junior high or high school.

I think letting a kid have free-will and make decisions is great, just because you are a boy doesn't mean you have to do what boys are "supposed" to do. But I also think that the parents choice to keep the gender hidden from everyone seems just a little dramatic.

Here is the article about Sasha and his parents choice to keep his gender for 5 years:
 http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/couple-finally-reveals-childs-gender-five-years-birth-180300388.html