Valentines Day

Hello readers!

So one of the most important days in a year for all couples, the day of love and affection, has come and gone. Everyone knows that Valentines Day is just a marketing scheme and isn’t even a real holiday but we just can’t help but falling into the trap.  Those that are in a relationship expect and demand from their partner as if love can really be measured in chocolate and roses. And those that are single complain about being extra lonely as if they just suddenly realized they are single. Valentines Day is a perfect example of how the media has oversimplified something as complex as love and has stereotyped a whole set of superficial behaviors upon the two genders in celebration of this fake holiday.  The media says, on Valentines Day, men are supposed to get women chocolates and roses and take them out to nice fancy dinner, and women are supposed to dress up in their most flattering dress and give back to their men with their sex appeal or just sex.  Take this Teleflora.com commercial for example

 The message it’s trying to get across is telling men that if you buy your women some roses and you can have what you really want from them too because “It’s just that simple”.  But in reality, love isn’t that simple, just because you give doesn't mean you'll receive. Just because you buy a women nice gifts does not mean she is going to have sex with you, and by showing that in the media, it may plant false expectations in the male audience's head. There is a lot more involved in two people feeling attracted to each other than simply because a woman received flowers from a man on Valentines Day. Once again the media is presenting an oversimplified view of women and by telling men that women can be easily “conquered” with pretty things is presenting female in a very shallow light. 

Also, media has installed false expectations inside the female’s minds about how their men are supposed to behave. Under the media’s influence women has grown to expect more and more from their men.  They see how men on TV or in commercials pamper their girlfriends with extravagant things and feel that their own boyfriend must do the same to show their love.  Girls feel that Valentines Day need to be accompanied by some big romantic surprise and might even get angry or sad when what actually ends up happening doesn’t meet their expectation. This is simply silly considering all their demands are superficial objects.  Media has made women think that men are obligated to buy them things on Valentines Day and that somehow the amount of money spent is equivalent to the strength of the love.

By no means am I saying the girls, including myself, don’t enjoy being spoiled by their loved once, but there is no set path to someone’s heart.  Women aren’t easily so swoon by flowers unless it’s from the right men so the media shouldn’t be telling the general male audience that nice gifts can get you any girl.  And ladies, if a man do anything romantic for you on Valentines Day then you should learn to appreciate it with all your heart instead of comparing him to your friends boyfriend.  

Masculinity = Muscularity?

After weeks of talking about the evil media and its contribution to spread female stereotypes, it is time to pay a little attention to the male too. When we think about media and gender stereotypes, most of us immediately think about women. We can come up with billions of examples of how the media sexually objectifies women, casts stereotypical gender roles onto women to be caretakers, and portray women in a misleading way. But what about our male counterpart?  I have always had the notion that men are the devil and the creators behind the stereotypes against women and they enjoy all the sexism being shown on TV. It wasn’t until recently when I read a research done on the connection between male model and male self-esteem that made me realize men also very much suffer from media’s gender stereotypes.

Even though women grimace at men who stare at the bikini model admiring her perfect physique and call them shallow, we tend to ignore how men must feel when our eyes wander all over that male underwear model with the perfect 6-pack. I would imagine the same thought process happens in their mind as in ours.  First we scold the other sex for being superficial and being a pervert, and then we turn to feeling dissatisfied about ourselves because we don't have that picture perfect body the other sex admires so much. Women often complain that media and their big breast; tiny waist, size 0 models and actresses have painted an unrealistic picture of the ideal female body that men long for. The same could be said for men. Media, overtime, has changed people’s definition of masculinity. 

Masculinity is defined by dictionary.com as having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, such as strength and boldness.  Traditionally, masculinity is associated with qualities or behaviors. A man can display masculinity through courage, through leadership even through love for family. However, media has created a new superficial meaning of masculinity where muscularity = masculinity. With the help of media, masculinity became more and more about appearance rather than behavior and qualities.  Just as femininity has grown to become more about big breast and long hair than being loving and caring. A father working his hardest to provide a good life for his wife and kids but is slightly overweight would now be viewed as “less manly” than a 20 year old who wastes his parents money all day but has a perfectly toned body. Media has twisted our view and made us forget that personality is way more important than appearance.

Women blame men for falling for the female stereotypes media presents, but to be fair, women fall for them too.  Women often associate big muscles on a man with masculinity when in truth, that’s just one of media’s many lies and masculinity really has nothing to do with physical appearance. People are often concerned with how the supermodels contribute to lowering women’s self-esteem but we need to remember that they also have the same effect on men. And people really need to remember that masculinity and femininity does not depend on physical trait but a rather depends on values and qualities the person has.

Superbowl Commercials

    Hello reader! Happy February! The most exiting part of February for some is probably watching the super bowl but for many others, it's watching the super bowl commercials. Super bowl commercials have been a part of the American TV tradition and during the months leading up to the super bowl, all large companies are basically going crazy throwing their money away to come up with the best ad campaign. Companies need their ad agency to come up with the most attention catching and memorable commercial and Advertisement 101 taught every ad agency out there that sex sells, so as a result: super bowl commercials are always jam-packed with sexist messages and gender stereotypes.

    The super bowl commercials have been a repeat offender of sexist jokes and objectifying women for years and although some ads are banned each year from airing on TV, commercial agencies still seem to be very convinced and women or men’s sexuality is the best tool to sell their product. Today I would like to share a few super bowl commercials from the past few years and ones that are currently airing, and prove how commercials can send very gender stereotypical and sexist messages to its viewers. 

   First lets start with this Motorola super bowl commerical in 2010 featuring super model and actress Megan Fox:

What did Megan Fox's taking a bath have to do with Motorola or cellphone in general? Nothing. But the video has more than 2 million views on YouTube and according to the YouTube stats on the video, the video was first embedded onto Facebook the day it appeared on YouTube the link received more than 30 thousand views.  People want to watch this because sex sells. They might not remember what it's selling, but they will remember that Megan Fox was lying "naked" in a bubble bath and that's enough to make couples fight, phone line explode and teenage boys hide in the bathroom to masturbate.  This commercial is sending a clear message: Buy a Motorola, because Megan Fox is holding one, and she is hot. All they said about the phone was that it can hold a lot of information and can send things just like every other phone in 2010.Therefore they are clearly not interested in actually describing the benefits of the product but more interested in using her body as a tool of advertisement and Megan Fox is well aware of the fact when she accepted the role. The female body is not a tool and is definitely not for sale, but commercials like this may send that message to the viewers and deepen stereotypes such as women need to use their sexuality for money. 

  Next lets take a look at this extremely sexual Carl's Jr. with Kim Kardashian in 2011:

Well, that was unnecessary. A salad is a salad, with leaves and dressing and other healthy stuff, but the ad agencies just couldn't resist to relate that to sex too. From when Kim crawled into bed in her lingerie with her salad to when she got naked in the bathtub with her salad, the commercial just screamed sex. Everything about this commercial was sexually suggestive and inappropriate.  Kim K ate the salad with her bare fingers while doing voice over in a sensual tone and says she likes it messy as the salad dressing drips past her cleavage. Again, this commercial is using a females body and sexuality to sell. And unlike the previous one that tries to be discreet, this one is loud and proud about it.  The tagline to the commercial is "who says salads cant be hot" which goes perfectly with the rest of the commercial.  But my question is, why does a salad need to be hot? The advertisement and commercial world is so obsessed with the notion that sex sells and are so sure that half naked female are their answer to everything, they feel a need to throw one into every commercial. 

  The past has been disappointing but I am happy to announce that sex sells is in the past and we can finally have a super bowl without 20 commercials featuring naked ladies attached in 2013. Actually...No, not really...the 2013 super bowl commercials are just as bad if not worse.

  Yes that completely makes sense because if you drive an Audi, then you have every right to just kiss whoever you want to kiss without their consent. And the worst part is when the camera caught the girl's face and she seems to really have enjoyed getting kissed by this stranger.  The message this all sends is:  If you drive an Audi, girls will like you and not get mad even though your technically sexually assaulting them, because hey, girls like rich men. And it also implies that doing things you want without consent is called being brave. Also there's the part when the boyfriend comes and punch the boy in the face. It displays gender stereotypes about men such as that men need to figure their stuff out using their fists. That part is also sexist because it makes it seem like the girl is the boyfriends property he punches the boy because his stuff got stolen. 

  The video was posted by AudiofAmerica's official YouTube account and it comes with the description:" A slightly insecure teenager is unhappy about going to the Senior Prom without a date. But when Dad lets him borrow the new Audi S6 for the night, he gains more and more confidence with every mile, arriving at the Prom a changed young man. You'll have to watch this Super Bowl spot to see if his newly found bravery pays off." How does driving an expensive car suddenly change a person in one night and how is sexually assaulting a poor girl called bravery.  Respect for women is bravery, asking for consent is bravery but rape and sexual assault is the farthest thing from it.  It is funny that even in 2013, even a huge company that should try to hold a reputable name would send out such a terrible message to its viewers. 

Go Make Me a Sandwich!

The topic of media and gender is one we all have learned about before but also one that we have all consciously ignored. Us girls know that the beautiful confident women in ads is just the advertisers way of tricking you to buy the product, yet we still willingly spend our money in hopes of becoming like her. Most men have been taught all their life to respect women, yet they still find a lot of content on TV or the internet that degrade women to be funny. Speaking of men’s sometimes-distasteful sense of humor, today I would like to talk about a line that I have heard every guy I know in high school say at least once that goes like “Make me a sandwich”.
“ “Make me a sandwich,” is a catchphrase often used by male internet users to mock, discredit or annoy female internet users, playing off of the sexist trope[1] which states that women belong in the kitchen. “ – knowyourmeme.com
That definition of the saying sums it up pretty well. It mocks women as it degrading joke that men says make women feel inferior because of the gender stereotype that women “belongs in the kitchen”. It discredits women as it implies women are only good for cooking and lack knowledge beyond the kitchen. And it really annoys the hell of women to hear that and to realize that their gender counterpart is still as shallow as ever.
I have personally heard the phrase used so many times as an attack to insult girls and it always goes a little something like this: girl outsmarts boy, boy feels stupid and embarrassed in front of his friends so boy tells girl to just go make him a sandwich, and the rest of the boys laugh and forget everything smart the girl has just said. It is so sad how even in our highly advanced society today; such jokes still exist and people still find making sexist jokes based on gender stereotypes to be funny. And it is so frustrating to know that women’s achievement and knowledge still gets disregarded by men so easily due to such old fashion sexist views. And the main contributor to the existence and popularity of this saying is of course, the media.
The saying originated on Saturday Night Live in 1995 and has been used in many stand-up comedy specials and TV shows like That 70s Show, or the X-Files and has been told many times by the popular comedian Dave Chappelle. With the rise of Facebook and rage comic sites like 9gag.com, the saying has grown even more popular and widespread. The phrase itself has dozens of Facebook pages with thousands of fans and there are more than 19,000 videos related to the saying on YouTube. The popularity of memes has made it a worldwide pastime to come up with different offensive jokes using “make me a sandwich”. And while the men may find it to be funny and try to “out clever” the previous meme, the women are being offended constantly and the gender stereotype regarding women is growing stronger and harder to overcome.
Fact is, women are just as smart, powerful and successful as men in all different areas and field. Women can do all the work a man can do and saying that they belong in the kitchen is simply ignorant and stupid. Yet still in 2013, the media has created a disaster and made it okay for men to degrade women with sexist jokes. Society has been trying so hard to move forward with equal rights between men and women and etc, yet the media has done nothing but drag people backwards into old fashion sexist thinking. To all the men out there, yes your mom and girlfriend may spend hours in the kitchen sometimes, but that’s only because they care about you and want you to be fed well, they only do it because they love you and not because they have nothing better to do. 

Hello World!

To begin my first blog ever, it only seemed natural to dedicate the first post by saying hello to the blogging world. 
First a little bit about myself, I am a female in her mid 20s, working a stable job as a fashion PR in Downtown Los Angeles. Because of my job as a fashion publicist, I am highly exposed to the world of pop culture and fashion. My job entails that I spend hours browsing through magazines and keeping up with the latest TV shows and movies to find new opportunities to pitch my clients clothing to. In the course of my research, I cannot help but get sidetracked and be shocked at how much the media relies on sex appeal to sell whatever it is they may be trying to sell. And that brings me to introducing the theme of this blog: The Media and Gender.
Every perfume ad, every popular TV show and just about every corner you turn in our media-clad world, there is a something that indirectly reinforces the gender stereotypes that we Americans have supposedly been fighting to eliminate. Every educated person nowadays knows not the challenge equal rights between men and women because saying men are superior would be considered extremely ignorant and backward. Yet our pop culture is filled with content that downgrades women indirectly or directly and somehow we are okay with that. We can say we are moving forward in the women’s rights movement and the inequality is getting extremely small from a legal point of view, but every time we turn on the TV or open a magazine, there is an advertisement with a bikini-clad model using her sex appeal to sell the product which implicitly sends the message that women needs to take advantage of her sexuality to get what she wants. 
Gender stereotype is amplified and drilled into our heads through the media and the pop culture every single day of our lives and after years and years of exposure to these kind of content, we have been brainwashed to simply look at it and not even see the disturbing message behind it. That is why I am writing this blog: to reveal how media has been trying to teach us stereotypes about men and women and to expose just how politically incorrect different media content we see everyday are in regards to gender. 
We all know that equal rights between women and men is the only option in our world today, yet we allow our media to continue objectifying women and using sexuality as a tool of advertisement. Children spend hours in school learning about respect for the other gender and then everything they learned is forgotten as soon as they hear their favorite rapper rapping about their supposedly endless supply of women. I believe fashion and entertainment is extremely important in undeniable important to our lives but also that it can affect us negatively and could be the number one source of gender stereotype in our society today. I hope by blogging about it, myself and at least one reader can become more critical of the ways media entertains us.