The gender stereotypes that I dealt with mostly were classic stereotypes.  A few of these being things like women should be in the home, men should be at work or watching sports, women are emotional, and men don’t care.  In this gender stereotype realm, I also dealt with sexism.  I came across a lot of sexist cartoons in my search for gendered artifacts.  These sexist cartoons followed gender stereotypes, but in a way that was marginalizing for one gender.  In all of my artifacts, it was the women that were always marginalized, and I’m pretty certain that this is the same for a majority of the sexist cartoons out there.  I found one particularly sexist advertisement on YouTube.  I believe that the commercial was actually a joke, and just made up for fun, but I still felt insulted, degraded, and marginalized by watching it.  Besides these classic gender stereotypes, I also focused on specific concepts that we learned in class and from the book.  These being concepts such as the Ten Stage Model of romantic relationships, side-by-side versus face-to-face interaction and communication differences in male-male and female-female friendships, and gender communication in the workplace.  At the beginning of finding my artifacts, I surprisingly came across a lot of artifact that dealt with gender the in workplace, which I found ironic because I found these artifacts in the media, and we studied gender in the workplace and the media together in class.  All in all, this project really helped open my eyes to finding gender communication concepts all around me in everyday life.  I am now aware of many different concepts and differences between males and females in communication.

Girls tend to have role models such as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, who shape their thoughts and actions as a woman.  The only problem with that though, is that these women are anything but role models.  They are overly sexual, because they are paid to be.  I’m not saying that these women are necessarily bad, but the media portrays these women to be sluts and sex symbols because in the media, sex sells.  Take for example, Britney Spears’ song, “Get Naked.”  The song depicts Britney in the club, wanting to take a guy home.  During the song, she says that she’ll do sexual things to him to please him, and even asks what she has to do to get him to want her body.

This song is horrible for younger girls to listen to, but they are listening to these kinds of songs because they do see Britney as their role model.  These song lyrics, along with many others, make girls think that they need to be overly sexual to be real women, and to get guys to like them.  Songs by women are less likely to be sexist, or deal with gender stereotypes, but most women don’t compose their own lyrics, so still a majority of songs sung by women are very sexist and gender stereotypical (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).  These songs are then written by the male perspective, and their views of gender stereotypes and roles (Gamble & Gamble).  The role depicted in many of Britney’s songs is the one of the lover, because like I said earlier, sex sells, and the music industry knows this, which goes to degrade women and give young girls the wrong idea of what women should be (Gamble & Gamble).

References

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Spears, B. (2007). Get Naked. On Blackout. [CD]. Jive Records.

I found these observations very interesting because they went along exactly with what we’ve learned in the friendship chapter in this class.  Women tend to get together with other women just to talk because they value face-to-face interaction, while men tend to get together with other men to do activities or sports, which then often leads to friendship or a chumpship (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).  Men actively engage in side-to-side interaction, meaning they like to converse and communicate while engaging in activities (Gamble & Gamble).  This goes hand in hand with what I said about the communication style between the girls and guys playing ping pong, and the fact that the guys never just want to sit around and talk, they always want to get up and be active.  Female relationships are built through a growing feeling of conectedness, while male friendships are built upon shared activities and experiences (Gamble & Gamble).

References

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

In this cartoon, the topic of Title IX is brought up.  It appears to be that after a boy didn’t make the cheerleading team, he complained about it, and brought up the fact of Title IX, so that he knew he wouldn’t be discriminated against by law.  The cheerleaders still claim that the reason he didn’t make the team wasn’t because he’s a boy, even though it obviously was.  They make up the excuse that its because he doesn’t “have the thighs for a mini skirt” even though male cheerleaders do not wear mini skirts.

I think this cartoon is really interesting, because the students appear to be older, so I’m trying to figure out if they are in high school or college, and this really makes a pretty big difference to the cartoon, because it could be saying a lot more if they are in high school.  This is because, I’ve learned from my own personal experience (being to a lot of high school and college dance team and cheerleading competitions) that males in cheerleading is highly accepted in college, and even encouraged, because then the team will have the ability to lift more people higher.  On the flip side though, male cheerleaders in high school (though the movie Bring It On does not depict this) are often discriminated against and called sissies.  So if this cartoon is in college, it is only focusing on the Title IX issue, but if it is in high school, it is probably focusing not only on the Title IX issue, but also on the issue of breaking gender norms and stereotypes.  Title IX “prohibits schools that recieve tax dollars from discriminating on the basis of sex when it comes to either academics or athletics” (Gamble & Gamble, 2003, pp. 248).  This is why Title IX is brought up in the cartoon, because the boy knows that by law, and definition of Title IX, they cannot not let him on the team because he is a boy, or else they will lose their tax funding.

References

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Opitz, E. (Artist). (2009). Editorial Cartooning. [Image of painting]. Illinois; Illinois High School Association. Retrieved May 3, 2009, from IHSA.

This poster is one that is supposed to be hung up in schools to help let students know they aren’t alone if they don’t follow the classic gender norms, and that its okay to not follow them.  The poster keeps going on to say that for every boy that breaks a gender norm, there’s a girl that’s breaking the same exact one by doing the exact opposite thing.  The poster ends by saying that boys will find freedom, acceptance, and liberation a lot easier than girls ever will.

This poster obviously feeds into the gender norms, and gender inequality.  It easily shows gender inequality because when its explaining the different social gender norms that can be broken, it keeps saying that boys and girls are breaking the same gender norm, but by doing the exact opposite actions.  I also like this poster because it mentions the effects of advertising.  It says that boys are trying to not let advertising interfere with what they do (because advertising may tell them what they want to do is “sissy”), while girls are trying to not let the hard hits to self-esteem in advertising effect them.  This poster is easily backen up, because “the messages that educational institutions and the media send also help reinforce stereotypical sex-role beliefs” (Gamble & Gamble, 2003, pp. 45).  This is why this is an advertisement in a school, it is trying to cut down both of the institutions at fault for these intensified gender stereotypes.

References

(2003). [Image of painting]. Retrieved May 3, 2009, from KitapSafeSchools.

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

The movie, How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is one that easily depicts gendered stereotypes.  The movie starts out by Andie Anderson recieving an assignment to drive a guy away doing all the things girls do wrong in relationships.  She claims a few of these things are beeing needy, touchy feely, clingy, and constantly calling.  The movie has a twist though, because Ben has to try and make Andie fall in love with him  in 10 days, so he is constantly trying to do things that he knows women love, like cooking dinner, and he even suggests couples therapy when things aren’t working out.

This movie has a lot of gendered stereotypes, because in the movie they feed off these classic gender stereotypes to make and break the relationship.  I especially like the scene in the  movie where Andie explains what she’s going to do to her future victim to drive him away.  She said that she’s going to do everything that guys hate, and these are interchangably things that women love.  These things go hand in hand with what Gamble and Gamble suggests men’s and women’s preferences in romantic relationships are.  Andie says she’s going to be needy, clingy, touchy feely, and call all the time.  This is because men prefer autonomy and less relationship monitering, and women prefer connection, communication, and attention to the relational process (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).

References

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Petrie, D. (Director). How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days [Motion Picture]. Paramount.

This cartoon depicts two men talking about elections.  They say that they are offended because the governor thinks they are racist, yet its very ironic in the cartoon that while they are complaining about being called racist, they themselves are being very sexist.  One man is wearing a shirt that says, “Iron my shirt, Hillary!”  The other wearing a shirt that says, “Tell your wife to stick to baking goods, Bill!”  This guy is also complaining about the governor calling them racist, saying “What do you expect from a guy who votes for girls?”  This statement is very sexist.

These sexist remarks follow the stereotypes that women do not belong in politics, and they only belong in home environments (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).  These guys’ shirts suggest that Hillary just needs to ‘get back in the kitchen’ and stop trying to make her way in politics.  Their remarks suggest that people shouldn’t even support women in politics, because they are against their own governor because he voted for Hillary.

References

Rogers (Artist). (2008). [Image of painting]. Pittsburgh, PA; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved May 3, 2009, from ClassicalViews.

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

The magazine Cosmopolitan is one of the most well known womens magazines in the country.  In the magazine, it teaches women all about beauty, fashion, and sex.  This makes the magazine’s main focus around women being seen as objects and always needing to be beautiful for peopel to accept them and take them seriously.  Almost always, the focus of the cover is based on sex, and sex moves that women can try on their men.  For example, this cover that I’ve provided a link to features “Little moves he’ll love you more for.”  This suggests that men’s love for women is based on sexual advances in the relationship, not emotional advances.  The magazine also suggests with all this focus on sex, that the only way that men will like them is if they are seductive and sexual.

Cosmopolitan follows along with the stereotype that women are seen as decorative, and as sex-objects (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).  Normally in relationships, the men are stereotyped to be the ones that have to initiate sex, and women are typically the ones that are supposed to fight against it and pretend they don’t want it (Gamble & Gamble).  This makes men like it more when the women take the initiative, and Cosmo knows this, so they try to give out pointers to help women know moves so they feel more comfortable to take the initiative.  The problem is not so much that they give these articles on sex, but its that they make almost the whole magazine’s focus on women having to be sexy and have sex to be accepted by men, which is not true.

References

(2008, May). Cosmopolitan. Retrieved May 3, 2009 from FadedYouthBlog.

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

In this cartoon, the male superior who is interviewing a woman is talking about how they have high standards at their company, and even double standards for the women.  This proves an unfair advantage to men in the interview process.

Gender bias is very apparent and common in the interview process (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).  Males typically receive more positive evaluations than females (Gamble & Gamble).  Studies have shown that interviewers prefer candidates who show job/gender congruence, which is then the applicant’s gender matches the sex type of the job (Gamble & Gamble).  Interviewers also typically show their gender biases during the interview process, which is definitely shown in this cartoon, because the interviewer tells the woman off the bat that he has double standards for her.

References

Baldwin, M. (Artist). Mban997. [Image of painting]. Cartoon Stock. Retrieved May 3, 2009 from CartoonStock.

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

While surfing the web one day, I found an article as a headline on Yahoo, “Top Ten Things Women Shouldn’t Do In Public.”  The article discusses things that are social faux pas for women to do in public.  These things include applying makeup, showing your midriff, having your thong showing, and things of the like.  The article says that askmen.com actually produced a Top Ten list first, and this is where they got the idea, but regardless, both the top 10 lists have things that are gender specific in them.

As I have discussed in previous postings, this article, once again, deals with gendered stereotypes.  This also largely deals with artifacts that are gender specific.  This list deals mainly with the appearance of women in public, which reaffirms the stereotype that women are portrayed as decorative objects in our society (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).  The article also mentions things that women say, such as the point, “Don’t ask your boyfriend if he loves you.”  This once again reaffirms the stereotype that women are highly emotional beings (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).  The article also focuses on things such as skirts, thongs, makeup and bras, which are all highly gendered artifacts (Gamble & Gamble, 2003).

References

Frisky (2009). Top Ten Things Women Shouldn’t Do In Public. Retrieved from Divine Caroline on March 2, 2009.

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W (2003).  The gender communication connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.