response to michael

Hey Michael,

Your blog was funny to read this week and as you can see by the number of responses everyone is familiar with those commercials. Advertising that markets towards different genders is usually pretty obvious. Like a deodorant commercial for ax shows the guy spraying himself and then incredibly sexy women flocking to him like moths to the flame. This is clearly targeting men. On the other hand, a venus razor commercial for a woman will portray her as a silky goddess. This one is definitely to hook the female viewers. However a candy bar seems pretty neutral in is function. I can't say that men and women alike don't both enjoy chewy caramel, with nuts and chocolate so why go to an ad campaign that is clearly leaning more on the side of men. The ad company had to know that this might offend some women but perhaps they think it isn't worth adjusting over that. As you can see this commercial all stuck in our heads so maybe that was the reason we all remember it.

response to ashley

Hey Ashley,
i totaly agree with you about the gender and masculinty roles that men provide. I feel that there is a lot of pressure for men to act a certain macho way and that yes, a lot of times it stems from a male role figure such as a father. But, let's be serious what exactly is a real man? Who makes up these definitions? Gender influences begin at an early age and i think it's important to encourage kids to think for themselves instead of just copy what their parents do. They could benefit from the teachings of both of their parents and it is important to give credit to the single mom's out there raising good kids. My mom was a single parent for years and I give her incredible kudoos for raising 3 kids while still holding down a job and going to school. And through all of that she never made me feel like I was lacking a male figure in my life I simply embraced her as a figure of intelligence.

final blog post

This past weekend at my hotel bartending job I worked a very large wedding for a 22 year old girl. As usual we spent the evening gossiping a chatting about the details of the event. What do we think of the bride/groom, decorations, how much did this run them, will they tip extra? One of the female bartenders opened up the conversation about weddings and the subject of marriage which I found to be very interesting. She explained that she felt it was foolish for people to get married at such a young age when they still have so much to accomplish. "If I do get married I'll have the rest of my life to be that way,I don't know why everyone is in such a rush". I thought this was profound of her to say and she seems pretty enlightened on the subject. When I asked her to elaborate she explained that she thinks it stems back farther than a girl's twenties. Beginning in college kids our age often pick a major that has no practical application for a job. As a result upon graduation thousands of resumes go out with all the same general skills "good with people" "excellent organizational skills". They don't get the dream jobs that they see on television and thus they fall short of their adult careers that they'd always been encouraged to achieve. Reality hits hard and so in order to gain a sense of accomplishment they rush into marriage thinking it will give them the sense of adulthood that they are lacking in their current lives. I thought this was really insightful of her, and although I'm not sure I agree I think she makes a good point. What really fascinates me is the idea of a "dream" wedding and the wedding fever that seems to be sweeping the nation right now. There is an industry out there making an absolute killing on the institute of marriage. Dresses, caterers, DJs,bands, event planners, diamond merchants...you name it they can help make your special day into a wonderland. There are entire shows dedicated to this stuff that my Mom is totally addicted to. She watches some show called My Fair Wedding, which just portrays a wedding planner giving a somewhat taudry event a makeover and some show called Say Yes to the Dress. That show is entirely about women trying on gowns for their wedding. Imagine sitting through a marathon of that. During the one I worked the father gave a speech and he said that his daughter was planning this day for years and that he was just happy that he could make his little girl's dreams come true. I found this to be a kind of sad sentiment. While I certainly believe in celebrating big accomplishments in one's life there is too much pressure placed on the day and not enough on the marriage. Following my co-worker's argument, I feel that there should be more to look forward to in adulthood than simply a party where you get a ton of gifts an attention. When I hear that little girls have been dreaming of this day for their whole life it makes me dissapointed. They should be dreaming about the wonderful successes they will achieve eventually rather than the day where they get treated like a princess.

Week 5 response to Lauren

Lauren,
I know a lot of girls who are elementary ed majors and now that I think of it I don’t know any males. I think you made a good observation about school teachers for younger grades being “women’s work”. I think it may have to do with the assumption that females are more nurturing to younger children. In our minds when a child his young he/she needs mothering. When a child advances they are then eligible to have male influences of perhaps a high school teacher who is more suited for training them to be young adults. Personally, I think this is crap. I remember growing up and having some great male elementary school teachers who made learning really fun. I also get the notion that people consider teaching younger children easier than teaching older ones. They equate it to sitting on the floor and doing arts and crafts with young kids while older ones learn more valuable things. In actuality, when one is young they learn fundamental skills of life. That old concept that everything you need to know you learn in kindergarten is kind of true. You learn basic social, academic, and interaction skills and it’s instrumental that you have a good teacher. I think that both sexes are capable of teaching either level depending on their personal interest and that it’s wrong to think there is a genetic predisposition to a career in this field.

Response to Irene

Wow, what a cool topic to talk about. It’s interesting that you bring this up because lately it’s become a huge phenomenon among young people. It’s the new nicotine. Our parents tell us now that “back then” we didn’t know that the sun and cigarettes caused cancer but now there is no excuse. Yet, in traditional generational defiance we still aren’t listening. Girls in the spotlight are constantly getting hounded because of their tanning habits. So and so made the worst dressed list because she looked totally orange, or look how great so and so looked with that natural summer glow. But you never hear anything about celebrity men tanning and I’m sure they have just as much physical maintenance to keep up as the women. It’s probably just kept under wraps. It’s that guilty thing that we all want. We know it’s bad for us but who doesn’t love to look a little sunkissed in your summer clothes regardless of gender? There shouldn’t be a double standard for this look. We’re all stupid for doing it but we’re all entitled to it. In those commercials on television for the self tanning creams you always see silky bronze goddesses in loose flowy clothing enjoying their dyed skin (pretty unrealistic btw). You never see any of those products for men. Any kind of male maintenance product has to be packaged as either really tough and extreme or its end result will be to get you droves of hot women. If AX came out with a self tanner you can bet their advertisement would have 7 gorgeous blondes magnetized to the dude’s skin. Yet women are doing it to supposedly impress men. I’m sure you’re up to your eyeballs in lectures about tanning and what the hell you’re young so do what you want . I just want to say good for you for bringing up this subtle little stereotype that’s going on. Guys if you wanna get your tan on go for it.

Week 5 Eureka Moment

This week I’ve been keeping up to date with Abby Sunderland’s story. She is the 16 year old California girl who is trying to become the youngest person to sail solo nonstop around the world. She set sail about 6 months ago on her very own boat, and in an interview with ABC News she said "Every time I go sailing there are new challenges, and it's amazing. I love doing it. Being alone just adds to the challenge for me. It puts me in a position where I'm the only one there to take care of things."The publicity that her journey has drawn is of course tremendous, but very recently they lost contact with her in the Indian Ocean after she went through a lot of bad weather and she was lost for several days. Eventually her signal was located and she was rescued and brought back to shore. Now the commentary has turned from encouragement for the young girl to questioning about the whole idea in general. What kind of parents would allow their 16 year old daughter to stay out late at night, let alone sail entirely around the world by herself? This girl is pretty remarkable, and made it halfway to her destination yet all eyes are drawn on the safety risks for the young lady. I can’t imagine the same kind of concern would be held if this was a young boy who was setting sale. It makes me think of the damsel in distress fever that the media gets in this country. Over the past decade there have been a number of publicized cases of young girls’ terror. Stories such as the late Natalee Holloway who went traveling in Aruba on a Senior trip and was brutally murdered by 3 local men. The formula to publish this is to take an attractive young white girl, have her go abroad and watch the “poor helpless thing” becomes the victim of a horrific crime. When this happens America gets to turn to their daughters and say “see what happens when you step outside the nest”. Instead of being given the respect and homage these tragedies deserve the girl’s actions are ripped apart by the headlines.
Abby’s story is getting completely sensationalized by the media. Months ago plenty of people didn’t even know about this courageous young girl’s adventure and now that something bad has happened they are getting ready to pounce on it. It seems that a female victim lost at sea sells a lot more papers than a female captain. Society has such low expectations for teenage girls that they are only willing to report when they encounter a crisis and not celebrate her accomplishments. I think Abby is incredible and should be respected for her successes rather than scolded for trying. She is exactly the kind of woman that we need more of in the public, as long as the emphasis is placed on how remarkable she is.

week 4 response to

Prom night is historically infamous for a lot of young mistakes. We always associate it with doing rebellious things just because the kids are beginning to make that transition into young adulthood. It’s almost like our culture’s coming of age ceremony but with manicures and sweet flavored alcohol. So I kind of get the parent mentality that says we want to protect our daughter from getting into any kind of trouble because we know this is a high risk night for teenagers. Of course I don’t have any children so I have no idea how it would feel to be in this position but it seems to me that I would have the same amount of trust in all of my children regardless of their gender. Women have long played the part of the baby sister that needs protecting and it’s understandable for any caretaker to want to shield their child. But I believe that boys and girls are both at risk for different peer pressure and that if you raise an assertive child they will most likely handle themselves in bad situations. I can see both sides, you want to protect your baby but you want to be fair about your ruling. Perhaps women are sometimes physically weaker than males in some situations but I believe it runs on a case by case basis and each child is capable of doing different things. It was nice of you to work your Mom over a little bit because you are absolutely right. She’ll never have the opportunity to learn if you don’t let her feel it out for herself.