Aubrey Plante

CM 213
Week 1 Reading Response

In this day and age, the culture of gender has grown from what it once was. Any issues

revolving around the expectation on how a specific gender should act, has been brought to light

more frequently. It is a popular topic that is being talked about, not only by adults but the up and

coming generations. As the years go on, people have been realizing the injustice that the media

has been creating on different groups of people. Starting from unrealistic beauty standards for

woman, in order to achieve specific goals. The masculinity that all men should have in order to

become successful. All of these expectations have been created and portrayed for everyone to

see.

We will start out by going over what the book says about the two genders. In the reading

from Gendered Lives by Julia Wood, she says “We cannot really understand anyone of them

without grasping a good deal without the others” (Woods, 19). She is referring to how both gen-

ders are really different and people have their own thoughts and ideas on how a gender is classi-

fied. But how can you classify a gender without really knowing the differences and similarities

between the two. Without what we have been shown on the screens, could we understand the

idea that we can change the outcome and roles of what each gender can do.

The reading goes on to talk about how males and females are portrayed in America. Julia

states that “To be masculine is to be strong, ambitious, successful, rational, and emotionally con-

trolled.” (Woods, 22). Which is usually how a male characters personality and traits are. She

continues to talk about femininity, where she says “To be feminine is to be physically attractive,

emotionally expressive, nurturing, interested in aesthetics , and concerned with people and rela-
tionships.”(Woods, 22). Which is how woman are to be seen as, on TV. All of these expecta-

tions of what each gender should be leads to judgement when one doesn’t display this kind of be-

havior.

The world was at a place where it was normal to see these gender roles being acted out.

In commercials they would have women cleaning or cooking, while others would have success-

ful businessman. The book talks about how “a working woman receives maternity leave, but her

husband cannot get paternity leave.” (Woods 30) . They should both be able to get leave to spend

time with their newborn, but it got to the point that this was also shown in television shows and

movies. Men and women both had a hard time being accepted for anything different from what

was being expected. Women had a tough time, and still do, trying to step out of this idea of

needing to be perfect and without flaws. They also have a harder time being taken seriously for

having an opinion on important matters. They don’t get the same job opportunities as men do

and if they do, it’s tougher to prove themselves for being intelligent.

In the article This is what a feminist looks like an interview that happened between Glam-

our and former President Barack Obama, He talks about how he is surrounded by women, his

wife and two daughters. He says that he is dad who is a feminist because he is there to support

his daughters and he knows just how intelligent they are and how they should have equal oppor-

tunity as men do. He continues to talk about how we need to change the attitudes of how we act

towards genders accomplishing things that they should be able to do in general. He speaks about

how we need to end the stigma of only congratulating someone on achieving something the other

gender is known to do.

A stigma that surrounds women now a days, is that they have to be pretty and picture per-

fect. In order to be on TV they must have specific features and be attractive. Bill O’Reilly is just
one prime example of someone who didn’t respect women. He got fired because of a bunch of

accusations about him being racist, sexist and homophobic. He lacked respect for the individual

and only saw people the way he thinks they should be. Hilary Clinton was all over the news, not

because of her ideas for the country, but because of her choice of clothing she wore. Its not the

first time that women have been put down because they aren’t fitting into the stereotype that they

were placed into.

Children at a young age are very impressionable and want to copy what they see on the

television. Disney is one of the top family friendly networks around and has always been a fa-

vorite. They have very memorable movies and scenes that viewers enjoy seeing over and over

again. This can become an issue depending on what your allowing your child to watch and what

you are teaching them. Disney is better known for their princess movies. In the documentary by

Chyng Sun , The Mickey Mouse Monopoly , It speaks out about how these princesses almost al-

ways need to be saved by a male character. They’re not once capable to bring themselves

through the movie without a male love interest who saves the day. Children might not notice this

now, but this could have an impact on how the child views relationships with the opposite gen-

der. Without speaking to your child, this is what they see and grow up to know.

Now children don’t catch onto different stereotypes being depicted in the movies as much

as parents or adults do. The adults see first hand what is being show on the screen and they have

the knowledge to understand the meaning behind it. The documentary went on to state, that there

are many scenes that were racist in these Disney movies that we overlooked. It talked about Poc-

ahontas and how the lyrics in the music didn’t correspond with the facts of what had happened. It

painted these people invading the land as the victims and not what they were really there to do.

The little mermaid loses her voice to go after a man she had only seen once. Ursula sings about
having a perfect body type that a man would like and different physical appearances that would

catch the princes eye. Now this is just a small portion of what is being shown to children and giv-

ing them the wrong impression on how gender should be classified as.

The issue starts with men and women needing to be equals and not having any restraints

on what they can and can’t do. Further into the reading, it begins to talk about sexual orientation.

I talked a little bit about how Bill O’Reilly got fired for being homophobic, but it wasn’t just

him. There were plenty of people who are disagreed with the sexual orientation that someone

had. The “normal” orientation would be a man and woman together, but because we have be-

come more accepting of other orientations, more people have come forward. It shouldn’t matter

what orientation you prefer, as long as your happy. There are still many people who disagree

with this though process because they have been raised to think otherwise.

In the past it was viewed as something negative if you didn’t act like a stereotypical male

or female. Today it seems to be more accepting of unique personalities and expression of ones

self. Something that has helped make an impact on people getting accepted for their differences,

was communication. Without communication we wouldn’t be able to speak out about the issues

that we are seeing in the world. We are able to speak about the difference in pay, jobs and repre-

sentation of the different genders. This allowed people to be more open with themselves and help

society push forward. Not everyone is going to respectful or as accepting as most but speaking

and communicating about these issues helps others to have a better understanding.

We should continue to move forward and change the stereotypes that come with each

gender. We should each be represented in a way that allows us to be ourselves. The articles, the

reading and the clips, helped put into perspective the importance of knowing the differences in

which each gender goes through. It showed the impact it had on powerful people, positively and
negatively. It showed the impact that stereotyping a culture has on a child. The Book went on to

talk about the genetic differences between the two genders. It also spoke about how people have

branched off from it and started to accept themselves for who they were. It spoke about the strug-

gles people still have. It also put some back story to why we have been conditioned to think of a

gender a specific way.

Work Cited:

Woods, Julia. Gendered Lives 11th Edition. Cengage Learning , 2013, Chegg.com,
www.chegg.com/reader/9781285972633/42/.

Obama, Barack. “Exclusive: President Barack Obama Says, ‘This Is What a Feminist Looks
Like.’” Glamour, www.glamour.com/story/glamour-exclusive-president-barack-obama-
says-this-is-what-a-feminist-looks-like.

Frechette, Julie. “Tip of the Day: The Unfair and Imbalanced Culture of Sexual Harassment at
Fox News - Censored Notebook.” Project Censored, 9 May 2017, www.projectcen-
 sored.org/tip-day-unfair-imbalanced-culture-sexual-harassment-fox-news/?
doing_wp_cron=1621563615.2619431018829345703125.

Sun, Chyng, director. Mickey Mouse Monopoly . Drive, 2000, drive.google.com/file/d/1YjvE-

boKsCx4xmimDRqiaD3SkXrIq0F1Y/view.