ROOM OF ONE’S OWN

BY
Virginia Wolf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijEspjI_ox8

• In what year were women allowed to graduate from Oxford University?

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 Gender and Popular Culture
• Consistent with social constructionism, gender is
shaped by social norms articulated in popular
culture.
• “We are bombarded by media sights and sounds
daily. We are subjected to music, news, and
advertising sitting at our office desks, standing in
elevators, and jogging or driving to and from school
or work. Advertisements crop up at virtually every
site we encounter—from usual ads on billboards and
subways, to those on uncontrollable computer pop-
ups, shopping carts, channel guides, online search
screens, and video games”.
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• Gender socialization occurs via multiple agents. Parents
provide the earliest source, but television becomes another
significant socializer starting from children as young as 3 years
old.

• We rely more and more on the mass media, especially

television, to filter the enormous amount of information we
receive. This filtering process has a major impact on our ideas
about gender. Indeed, one of the most documented, consistent
findings is that for both males and females and in all age and
racial categories, heavy use of entertainment media, especially
heavy television viewing, is strongly associated with adherence
to traditional and stereotyped views about gender.
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• Media portrays the genders in stereotyped ways. Why?

• Although media representatives may argue that what is

presented merely reflects the reality of gendered beliefs, the
question of reinforcing an already sexist society cannot be
dismissed.

• You can examine a profile of women’s portrayals in prime-time

television, accounting for age, beauty, family life, and
employment and assess how media reinforces the gendered
beliefs.

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In their article titled ‘Doing Gender’, Candace West and
Don H. Zimmerman (1987) state that a person’s gender
is
“not simply an aspect of what one is, but, more
fundamentally, it is something that one does, and
does recurrently, in interaction with others”.
• We are thus constantly “doing” gender, performing the
activities and exhibiting the traits that society
prescribes as a routine in everyday interactions.
• Gender, which we see as something ‘natural’ having to
do with our biological sex, is really an outcome of
socially organized activities.
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 The doll that chose to drive

• https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/th
e-doll-that-chose-to-
drive

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https://theconversation.com/teaching-little-girls-to-lea
d-77146

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• How to Train Your Dragon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fha2FtS8wJA

• MULAN
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsAniqGowKE

• https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2997659161?ref_=vp_rv_ap_0

• https://www.imdb.com/video/vi3047990809?ref_=vp_rv_3

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 Gender free toys

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9qzoBDBg1Q&feature=
emb_logo
• This was the message of a 2015 holiday advertising
campaign launched by the French supermarket chain
System U, which reminded consumers that there are not toys
for boys and toys for girls – there are just toys.
• The commercial, headlined #GenderFreeChristmas, opens
by reflecting the clichés that surround children from birth,
saying that perceptions about gender (“Girls like kitchens”,
“boys play with guns”) are shaped by what we’re taught when
we’re very young.
• Those stereotypical conceptions fall apart when a group of
little girls and boys are allowed to enter a room full of toys. A
little girl rushes to the model car set; a boy goes for a baby 9
• Whether driven by profit or by social
responsibility, companies are becoming more
aware of the gender stereotypes promoted
by their products. In Sweden, the chain
stores Toys R Us and BR-Toys
have said they’ll stop publishing gender-differ
entiated catalogs
and dividing toys into “girls” and “boys”
sections.

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 Breaking down the binary

• Most Americans see value in steering

children toward toys, activities associated
with opposite gender.
• Some retailers and manufacturers
have moved away from marketing toys specifically
toward boys or girls. While this recent trend has
drawn some criticism, most Americans say it’s good
for parents of young boys and girls to encourage
their children to play with toys and participate in
activities that are typically associated with the
opposite gender.
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• A 2017 study (Pew Research Centre Survey of US Adults
2017) showed that more than three-quarters of those surveyed
said it was a good thing for parents to encourage young
girls to play with toys or do activities “associated with the
opposite gender.” The share rises to 80% for women and
millennials.
• But when it came to boys, support dropped significantly, with
64% overall—and far fewer men—saying it was good to
encourage them to do things associated with girls. Those who
were older or more conservative were even more likely to think
it wasn’t a good idea.
• Reading between the lines suggests there’s a view that traits
stereotypically associated with men—such as strength,
courage, and leadership—are good, whereas those tied to
femininity—such as vulnerability, emotion, and caring—are
bad. Thus boys receive the message that wanting to 12
• And many boys are taught over and over
throughout their lives that exhibiting “female
traits” is wrong and means they aren’t “real
men.” Worse, they’re frequently punished
for it—while exhibiting masculine traits like
aggression is often rewarded.

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 But can a
growing list of gender-neutral toys—really
change the way we think about gender?
• The kinds of toys American children play with tend to adhere to
a clear gender binary.
• Toys marketed to boys tend to be more aggressive and involve
action and excitement. Girl toys, on the other hand, are usually
pink and passive, emphasizing beauty and nurturing.
• It wasn’t always like this.
• Around the turn of the 20th century, toys were rarely marketed
to different genders. By the 1940s, manufacturers quickly
caught on to the idea that wealthier families would buy an entire
new set of clothing, toys and other gadgets if the products were
marketed differently for both genders. And so the idea of
pink for girls and blue for boys was born.
• Today, gendered toy marketing in the US is stark. Walk down any toy aisle
and you can clearly see who the audience is. The girl aisle is almost
exclusively pink, showcasing mostly Barbie dolls and princesses. The boy
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 Teaching gender tolerance
• Children - as well as adults—need to learn more
tolerance of how others express gender differently
than they do. And boys in particular need support in
appreciating and practicing more traditional feminine traits, like
communicating emotion or caring for someone else—skills that
are required for any healthy relationship.
• Gender neutrality represents the absence of gender—not the
tolerance of different gender expression. If we emphasize only
the former, then there is a danger that femininity and the people
who express it will remain devalued.

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 Gendered messages we grow up
with
You are to select a piece (film, animated film,
cartoon, excerpt from a book you read and liked
very much) and describe:
1.How gender is performed by the lead
characters. In your analysis, you should identify
dichotomies such as inner strength/outer beauty,
violent/non-violent, powerful/ powerless,
aggressive/ submissive, unemotional/emotional,
protective/vulnerable, and
independent/dependent etc. There could be
more. 16
2.Are the characters challenging gender
stereotypes or are they performing gender and
reinforcing the norms around gender?
OR
Are they exhibiting both and no simplistic binary
(masculine only versus feminine only ) exists?

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