I Don't Want to be a Stupid Girl

I found Butler's points about gender and performance interesting, as well as the fact that people are constantly changing and identity isn't fixed. Although all these points are fairly obvious as you read them, it wasn't until I did read them that I started to critically think about them and how they apply, especially in media. This made me think about how from birth our gender identities are fixed, with baby blankets (blue for boys, pink for girls) to the toys that are supposed to be for girls vs. boys; i.e. Barbies and dolls for girls and toy trucks and action figures for boys. As we continue through high school we become even more separated, from classes that are predominately female (home economics) and predominantly male (wood shop). It isn't until we're older that we become aware of the distinctions that are made.

Helping us along the way of fixed gender identities is the media, from television shows to movies to advertisements, that tell us how to fit into the gender norms of male and female. Disney movies and television shows such as Power Rangers and Thomas the Train help show this separation. Advertisements as well show how men and women are supposed to act, such as with this clip which shows many good examples of advertisements that define gender for men and women.

To fix this Butler calls for a challenge to fixed gender norms by causing "gender trouble," by suggesting "that existing gender forms could [be] undermined through parody" and "she welcomes any alternative performances of identity," using dressing in drag as an example. This made me think of Pink's music video "Stupid Girls," where she pokes fun at girls that go along with the norm with such things as body image, and challenges girls to fight against these norms to become president or play in typical male sports.

The Four Aspects of Signs- Symbol, Icon, Index and STOP

Gill and van-Zoonen analyze gender in media text with semiology as the study of signs and signification. Semotics originated in studies of language. Gill states that, “It is both a theory and a method, and works by unpacking and making explicit meanings that we all – as lay semiotics – create through our engagement,” (45). As semiology is the science a signs it is important to understand what such signs mean. There are obvious and subliminal signs throughout media texts, music, flags and fashion. Such signs are arbitrary and certainly issue feminists see that needs to be covered by a red stop sign. Because such signs vary from ionic, indexical and symbolic codes get messaged. Due to the fact that encoding is such a great component to our culture it is important that such sign are decoded correctly and honestly analyzed as best as possible. Within advertisement we see constant signs constructed by myths. In advertising we can distinguish who was such advertisement intended for and how does the advertiser send the message successfully in such a short span of time. We see the meanings of such signs by the presentation of the ad.

In this Super bowl ad for Teleflora we this dark haired, thin, ethic women being completely hyper sexualized. As there are hints to this ad targeting men, in heterosexual couples, to purchase flowers. We know that this ad is for men not only because she is seen as a sex object but also she hints that the man should give his girlfriend flowers but there also hinting at the fact that he should also give her sexual pleasures. In another ad we see women discussing their participation in objectifying another woman by simply using her piece of paper to paint on her body. The women who are painting state their tactic as a way to draw attention to the ad with a woman’s body.  The only sign that I saw while watching these ads was STOP. That is exactly why while watch these commercials I spoke to my friends accompanying me about the objectification and the meaning to such signs.

The Trouble with the Media

            Advertisements in the media play such an influential role on the ideas of feminism in today’s society.  However, no matter how these advertisements portray feminism, it all depends on the way the public interprets the situation. 

            The reading from Gill focused on cultural politics and feminist media activism.  This feminist media activism took many different forms including sticker campaigns, guerrilla interventions, positive images, calls for more women working in the media, etcetera.  The sticker campaign dealt with posting stickers to advertisements that were degrading to women and shown in public venues.  Similar to this were the guerilla interventions, which was people writing graffiti on demeaning billboards.  Both of these were ways in which feminists used advertisements to promote for a greater diversity of women in the media and as an attempt to get people to accept themselves and others, especially women. 

            Love Your Body Day is a day in which women of all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, and abilities celebrate self.  When I read about the “Love Your Body Day” from the NOW website it reminded me of the positive images section in Gill.  In Gill’s reading, campaigning with positive images was the idea that since “ . . .women were trivialized, condemned and symbolically annihilated in the media” (Gill, 34), we need to show more positive images of women in order to show a greater diversity and add a strong, optimistic touch to the campaign.  These positive images would make women feel more confident in who they actually are contrary to what the media says, which is exactly what Love Your Body Day is about.  However, the campaign ran into problems because there was trouble in what exactly a positive image of a women was.  Many women see models as positive and attractive, however many feminists see attractiveness in images of women with wrinkles and no makeup. 

            When I read the “Love Your Body Day” article, I agreed with the women of NOW.  I thought to myself that the way people feel about themself should not be affected by these either positive images or negative images that the media shows in magazines and in advertisements.  The media is affecting so many women into thinking that they are not “normal” and that they have so many problems, which is in turn causing a lot of women to be unhealthy.  People have to love themself before anyone else will accept them for who they are, therefore they cannot pay attention to the false messages the media is sending about beauty.  If women do this and disregard the media, they will become more confident in their own eyes and with their own body. 

The picture I added is very true and reminded me of the NOW article, as it is from the Love Your Body campaign, and Gill’s reading.  Because of what the media says, women are so concerned about what they look like to others that they are forgetting the most important thing in life which is to be happy with oneself.