Men vs. Women

I sat in Chipotle for lunch today.  My dirty little secret, eating out alone.  I pulled up my meal next to a very attractive young woman in her late 20s.  Behind me were several former students.  People watching is such a hobby of mine.  Anyway, it got me thinking about the ways that women differentiate themselves.  Pulling out a notepad (which at this writing is in my car, at the store, with my wife), I wrote up two lists.  One was how a woman can set herself apart, personally, from the chin up, and without surgery, versus how a man can distinguish himself from the chin up.  There had to be guidelines to govern this, and here they are:  the differentiation must meet the standards of a regular white collar workplace.  For the students, if Miege won't allow it, it didn't go on the list.  Feel free to add anything I leave out.  So, here we go:

Ladies first:
Hair-- Long or short cuts. Up or down.
       the feathers in the hair.
       bangs or no bangs.
       ribbons, bows, bands, or bobby pins.
      layered, curled, straight, or spikey.
  earrings-- small, big, round, dangly, need I go on.  And numbers. 
  Makeup.   Enough said.
  Eyelash attachments.
  Plucked hair, shaped brows, and drawn back ins--
  highlights
  Lipstick, eyeliner, etc. 
  Hair styles will change by the day. 
 
Men:  (just the standard, not a guy going out of his way to be unique)
Hair--one solid color (does not count for grays).  Not past collar.  can be spiked or naturally curly.
         shaved head acceptable.  A hair style can be done, but it will be the same daily. 
Facial hair is iffy.  mustaches may be more acceptable, but clean shaven is much more common.
Only blue collar commonly wear hats indoors, and almost always it will be a baseball cap, but hats        are never appropriate on men inside an office workplace. 


So, with all this noted, the question is simple:  Does the variety that women are allowed in their facial grant them greater freedoms or greater stress?  Does the ability to do so many different styles and recreate themselves daily allow greater joy?  Sound off. . . What do you think?  Who has it better, men or women.  I will say that I adore my short hair, as it makes life so easy.  I haven't brushed it in years.  On women, I adore a bald woman, as her face can shine, and you don't get distracted with busy hair.  On the other hand, a woman with long hair is usually an attraction for me.  Single women, dating women, and teenage girls seem to always have hair to the collar or beyond.  Mothers and grandmothers always seem to have short hair, and possibly curled hair rather than straight.  So, is long hair sexualized?

Comics Fight Breast Cancer

Found this link while playing around during Sociology Final.  Be sure to follow the links to all the characters featured. 

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/comic-superheroes-perform-breast-self-exams-215352919.html

This opens up several different questions:  Who is the target demographic, because what I remember of my days at the comic book store, there weren't that many women. Is this an attempt to get women to think seriously about breast exams, or just a chance for the men who know these characters to engage in a little self indulgence?  While I appreciate the concept of women's health, the figures of female superheroes have traditionally been drawn disproportionately.  Real women cannot compare to the creations.  And, Mozambique was the location that decided to run the ads.  Wow.  I don't know enough about the culture, but to use American comic book heroes in medical ads out of Mozambique demonstrates the power of American commercialism, and cultural transfer.

Commodification of Women

So, it has been a crazy week.  Take a view at the commodization of women in different roles, just that I have come across in the past two days:

Newsweek had a cover with Angelina Jolie, with a head shot.  Decorative and artistic, but why?  She has directed a new movie, and is advertising for it.  The article is well written, and powerful, when the focus is on the movie.  But, the need to feed the story of celebrity was clearly pushed by the editor.  The author gets out of her area of expertise, and we get to hear about personal things. . . In the middle of the article is a photo shoot of her.  Legs and all.  What is the purpose of this?  In an article that deals with mass rapes, repeated rapes, genocide, starvation, and other attrocities, why is the director who is trying to personalize a story of tragedy and shed light on an often ignored event, being turned into a sexual object?  Read the article, decide for yourself if the photo shoot is in line with the story, and decide for yourself if the director is sexualized.  Why don't we see Spielberg being sexy promoting Schindler's List?

The link to the Newsweek article follows: 
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/12/04/angelina-jolie-directs-a-film-about-the-bosnian-war.html

The new season of The Bachelor begins soon, apparently.  Short promo.  I tried to find a copy of it.  Couldn't find it.  But, it is  simple.  Attractive brunette, red dress, alone, post-sunset, in front of the beach.  The woman begins to break down.  The sobbing is almost surreal.  It seems more like a fake overlay, it is so over the top.  No words, no tag lines, nothing as she sits their, before the camera, sobbing.  After about 15 seconds, the title The Bachelor, rolls in.  "The new season starts soon. . . "

Sociological Images at www.thesocietypages.com ran a 1980 copy of Siskel and Ebert's long-running movie review show.  In it, they discuss the slate of new movies that embody women as victims for men's base instincts.  Rape, murder and torture are brought to women that break the mold and try to be independent.  The two critics felt this was a direct response to the feminist movement, and the threat it created to men.  They discussed how these movies were unique as they were shot from the view of the killer, not the victim. 

And, as I try to get my thoughts on keyboard, I see a commercial for a show I have watch with a tad bit of guilt, but always justify as a study for Sociology.  Wife Swap has decided they will get on the celebrity band wagon.  To be fair, they have had special episodes where as they have swapped husbands, but that is not the norm for the show.  Again, it is the wife that is replaceable.  Is it the concept that the home belongs to the man, so that you can't kick him out?  Or, possibly, is it a fear that a man being bossed around by a woman and children is too much?  What dynamics are at work here?  Can a masculine gendered male leave his home and follow another man's plan? As I write it, I can't picture it. . .

We watched the The Help last night.  It is not a comedy, the way commercials make it feel.  There are some funny parts, but especially for white culture, it is an eye opener.  It is just a bit too easy to push it away over the top, though.  It reminds me of Slaughter-House Five.  There are parts that are deniable so that you don't have to face the hard facts.  As if the director didn't want to make the viewer feel too guilty.  That is too bad.  It could have been so good. . .

Simple study for Sociology:

Measure targets of ads and create your own categories.  I am using the following as examples:

Male target, promote traditional masculinity (successful man, gets the girl, makes money)
Male target, male victim or buffoon
Female target, female victim or traditional role of caretaker/submissive/dominant in domestic issues/parenting.
Female target, dominant in business, relationship, situations without the home or children.

Interestingly, a commercial can show a strong female and a weak/submissive male, but who is the target audience?  Who will be the dominant in a commercial with a submissive male, and no dominant female? 

You can break commercials into race/cutlure, also.  How often are Asians or Hispanics the main target?  What role do they play in the commercial?  We must get through the initial defensiveness and understand that the companies that pay for commercials coordinate every aspect of the commercial.  Clothing, setting, makeup, hair color, etc, are all chosen for a purpose.  Nothing is overlooked, for it all sends a message.  That message must be controlled and the cost of marketing guarantees that they won't risk sending the wrong message. 


Build your own schematic/rubric to study television and look for their hidden messages.  Good luck and enjoy.

Link following up on Power and Authority

Following up on our study of the LAPD, power, and authority, I came across this link.  This is the site I cite often in class, so no surprise.  What can you interpret from the graphs, though?  The author of the post sums it  up for you.  If one were to leave the provacative title off, and just look at the graphs, would it cause the same reaction?  Something to build on. . .


Racial Profiling link

Guess who's hiring. . .

Driving home from a pack meeting tonight, I flipped on the radio.  An attractive, young (early 20s), female voice came on the radio.  "I serve my country by traveling the world but I can't tell my friends and family where I am going or what I am doing."  The voice catches your ear, and then you hear an interesting job pitch.  Apparently, the CIA is hiring and they believe the best target audience for their work is listening to the radio.  Interesting.  About seven years ago, they made a lot attention by going out to college campus to recruit at job fairs at major name schools.  Now, they are aiming for the masses.  Having seen the commercials for Columbiana, it is intriguing that they chose the voice over that they did.  Who is the target audience?  And what does it say for our national secuity system when we are seeking help on broadcast radio?  What genre of music was the station?  Country.  104.3.  Interesting. 

Libya

Congrats to the rebels. You've taken power.  Now, the hard part comes. . .

ABC and the New Television Season

As I sit and home tonight, working on my teacher goals, I do it in front of the television.  Always curious about popular culture, I gave Take the Money and Run.  On it, a pair of regular folks gets $100,000 to hide for 48 hours.  If they succeed, with two detectives on their tail, they win the money.  If they detectives find the money, the cops get the money.  In this episode, it is two male domestic partners.  What makes this episode so interesting is the very real reactions of the two characters who seemingly prepared in advance for the event.  When the jail doors shut, everything changed for them.  Watching the the supposed stronger character fall to pieces  and (spoiler alert!) quit the game early, we learn a lot about te role of prison and solitary.  This ties nicely with the Stanford Prison Experiment. 

Combat Hospital is set in Afghanistan, with mixed Canadian, Australian and American military medical personnel.  The scenery is very good, the emphasis on the stresses of combat and hospital trauma.  What set Tuesday night's episode (August 23) apart was a nice discussion of the role of a woman in the world.  Two Western women spoke of the concept of wearing the burka and protecting oneself from the thoughts of men.  It povides an important opening for a discussion of gender relations and agency that is overdue.  Let's have it. .  .

AIDS and the Black Community

Greater Than AIDS TAKE ACTION: Action is Greater Than Apathy from Greater Than on Vimeo.


I saw a commercial for "Greater Than" over the break. It caught my eye, as it seems to speak to a specific culture.  See if you can see what I saw.  The NBA version, and the Facebook videos are closer to what I saw, but I was unable to link in the Facebook.  The NBA is below. 

NBA Cares from Greater Than on Vimeo.


It is interesting to see commercials aimed at specific cultures and ethnicities in a positive manner.  McDonald's has begun to target black families.  I was unable to find the commercial.  How often do you se commercials that portray non whites in a positive, pro-family view?  Be aware of the commercials and who the target audience is while you watch them. Companies are spending LARGE amounts of money to target specific audiences, and create commercials that are as specific to groups as they can.  Then, they find a show on televisionthat fits the demographic they are targeting.  How does Facebook make money?  They gather information about you based on your interests, profile, likes, etc.  They sell that information to interested parties.  And, those companies build more targeted commercials to sell to you better.  Interesting, huh?