at a young age, i began feeling inexplicably bothered by commercials. i remember seeing products like makeup cases and deodorants and shampoo and fruity face wash being hailed as cure-alls for girls and women. the teens featured looked flawless, and they couldn't believe their good fortune to have their hands on this pink and purple portable caboodle makeup kit. some years later, i realized why i felt so uneasy. it was the trivialization of female lives, like having six compartments to stash your cosmetics suddenly made life make sense. it made you happy, it made you worry-free, able to take on the world, armed with mascara and lip gloss. i recognized that unsettling confusion now as a seedling of a question in my mind: why do they think girls are so stupid?
i am creating this blog because i try to be a critical consumer of media. many others try as well and are surely more critical than i. but i know that there are some who more or less passively take these messages in, and i think that's a problem. at least as long as these sexist (as well as racist, homophobic, etc.) undertones exist. i watch, i listen, and don't get me wrong, for much of it, i enjoy. hip hop, for example, i love. the metaphors, the clever references to pop culture, the critique of race in america, the flow. but in ways i feel like a traitor to my gender because women in hip hop are depicted as bitches, ho's to be discarded after their blow job is complete.
one can't help but see how much the media continues to contribute to the misogyny so latent in our country, where women are severely underrepresented in positions of power... in our country where women and girls' bodies and sexuality are judged and taken away from them, where 1 in 5 women have been raped in their lifetime, where intimate partner violence is commonplace.
so, i'm not really a writer. i'd just like to have a conversation and hopefully bring some awareness, if not to change the messages, at least to unmask them.
above is a recent AT&T commercial, which spurred me to start this conversation. seemingly innocent and adorable, this ad provides a clear look at how girls are socialized at a very young age to "know their place." as the little boy spastically waves his head and hand at the same time, the little girl to his right tries to tell the man something, i think something funny. he immediately shushes her up. ladies, think about that feeling. how many times have you tried to say something and been shushed or brushed off or straight-up ignored when you have something clever to say? how many times have you felt people saying: what you have to say could never be as smart or funny as what this guy is saying. so be quiet. how many times have we heard that females aren't funny? think about that.
i am creating this blog because i try to be a critical consumer of media. many others try as well and are surely more critical than i. but i know that there are some who more or less passively take these messages in, and i think that's a problem. at least as long as these sexist (as well as racist, homophobic, etc.) undertones exist. i watch, i listen, and don't get me wrong, for much of it, i enjoy. hip hop, for example, i love. the metaphors, the clever references to pop culture, the critique of race in america, the flow. but in ways i feel like a traitor to my gender because women in hip hop are depicted as bitches, ho's to be discarded after their blow job is complete.
one can't help but see how much the media continues to contribute to the misogyny so latent in our country, where women are severely underrepresented in positions of power... in our country where women and girls' bodies and sexuality are judged and taken away from them, where 1 in 5 women have been raped in their lifetime, where intimate partner violence is commonplace.
so, i'm not really a writer. i'd just like to have a conversation and hopefully bring some awareness, if not to change the messages, at least to unmask them.
above is a recent AT&T commercial, which spurred me to start this conversation. seemingly innocent and adorable, this ad provides a clear look at how girls are socialized at a very young age to "know their place." as the little boy spastically waves his head and hand at the same time, the little girl to his right tries to tell the man something, i think something funny. he immediately shushes her up. ladies, think about that feeling. how many times have you tried to say something and been shushed or brushed off or straight-up ignored when you have something clever to say? how many times have you felt people saying: what you have to say could never be as smart or funny as what this guy is saying. so be quiet. how many times have we heard that females aren't funny? think about that.
