Posts tagged society
Transcend Dualism
Your awesome Tagline
American society is very like a fish society… . Among certain species of fish, the only thing which determines order of dominance is length of time in the fishbowl. The oldest resident picks on the newest resident, and if the newest resident is removed to a new bowl, he, as oldest resident, will pick on the newcomers.
No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded.
“I’LL MAKE A MAN OUT OF YOU”: STRONG WOMEN IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY TELEVISION BY ANITA SARKEESIAN
A Research Paper submitted to the Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social and Political Thought Graduate Program in Social and Political Thought York University Toronto, Ontario June 2010
Abstract
Heroic women in science fiction and fantasy television shows have done muchto represent strong, successful women in leadership positions. However, these female roles that are viewed as strong and empowered embody many masculine identified traits, maintaining a patriarchal division of gender roles. This paper analyzes strong female characters within nine television shows by deconstructing their stereotypically “masculine” and “feminine” gender specific attributes and cross referencing how they play within and against traditional archetypes. Employing texts from cultural criticism and feminist theory, I explore how representations of groups in popular culture and mass media messaging uphold structures of power by giving higher value to masculine attributes as observed in patriarchal discourse. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of why it is critical to foster television media that supports feminist ideals and breaks out of traditional oppressive gender binaries in order to promote, encourage and envision a just future society.
Fuck Yeah Menfolk: Struggling with Male Privilege
The existence of male privilege is undeniable. Women have been subject to centuries (truly, millennia) of second-class citizen status. They are often portrayed in the media as nothing more than ornaments for male leads. They are not given full sovereignty over their bodies and are not given equal…
All of the “female privilege” that you speak of can be looped back to conventional sexism. Take the number of unemployed men. That can be attributed to a shift in the needed jobs, from physical labour to service sector work. Men are socialized to believe that service work is feminine and don’t take those jobs. Or let’s look at healthcare or male violence. Men are again socialized to be more violent and to resist needing help from say a doctor when they get hurt. Not to mention, men tend to be greater risk takers as well. What we’re talking about here isn’t privilege that women have over men, but rather the sad effects of sexism and a rigid gender construction.
And there in lies the solution. If we want to change these problems in society, we need to deconstruct our gender ideologies. We need to teach the masses that there is no such thing as a “masculine” or “feminine” job, hobby, behavior, attitude, etc. There’s your answer.
Yes.
ATTN: Feminism
I am slightly perturbed by statements such as “Just because I’m a feminist doesn’t mean I can’t {wear a miniskirt and make-up/shave all my body-hair off/love doing ‘girly’ things}”. Again, it presents itself as an incredibly liberal phrase at first, and I want to make clear very quickly that it is not the statement itself I take issue with but the thought (this is possibly where it gets confusing) behind it. Of course you can be a feminist and wear a miniskirt etc! Of course it’s about the choice, your choice!
But what choice do we have? Go back a hundred or two hundred years (or a lot less in most places) and the overwhelming honest response from womankind (at least in most western society) to stepping outside of their assigned cooking/cleaning/mothering roles would be a negative one. Even if they were to agree with the notion of a choice in the matter, they would choose to remain in those positions that we would judge as subservient and exploitative. It’s easy for us to look back, and down, on them.. but a lot harder to look at, and in, ourselves for the exact same opposition to change. We are in a different time, with different challenges. A number of extremely brave people have moved the battle (forward, some might say) - but to declare it over would be to undo their work.
In a privilege dynamic, it is always easy to conform to whatever standards are expected from you, whatever side of the lines you reside in, regardless of whether you mentally disagree. Simply playing your part reinforces those standards society-wide and in your own mind, increases the pressure on others to accept the status-quo, used as an excuse to force the same indoctrination on the next generation, and becomes a subsidy of the counter-attack against anyone who dares defy it. Resisting oppression is revolutionary. Conforming with oppression is not. Not even if you like it, especially not if you like it. On the one hand, none are free until all are, and on the other: do you really like it?
An example. You shave your body-hair off. Why? “Not for a man, I’m a feminist. I just don’t like it.” Yet where has this very common idea come from? It is a very recent idea too.. Consider the mountains and mountains of both blatant and subtle contemporary propaganda telling you practically every single day that body hair is obscene for a woman and desirable for a man. Now consider the possibility that the patriarchy has taken feminism, viciously tore a chunk out of it, and is now selling it back to us as a brand of sexism ‘now with added superiority to those pitiful women who serve men for men and not serve men for themselves! Because your own desires, as a woman, can’t be sexist.. can they?’
None of us are capable of making objective and completely individual decisions. Not me, not you. To declare yourself immune from the collective consciousness of the society which moulded you from birth is arrogance and insanity. We are brought up by an incredibly sexist/racist/etc society, and to not initially accept this upbringing in us and others robs us of our only chance of opposing it.
Fighting our conditioning is a constant and eternal process. Just because you identify yourself as ‘a feminist’ does not mean that you cannot act in ways which reinforce gender oppression. You will never be free except when you are consciously struggling; thinking that you are magically free of sexist influence is a trojan horse of defeat, albeit tempting - especially for those of us who have been struggling the hardest/longest/most painfully.
These are pretty big and incomplete/flawed ideas so I would be incredibly appreciative of any feedback whatsoever, whomever you are, and I apologise in advance the the inevitable miscommunication.
-Eris :)
”To declare yourself immune from the collective consciousness of the society which moulded you from birth is arrogance and insanity.”
I love it <3 Perfectly said. How is it empowering to hate you body so much that you even get it surgically altered?
sex-torture as comedy
“This year’s Hot Tub Time Machine features a scene where a group of strangers circle two grown men in a bathroom and force one man to give the other a blowjob, while they both sob. Also from this year: in Get Him to the Greek the main character is forced by his friends to go off with a woman who tries to (or maybe does? the camera cuts away) put a dildo up his bum while he cries and begs her not to. And in the mother of all bromances, The 40 Year Old Virgin, a group of friends put a porn movie on surround sound and then lock their sexually shy friend in the room alone and refuse to let him out. Note: all of these scenes are supposed to be funny. Not funny with a bitter edge, just straight up, laugh out loud funny. In other words, the target audiences of these films are asked to identify with a group of characters on a quest, and then guffaw when said characters are sexually humiliated. That’s some deep shit. ”
“When I started out thinking about the recurring scenes of sex-torture in recent bromances, I figured that—apart from being reinforcements of homophobic culture on overdrive—they must have some kind of cathartic function for audiences. The entire bromance genre is based on heteronormative adult men’s inability to express love and affection for each other. Consciously, writers write sex-torture as comedy because they think sexual violation is funny. Unconsciously, I think we can argue that these scenes exist because our culture of masculinity uses the threat of non-consensual sex to punish men for natural feelings of affection and admiration for their friends. “
I have no words to express how amazing this is…
