codes of gender...

Life is a little bit different after seeing the film “The Gender Code.”  If you haven’t seen it, I recommend doing so.  You will begin to see things according to the ideas that advertising codes for gender.  It is quite funny how we bend and break to these standards that we can never achieve.

I noticed a lot of these “cues” while meandering through people’s Facebook pages.  If women want to be “alluring” they must bend themselves into a “wispy” and in need of assistance.  And who is there to assist them?  A man.

I also noticed that when someone has a picture with their significant other, they both follow the gender code.  The man is usually seen enveloping the woman.  If he is not, the woman is lustfully leaning into them, being supported by the man.

Another thing that is common is the “infantilization” of women through holding hands and fingers near their mouth.  This is quite common among profile pictures of women on Facebook.  This is awful confusing for me.  I see children as void of any sexuality until a certain age.  I know this isn’t the best way of thinking, but it is how I see things.  I really don’t understand the “sexiness” of connecting being a woman with being a child.

Now, I understand that Facebook is obviously not the greatest place to do a small bit of “research.”  However, the profile pictures that people choose are what they want the outside world to view them.  The idea that these codes of gender have trickled down in to our social networking sites is interesting to say the least.

If these “codes” have already buried themselves this far into our psyche, how much longer will we let them guide our view of society?

TV tropes?

For today’s blog, I was instructed to go to a website and look up information on TV tropes.  Now, a TV trope is basically a character that one can easily interject into a storyline because of stereotypical thoughts.  For my trope, I chose the Asian Store Owner.

In our society, the Asian Store Owner is quite typical and usually used for comedic effect.  These people are devoid of pronouncing English properly and have little formal education.  The easiest example I can think of is Apu from The Simpsons.  Just by glancing at this character, Apu, one can see how stereotypical TV tropes really are.

Also, since I used the clip in an earlier blog, the store owners from “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood.”  Actually, now that I think about it, nearly every character in that film is a TV trope.  From the buffoonish men to the Asian clerks to the white man that is framing famous black people this film literally drips in tropes.

All of these ideas are basically used for one thing: to trivialize an entire group of the population for the enjoyment of others.  The fact that these “characters” are played out in nearly every film and television series in American society really shows the way we think of others.  The fact that characters can be boiled down to stereotypes is quite disturbing.

So what does this tell us as a society?  Well, it does a lot to show that we don’t see a need to invest in quality characters that do not meet the idea of hegemonic masculinity.  Because of our unattainable goals in masculinity, anything that is not is commonly devalued, disparaged and, eventually, “fetishized” by our society.

masculinity in music

For today’s blog, I was instructed to go to the iTunes website and pick a song from their Top 20 to analyze.  Unfortunately for me, the Top 20 is terrible.  So, rather than write a lot of BS trying to explain my analysis of a crap song, I figure I would do it on the song “Bell Toll” by IAME.  I have included the video for your viewing pleasure:

Now, the goal for today is to listen for how masculinity is portrayed in popular culture and the media.  To understand this, we must also listen for insights on femininity, hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity.

In the first couple bars of his song, IAME flaunts his machismo by insinuating that the listener’s girlfriend is involved in relationships with him.  This seems to be a common theme in hip hop with all the bravado that is shown for others.  Lyrics like this also show that femininity is not the ideal; masculinity is.

Fifty seconds into the song, the word “bitch” is used in an angry conversation with machine dispensing change.  Now, I know there is only one instance of this word, but it is the normative factor that is the biggest shock.  By “norming” the word “bitch” society has decided it is perfectly normal to use this language even if it’s original intent was to denigrate women.

I also noticed something funny about the mentioning of Catholicism at the end of the first verse.  IAME relates the guilt that he feels even though he ended his involvement in the church long ago.  This provides a unique look into how deeply ingrained we are by the social institutions that have aided in our development.

The last piece of information I gleaned from this song occurs at the 2:20 mark.  IAME disparages women by calling them “whores” and questions the amount of deceit within them.  This seems to have connections to “the Creation Story,” and how women are blamed for the “fall of mankind.”  It was a woman who forced Adam to have a bite of the fruit.  You know Adam couldn’t handle Eve’s “ways.”