Wrapping It All Up

                Wow, this project has been quite the eye-opener along with this class.  It’s been funny to be sitting on the couch watching TV or driving to work listening to the radio and find myself analyzing different aspects of what is being presented to me.  I have driven family and friends up walls I’m sure with my analysis of different artifacts and “Ah-Ha” moments.  I just feel so much more enlightened from the whole experience and I realize so many things about gender and life now.  While doing this project, I made efforts not to go with just female stereotypes and generalizations and that was eye opening in itself and challenging to find male stereotypes. 

                One thing that I realized but never fully realized was just how powerful the media is; it is amazing how stereotypes have been perpetuated from the dumb, uninterested TV dad to the pressure to be beautiful through contests.  It wasn’t all to challenging to find those stereotypes though; the ones I struggled with were the artifacts that break norms.  Like when I found the MMA article about the female fighters and how it was going to be a blockbuster fight because of their talents and abilities.  Or thinking about how one of my favorite movies from the year, I Love You, Man, broke the typical male mold for a movie character.  I am hoping that the trends that I have discovered that have seemed to just scratch the surface continue and norms are broken in positive ways. 

                When it came to using personal experiences as artifacts, as with my Mom and guy friends, things were put into a better light in terms of understanding things I had read in the chapter.  Thinking about how I was socialized to be the way I am, more independent and outspoken, as a result of my mom or just how my cross-sex friendships work was very interesting to me.  The one personal experience that was a shock to me was analyzing the org chart at work and realizing that there are only 3 women out of a potential 63 director/upper level positions; I have been working here for four years and realizing that made the concept of gender inequality real to me. 

                Finding quotes, media representations and viewpoints that challenge the stereotypes and norms gave me hope for the future because there are still some that confirm and perpetuate stereotypes.  Seeing women make the top of Forbes lists and the blog on being a “Third Wave Masculinist” show that there is some hope and that society is hopefully becoming enlightened with its thinking.  I really almost feel like everyone should take a gender class because it is really eye-opening and enlightening to see just how much gender has affected your life.  From reading the chapters and discussing on the blog so many aspects of gender have been shown to me and it is weird to think that because I am a girl that my elementary school teachers may have treated me differently unknowingly.

                I have learned about things that I will have to overcome, become a more enlightened individual and communication studies scholar and most importantly to me, I have learned how to stop stereotypes from spreading.  It takes a small movement against a perpetuating stereotype to make a big difference and maybe it can be this class that starts a more balanced world. 

The Age of Bromance

One of the hit comedies of the year was I Love You, Man and its lead character was not your stereotypical male.  Peter Klaven is a friendless groom-to-be who goes on a search for his best man, since he doesn’t have any friends close enough to serve that role. 

“When it comes to their portrayal in films, men are commonly depicted as hard, tough, capable, sexually aggressive, brave and in control” (pg. 367).

In this movie Peter Klaven is anything but the above description.  He plays a sensitive, caring, thoughtful man who caters to his fiance and her friends.  He doesn’t have very many guy friends and when he is on the hunt for a best man and attends a guy’s night, he quickly realizes that he doesn’t fit it.  At the guys night they drink, play poker and are just all around crude; Peter desperately tries to fit in and doesn’t succeed.  He then meets Sydney, who teaches him how to be more aggressive in his business practices and how to channel his inner “manly man.”  

This movie, among many others, display a new type of male character who is more open with his feelings and less macho.  The hyper masculine character of the 90’s is slowly fading away with more movies embracing “Bromance.”  Bromance is a type of close heterosexual friendship between guys where feelings are shared and man dates occur.  The stereotype and portrayal of men is shifting away from that “Tough Guise.”

 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

The Devil Wears Prada

Being the movie buff I am, I was surprised at the difficulty I was having when I was creating this portfolio in finding gender artifacts in films.  In my final two I have decided to make them all from movies with the first being Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada.   Miranda is the editor in chief of the magazine and is very independent in both her professional life and her personal life.  Because of her independence of others, especially her significant others, her relationships are quite rocky and she has been divorced many times. 

“…the woman in question is perceived as unfeminine, too independent and tough, overly ambitious, authoritative, and agenda driven.  Believing such behavior is unacceptable in and unbecoming to females, persons who ascribe to it believe that if women dressed and behaved more femininely they would improve their chances to succeed at work” (pg. 273).

The “Man-Like Woman” stereotype fits Miranda perfectly, even in the fact that she dresses very well and is very successful.  She doesn’t behave like a stereotypical woman and many people comment on it throughout the movie, labeling her as a “bitch” and being ”too tough.”  The only way for her to get to the position of power that she is in and keep it though is for her to be that stern leader.  It is a paradox that many women have fallen into on their journeys to the top.  She goes through many female assistants because they cannot keep up with her demands and the way that she asks for things to be done.  She speaks very generally and expects others to figure out what she means.  There is only one scene where it is shown for her to have feelings and the next day after the breakdown, she pretends like nothing happened.  Her leadership and verbal cues would both be considered very masculine and many would probably attribute her success to those facts. 

Miranda could also be considered a role model for the postfeminist movement with her rise to power and success in the corporate world.  Even though she is a fictitious character, I have read a few places that the book, and consequently the movie, are based off of Vogue’seditor in chief Anna Wintour; this give a “real face” to the postfeminist movement. 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

Moms Make Less…

The Kane Show was full of artifacts for me this morning, making my last Wednesday of gender and the final few artifacts a little easier.  His little tag was something about how moms should be outraged since they make less than their childless counterparts and thankfully he put the link up for us to read the full story. 

“Being stereotyped as a mother also can impede a woman’s career advancement because superiors might erroneously assume that the woman is not interested in a new assignment or a promotion” (pg. 272).

When searching for a quote from the book this is the closest I got to the subject of the article was this.  It relates though since a promotion or assignment could lead to a pay raise.  There is the fact that a non-mother is passed up for a job 100% of the time over a mother.  Being a mother often overshadows a woman’s role  as a professional and sometimes she won’t be taken seriously.  Moms are also stereotyped as being more supportive and an ear to listen and many people think that for a woman to have success in the business world that she needs to be agressive and man like.  Since moms are more nurturing and don’t really have the image of being agressive, many will often be passed up for positions and promotions.  It is such a bizarre thing to think that women are making more than women and being discriminated against for having kids, but I guess there is always going to be setbacks like this. 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

The Morning Commute…

I listen to the same radio station every morning on my way into work and luckily I got one of my last few gender artifacts from this morning’s discussion.  If I can get an audio clip, I will definitely post it later, but as of right now I’m going to have to do some crediting to and paraphrasing from the Kane Show.  The original discussion started with where D.C. and Northern Virginia drivers rank in terms of being the best or worst drivers.  After giving the ranking the main DJ Kane decided to open up the lines to people’s thoughts on the worst drivers.  People gave stereotypes of SUVs with bumper stickers about their kids or people with Jesus fish on their cars, among other things.  These broad stereotypes made me laugh and then one peaked my interest-one guy calls in and simply stated “women drivers.”  The show erupted and when asked why he stated “they’re too emotional to handle traffic!”  Needless to say a can of worms was opened up! 

“Unfortunately, this label implies that women are victims or their biology and bolsters the stereotype of women as overly emotional, unpredictable, and so debilitated by PMS that they are unable to make sound decisions” (pg. 35). 

The above quote is directly related to PMS and women, but I feel that it also shows how women are perceivedas more emotional than men.  The emotional and unpredictable part of this quote relates to what the caller on the radio station talked about, since he was suggesting that since women are so emotional, their ability to drive is drastically hindered.  Being the gender student I am, I was immediately shocked and spouted off so much information to my carpool partner, my aunt, who seemed quite uninterested.  I know that there is quite the stereotype out there that women make bad drivers, however, I did not think that someone would have the audacity to seriously say it on the radio. 

 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

Moms as better managers? Possibly!

When someone has kids, mom or dad, life is drastically changed.  Dadss have to call in sick just as moms do sometimes and if your boss just doesn’t happen to have kids, do you think he or she will understand?  Many don’t think so and many employees would rather work for a mom according to a USAToday article.  The article comes from 2006, thus making it a little dated in terms of statistics, but I think that the information is still relevant.  According to this study, moms as managers have more patience and understanding, are better at listening and are more apt to understand a family problem than a non-mom. 

Not everyone agrees with this school of thought however and many women are “punished” at work for being mothers.  Many women will work twice as hard to prove themselves after having kids, sometimes sacrificing time with kids.  Conversely, fathers are never percieved as any less competent due to having kids as women are.  This standard seems to vary in companies though and there are some companies that absolutely won’t hire a mother. 

One boss wonders if “”the motherhood-leadership connection is a chicken-and-egg thing. She says she has always had a compassionate streak. Maybe, she says, motherhood doesn’t make for good leaders, but the qualities that would make a good mother — whether there are children or not — are the same qualities that make a good boss.”

I think this is something that will always be an issue, unforturnately and our way of thinking as a culture would have to change drastically for any real progress to be made.

Riddle me this…riddle me that…

A young boy and his father

were out playing football

when they were caught at the

 bottom of a giant pileup.

 Both were injured and rushed

 to the hospital. They

were wheeled into separate

 operating rooms and two

doctors prepped up to work on

 them, one doctor for

each patient. The doctor

operating on the father got

started right away, but the

doctor assigned to the

young boy stared at him in

surprise. “I can´t operate

 on him!” the doctor exclaimed

to the staff.

“That child is my son!”

 

How can that be?

 

The above riddle was told to me as a child and I remember being very perplexed by it since I was thinking the only possibility of the doctor’s gender was male.  At six years old I was engaging in spotlighting, as did many other kids in my class. 

“The implication is that certain jobs “belong to” certain sexes, with the higher paying, higher status job usually occupied by men” (pg. 72).

I remember when our teacher told us the answer to the riddle was that the doctor was the child’s mom, the whole class erupted.  We were all completely boggled by the answer and kind of mad at ourselves for missing the obvious answer.  This was quite the revelation for us and I remember telling my whole family this riddle expecting to stump them too. 

 

 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

A Male Nurse Who Isn’t Gaylord Focker?!

My mom and I bond over 3-4 episodes of M*A*S*H* a night as part of our winding down ritual for the evening after our long days of work.   The show takes place in the Korean War following the 4077 mobile medical team; as expected from the time, all doctors are males and nurses are females.  I orginally was going to write about this, but I got kind of tired about writing about women for this blog.  Then it hit me, a commercial for TNT’s new drama, HawthoRNe came on and I had found my 14th post!!  In the commercial we find out that there is a male nurse in the hospital and when he introduces himself as the nurse, his patient laughs hysterically in his face and says something like “Don’t you mean doctor?!”  It was quite the perfect example of spotlighting that wasn’t from Meet the Parents! 

“When we picture a doctor in our mind’s eye, for example, we may still see a male; when we picture a nurse, we may imagine a female.  For that reason we engage in spotlighting, a practice that highlights a person’s sex by calling more attention to it, and we refer to the person as a woman CEO or male manicurist” (pg. 71).

This practice occurs in real life just as the media portrays it to happen.  We often place people into roles based on gender and the anomalies are often surprising to many.  To find out more about our male nurse, Ray, follow this link.  I am anxious to watch this show just to see the struggles of Ray in the female dominated profession. 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

Women in MMA

I was quite shocked when I read the article featured on Yahoo’s homepage about women in Mixed Martial Arts(MMA) fighting; the story was all about the blockbuster fights of the summer and I was very surprised to see two women listed as a blockbuster fight.  I had no idea that women were even involved in this sport, much less on such a large scale.  It was also interesting to me the fact that it was not labeled “Women’s MMA” or that the blurb about the fight had nothing to do with their looks. 

“Coverage of female athletes tends to be trivialized, focusing on their femininity, physical attractiveness, or personal problems rather than on their athletic accomplishments” (pg. 362).

The end of the article highlights the fight between Gina Carano v. Christiane Santos:

“Gina Carano vs. Cristiane Santos, San Jose, Calif., August 15: This fight is almost a marketing dream, as the reaction at live arenas to Carano at ringside while watching Santos destroy opponents has been unlike anything ever seen in U.S. MMA history. Carano (7-0) and Santos (7-1) are both known for their Muay Thai skills and have always had exciting fast-paced fights. A key aspect of the fight is that both women are used to doing three 3:00 rounds, and this will be five 5:00 rounds to crown the first Strikeforce women’s champion. Going 9:00 vs. 25:00 is a completely different mentality, particularly in setting a fast pace both are used to. The woman who adapts best will have a huge advantage.”

There is much discussion in this blurb over the athleticism and abilities of these women and no discussion of how “pretty” the fight will look or what either of their families will think of the fight.  I think this is an important event to look at because of the language used in the article and the fact that these women have broken into a field that I always presumed was completely male dominated. 

 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company

Meltzer, David (2009, June 15). It’s MMA summer blockbuster season. Retrieved June 16, 2009, from Yahoo Sports Web site: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-blockbusters061509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Conquering Darkness…

…but not that Glass Ceiling.

I can’t release any sources or links because of the security of my occupation, but I can discuss a little bit about the organization of the US Army Night Vision compound at Ft. Belvoir.  I decided to take a look at our organizational chart and tally up the number of women in director or deputy director positions-my findings were 3 out of 63 possible positions.  Those other 60 positions are filled by men, mostly white men to be specific. 

“…while the U.S. workforce is increasingly diverse, white men fill most top management positions.  The image of the glass ceiling suggests that although women are getting through the front door of management hierarchies, at some point they come up against and invisible barrier that prevents any further upward movement” (pg. 276).

I knew that the numbers were skewed, after all, I have  been working here 4 years now; however, I had no idea the numbers were that disproportionate.  I know many of these women have been here in the government for many years and have sometimes put in more time than the men, yet they are still at the bottom of the food chain.  I almost thought with this being a federal government place of business that there would be more women in more positions, but then I realize that this is a military employer with civilian employees.  The military is definitely a masculine culture and it carries over into the workplace. 

I thought this was an interesting, personal case study and it definitely opened my eyes a little more than the chapter in the book did.

 

Gamble, T. K., & Gamble, M. W. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company