Blog 6 - Glee Sexuality and Gender

Glee contains many stereotypes illustrated throughout the series.  Some of these include racial, sexual, gender stereotypes.  Glee is notorious for tackling issues about sexuality such as the epsidode “Never been kissed”.  Shannon Beiste is a female football coach with short hair, and a husky figure for a woman.  This portrays her to look like a man though she is clearly a female.  In the series people often made fun of her and assumed her to be lesbian.

                I think its important to notice that sexuality is a big topic in the media as well as topics.  One imperative part of the issue is whether or not sexuality should be limited by laws, such as not allowing marriage, raising children or teaching young children.  I think Glee does  a great job portraying Shannon Beiste as a homosexual though in actuality her figure and outlook on sexuality is that of a heterosexual.   It is revealed in “never been kissed” that Shannon had never had her first kiss.  This fact clearly states that the woman features which appear masculine to some are reason to why she had never developed a true relationship.  In fact in other episodes students used her image while making out with one another so they keep their arousals low.  Obviously her appearance is used to make sexual situation less intimate demonstrating that her appearance isn’t very appealing to gay men.

                In another scene a football player bullies a member of the glee club for being a homosexual.  However, in this case the glee member decides to stand up for himself and confronts the bully in the locker room.  When you would expect a beating, the bully instead kisses kurt illustrating that he also was gay but was hiding it.  Karofsky instead threatens kurt to keep his sexuality a secret because he is ashamed his reputation would be affected.  Thus once again we see closeted and open homosexuals casted in stereotypical roles.  One is  singing and acting member the other a foot ball player but their both still gay.  This scene illustrates that you can be a strong football player or a singer but still be gay.  Thus its apparent that anyone can be gay but still perform any activity despite how they are stereotyped. 

                Glee is a good show that demonstrates a lot of stereotypes, in particular sexuality and gender.  These social identities are portrayed by both teachers and students illustrating a more realistic view of how people perceive others in this world.  Teenagers aren’t the only people who stereotype people based on sexuality and race as we see teachers and faculty do it as well.  In fact you can never judge a book by its cover as was seen with Shannon Beiste and foot ball player Karofsky.   However, you still see a singer be openly gay as often stereotyped in the media thus this show illustrates good closeted and open examples

Blog 5 - Gender Roles portrayed in Media (Carryout)

Within seconds of observing Justin Timberlake’s Carryout Music video, heterosexual gender roles are stereotyped.  Sexuality is a big topic in this music video as the lyrics and onscreen performance reflects a woman being a sexual desire and a servant to men.   If you pause the first three seconds of the video the arrows flash directly at the woman’s hips, and thighs instantly illustrating the fact that this video is purely heterosexual.  Furthermore the outfit worn by the woman highlight sexual characteristics’ that define her as a woman.  Devor states that “…femininity must be expressed through modes of dress, movement, speech, and action which communicate weakness, dependency, ineffectualness, availability for sexual or emotional service, and sensitivity to the needs of others.”  Devor’s statement is dead on because he almost all those characteristics’ that are mentioned are expressed in the video.  The women’s scantily dressed bodies, their movement to emphasize sexuality, how they appear to serve the men in the video are all observed.  Thus women are stereotyped to be nothing more than a good looking trophy which can serve men and their sexual desires.

 As the video continues to play, the movement of the women appear to be so they can attract the men and the viewers.   The women in this video constantly look at the men or viewer while showing off their sexual characteristics through both quick and slow movements.  Now examination of Justin Timberlake’s pose as he is first introduced in the video reveals his dominance in this entire video.  He raises his fist in the air, and stands next to one of his large friends, appearing large and dominant.  Masculinity is often portrayed through aggressiveness and assertive movements typically after one goal.   Raising a fist can be related to boxing, where strength, endurance, and will are necessary to survive.  Obviously the lyrics and actions of both genders reveal the goal in this video and its sexual pursuit and achievement.  However, this type of pursuit is nothing to be proud of as women are not only being degraded through dance, dress and lyrics but are eluded to be only temporary and quick.  This idea is supported by many factors previously stated by Devor at the beginning of this article. 

Availability for sexual and emotional service and sensitivity to needs of others are key.  The setting of this video appears to have a drive thru appearance, with advertisements for “Hot Cakes”.  In the beginning of the video, the woman with arrows highlighting her sexual attributes was standing in front of a sign which said “Hot Cakes.”  This is interesting because on several different occasions Timberlake’s lyrics mentions IHOP, super-size, number one, number three and own recipe.  This leads to the conclusion that women are comparable to food, or fast food due to super-size and number one and three being mentioned.   As a matter a fact, Timberlake goes a step further and brings in IHOP.  While IHOP isn’t necessarily fast food, its service is often open 24 hours or at least till the early morning.  Thus women are nothing more than one night stands who need to serve men like Timberlake.  Not one woman is served, rather they are portrayed to literally do the serving.  Around scene 1:20 we see a man in a large chair being served by a woman in a maids outfit holding some kind of platter of sweets.  This scene fully supports the statement that women are nothing more than servants to men.  If examination of the pose is scrutinized then we see Timberlake appearing to be looking down at the viewers while the woman is moving slowly, taking up little spatial space.  Going back to Devor he mentions that women appear feminine if their movements take up little spatial area, by keeping their arms together and tend to use small childlike gestures.  These small gestures give off the feeling of no threat and subordination to men in this case.  Furthermore, Devor goes on to mention that  “Perhaps as an outgrowth of subordinate status and the need to avoid conflict with more socially powerful people, women tend to excel over men at the ability to correctly interpret, and effectively display, nonverbal communication cues.”  In other words music videos such as these illustrate men like Justin Timberlake to be powerful, due to having women be nothing than servants to him while he himself is very successful.  In the entire video you don’t see one woman make any verbal comments to either males or females.  This was done to illustrate cooperation between women and men, as all communications involved gestures and actions.  Once again Devor was correct in describing the role of heterosexual women to be dependent on men, whether it’s a need for care, rearing a child, or even sexual satisfaction.  The upbeat and catchy tune of the video does little to distract viewers from the lyrics which strip away women’s beliefs of independence and ability to be self-sufficient. 

Al l in all the lyrics and setting of Justin Timberlake’s video only portrays woman as one night stands strictly for fulfilling sexual desire.  Furthermore, women are subordinate to men, and are meant to serve not be served.  This was seen through how they are dressed, their restricted movement and sexual gestures to men.  Very little women would truly admire the meaning of these lyrics as it only represents them as good looking second rate citizens.  Woman often are more powerful than the servants they are portrayed as.   Once again heterosexual stereotyping of women and gender roles are directly observed in most aspects of this video.  Since not one woman is respected in this video through dress, movements, speech or service and are subject to the will of men.  Videos such as these shape many viewers beliefs about women and often cause them to stereotype them to be vastly inferior to men even though this often isn’t the case.  Lastly its important to note that Devor essay illustrates many gender stereotypes that are clearly seen in this video.  It’s stereotypes such as these that affect the subconscious beliefs of viewers causing them to be looked as unequal to men.

Blog 4 -Racial Sterotyping

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/02/05/business/1194817108385/super-bowl-ad-uses-indian-stereotype.html

After a series of ads by salesgenie.com, this company came under scrutiny for its ads which seemed to construct racial stereotypes of races.  You can watch the commercial in the link above in order to analyze the commercial yourself.  As the commercial begins we see a little man portrayed with Napoleon complex, driven by his height to be more aggressive, begins yelling at his salesman for his lack of performance.  Ramesh, pleads for his job as he has to take care of seven children!  He searches for methods to raise his sales and comes across salesgenie.com where he finds the solution he needs.  He then wins an award for salesman of the year and his success causes his boss show gratitude.   While the end of the ad serves as a way to soften the stereotype and bring in a fairy tale ending; there is still stereotyping in this commercial.  The first I noticed is how the boss is portrayed as rude and aggressive and of course he is white.  In most cases you don’t have a black or Latino CEO, rather you have white man dressed in a business suit. In many cases I believe that managers or supervisors are portrayed as aggressive, heartless and bossy which may bring in the belief to younger viewers about how harsh they can be.  Being a manager myself, I lack all of these features presented and its interesting to see how Hank was illustrated.  His insenstitive tone and careless remark about his children may mislead the American population influenced by advertisements.  Since the commercial is a cartoon then this ad would attract or capture a younger viewer’s attention.  A racial stereotype portrayed would be the name and look of his employee Ramesh.   Ramesh is a dark brown color, looks Indian and is performing poorly as a salesman.  I noticed they didn’t use a typical Caucasian race which may cause belief that Indians can’t perform well in the workplace.  Furthermore he has an accent as well as seven children.  Anybody who has take a world history class would know Indian is very overpopulated.  Instead of using the average number of children which would be around two or three they choose seven, more than double most people have.  Thus this further concludes the statement that Indians over reproduce, can’t perform well in the job and rely on consumerism in order to survive a difficult ordeal.  Omi reading mentions how many minorities have been portrayed as less than human at one point.  I don’t think it was that extreme in this commercial however, the Indian man was portrayed inequality.  Rather than wearing a business suit like his boss, Ramesh wears pants and a polo.  His hair slightly untamed and has a shadowy beard coming in which looks un kept as it is uneven.  Omi states that each race has its own stereotype such as blacks being stronger but dim witted, or Asians being sneak and evil.  Often people give Indian the strong accent and lack of ability to speak clearly.  Accompanied by the dark skin one can often identify someone with those traits as Indian.  All in all racial stereotypes continue to portray other races as unequal to the white race and this commercial definitely presents this image at first.

Blog 3 - Skyy Vodka

Upon the immediate examination of the advertisement one would draw the conclusion that life is more enticing when your drinking Skyy Vodka.  However, with further analysis one begins to notice that the woman’s dress is practically coming undone while the man is raising his glass to say “I’m ready for more.”  The first stereotype noticed is the woman being a waitress to the man, for two reasons.  As already stated you see the man’s glass being raised, as he wants to be served by the woman.  Furthermore, the man is sitting down while the woman is the one who approaches him.  Traditional Roles are thus observed, however in this case sexuality is also highlighted.  The woman is a scantily worn dress seems to be ready to engage in some kind of sexual activity as she looks attracted to the man.  Thus a viewer, such as a man would want Skyy Vodka because they may believe women would want to  serve and be with them.  Feminine stereotypes are also apparent in this advertisement because of the woman’s suggestive pose and way she’s dressed.  While lacking the purity of wearing white, pink, and light blues the woman instead wears black suggesting that she may not be as pure.  The fact that she is also drinking supports this claim.   Further analysis would reveal that her suggestive pose deems her desire to engage with the man.  Her hair, makeup and jewelry suggest the typical feminine beliefs that women are dependent, weaker than men and commit to the man’s will or desire.  She is almost like a trophy wife, something many men would want.   A typical male would want to be in the man’s shoes or in this case seat.  Having a beautiful woman towering over you, without having to get up or do work to attract them is very unusual.  The brightest spot in the entire ad, is on the woman’s breast, highlighting her femininity.   Her dark dress was probably also chosen because it greatly contrasts with her light skin, thus highlighting her thighs and legs.  As you may notice she wears very high heels.  High heels aren’t typically helpful in walking and are purely for show.  She is dressed like a model, to highlight her beauty attributes as well as her feminine like status.  Lastly, I think it’s important to highlight a very important feature which made the above statements true.  The man is not shown, well except for his hand.  This leads the viewer to leave how the man is actually dressed, if he’s dressed to imagination.  If you examine the woman’s dress then you see its falling off of her body. Therefore, with the alcohol in both their hands, the man himself must also be in the process of losing some his clothing.  Sexuality is the most highlighted feature in this advertisement and seems to be targeted to young males under thirty.   The dark colors, beautiful yet hardly dressed woman and alcohol support the fact that this ad is for men.

Blog 2 - Social Identites in Ads

I decided on this ad instead since my other choices weren't exactly ads. ->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBuKuA9nHsw
"French McDonalds Ad"