The theme of controlling images really stood out to me. As a female in today’s society, Killing Us Softly 4 was a video that really intrigued me and opened my eyes. I am aware that certain advertisements directed toward a specific gender have certain qualities to it, but I didn’t realize how drastic they are. Not only do these ads sell the product, its original purpose, they sell the image that goes along with them. I know that when I am viewing an ad I tend to associate the image of the women in the ad with the product they are selling. In other words, if I am using or wearing the advertised product then I should look or feel like the women who use or wear the product in the ad as well. This is the overall goal of the companies who make the ads. It was interesting to see that certain celebrities gave their opinions about how they themselves were extremely photo shopped and do not even look the way they do in advertisements. In addition, I do not like that the women’s bodies are turned into objects in some advertisements because it makes it seem that a woman’s body is only seen as an object to a man. It amazes me that even after all of these negative hidden symbols and meanings, young females are still trying to mimic the looks of these airbrushed, computer-retouched women. It is something that I hope gets changed in the future, but I am not sure if it will.
Not only did we focus on the female image in this week’s lecture, we also focused on the male image as well. After hearing about the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, I never had thought much about the gender aspect of it all. In the article, “Why Won’t We Talk about Violence and Masculinity in America?” Soraya Chemaly, the author, says how tragic uses of guns here in the United States are by unstable males. I agree with the statement because of past horrific tragedies I have heard about on the news, none of which these crimes were committed by women. This is related to the topic of male power/privilege and in today’s society, I believe that women should never be seen as inferior to men, but rather equal. Oppression towards women should cease to exist not only in the United States, but also all over the world.
Lastly, I found the article, “No Hype for Women’s Hoops” to be intriguing. It is crazy that over the years women’s sports have not gained more viewers. How is it that popular men’s sports are on increase and feed off of each other in many aspects, while women’s college basketball does not have any sort of a similar situation? The media should not leave out women’s sports. Whatever coverage they spend for men’s sports should be the same for women’s sports. Even though this may sound unrealistic to some, I believe that if more people got involved and expressed their care for women’s sports than this all could potentially change.
No comments:
Post a Comment