All good things must come to an end…

                This has been a great class to be a part of this summer.  It has helped me to not only learn a lot about myself, but it has also taught me about the world around me.  I never really realized just how gender-bias the world still was.  Coming in to this class I was not really sure of what to expect.  I honestly did not know the difference between sex and gender, and thought that those were two words that could be used for the same meaning.  I now know that this is not the case, and that these two words have very significant meanings that are different from each other in the sense that sex is what we are born with, and gender is what we have been taught and given.

                I also never really understood the impact that media had been playing on my life.  I always had these thoughts in my head and I would sit there and just day dream on certain topics, such as love, and finding that one guy.  The media has also really influenced my self-concept.  I learned that I look to the media a lot of the time to tell me what I should be wearing, how to act in certain social settings, and just how to be me in general.  I liked to say that I was my own person, but obviously from reading the book and the rest of the material, I can now see that I am really just another follower of the media, and use them to discuss my importance in some manners.

                I have learned a lot about relationships as well this summer that I never knew about.  I always knew that there were different levels in a friendship, but I never realized how simple some of those levels, or stages, really were.  I found it interesting to read about where people are on a friendship level base, and was also a little hurt to realized that I have been through all of the stages of friendship, including waning, and it made me want to reconnect with people that I have not talked to in years and just catch up with them.  The other relationship I really learned about was romantic relationships.  Being in a relationship myself, made this concept a little easier to grasp.  I liked looking at the ten stage model of romantic relationships and reading and seeing exactly where Ryan and I fell.  It also felt good knowing that we have not tipped over the peak yet in to the areas where the relationship is dwindling away.

                This class has helped to really teach me the importance of a person’s self-worth.  I also look at not only this country, but other countries as well, and see just how many issues many of the women over there face due to not being treated like a person just because they are a woman.  I also understand that there is so much more to what a person is saying.  I also need to focus on how they are saying it, and what their body is telling me as well.  Overall this class was a great experience, and is one that I think everybody should take so that they too can get a little bit of insight in to what gender really is.

Article 20 – The Perfect Woman

          Growing up I heard the phrase a lot of times that the only perfect woman was a woman who was not talking.  A lot of times men hate the fact that a woman will just talk and talk and talk.  What many do not understand is that this is the way in which many women establish a relationship and a connection.  When I first saw this picture I was a little bit offended.  It goes a long with the idea that a woman needs to be submissive to the man and stand behind what he says.  It is like she is not supposed to have her own opinion on an occurrance.  Many women are taught that they are just supposed to take care of the house, nurture the family, and leave it at that.  It is when a women steps out of this role that many see her stepping out of her “gendered role”.

Article 19 – Women and Corsets

 

          Throughout history women are constantly trying to fit a certain image of beauty.  The chinese women bound their feet to make them smaller, and starting in Europe many women started to wear corsets.  As we can see in the top image, it does give women a great hour glass shape that every women strives to have.  When we look to the picture underneath the side effect of wearing a corset over a long period of time actually causes seriously harmful effects on the female body.  The ribs become crushed in and all of the internal organs become scrunched up, but the woman has achieved that hour glass shape that she was always hoping for.

          “Our culture also feeds our self-concept” (Gambles, 46).  When young girls constantly see the celebrities with these great bodies and hour glass shapes they look for ways and methods in which to obtain what they once thought was unobtainable.  It is still socially accepted to wear a corset around, and many consider it to be a fashion statement that is coming back in style.  Personally I have never worn one, nor do I ever plan on wearing one.  I love my body a lot more than that to start squishing the organs around on the inside.

 

Michael W, Teri Kwal, Gamble (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Article 18 – Language Differences

 

           Language is used to communicate both about and between another person (Gambles, 59).  Looking at this chart the differences between how a woman talks about something and how a man talks about something is more closely examined.  For example when looking at the conversational style of a man we see that he is not going to really join in on conversation where he has to really release information about himself out there.  If he lets something out that is too personal than his personal status will be discredited and he will lose part of his status.  Women on the other hand will disclose as much information as they can between others.  The more information that they share about themselves and others gives them more credit in their world.

          “Women also use speech to demonstrate their understanding of others’ troubles, and to show their support for others” (Gambles, 75).  On the other hand “men seek to achieve dominance through verbal interactions” (Gambles, 77).  This goes in to show that while women are trying to be helpful and understanding, men are just trying to find another way in which they can assert themselves and show that they are the best among the male species.

Article 17 – Dolce and Gabbana Advertisment

 

          This is a magazine ad for clothes from Dolce and Gabbana.  It is definitely an overly sexualized ad campaign for the clothing choices, but it grabs the attention of many.  It goes with the idea that men are masculine and strong.  Each of these guys have washboard abs and are very chiseled.  The ad goes out to guys saying with these clothes you will be hot and look good.  Girls will look at this ad and they will want their boyfriends to wear these clothes because they like the models inside of the clothes and feel that their boys will look better if they wear outfits just like this.  “We live in a society in which social images of gender pervade our lives and influence our definitions of who we think we are, and who we think we should be” (Gambles, 27).  Men think that this is how they should be in order to get women, and women want their men to be like this because it looks like they will be better protectors.

Article 16 – Gender Equality at Work Organization

Gender at Work

          This website is dedicated to bringing about gender equality in the workforce.  The organization is going through different companies and looking at the rules and standards that they have and are challenging the companies to be get rid of their gender-biases.  This is an organization made up of scholars, activists, and feminists.  They are all striving for the same goal, and that is to bring about change in the workplace so that the needs of women can be met and that they are sustained and not just ignored.  This organization is looking and seeing that while people realize that in order for their to be peace they need to allow women in, and keep them there.

          Women are not treated the same as men in the workplace, and it has been this way for a long time.  “The economic status of women in the workplace remains subordinate to that of men” (Gambles, 264).  Even when a woman does get a job it takes her almost three months longer to earn the same pay as that of a man.  This organization is working to help change this issue, and to make it to wear there is equality in the workplace.

Michael W, Teri Kwal, Gamble (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Article 15 – Gender Spectrum Families

Gender Spectrum Families Organization

          This website was a bit different when I first found it.  I was looking for articles on family and gender, and I found it but not in the sense that I was first thinking of.  This website is dedicated to parents who have children who are not going with their gender norms.  It is for the parents who have transgendered, crossgendered, non-conforming, and gender fluid children.  There are conferences that are held in order for these parents to come together and understand that they have done nothing wrong.  It also provides gender terminology so that the correct language may be used when discussing the different aspects of their children.  It is really more or less a support website for parents so that they can learn what they are to do, and how they are to treat their children.

Article 14 – Disney Portrayal of Masculinity

          This video that I found on youtube is one person’s study on the portrayals of masculinity in the Disney movies.  All of these movies portray men who are physically fit and strong.  If they are not lean, strong, with lots of muscles than they are seen as a weak character, and many take them to be a joke.  It is also seen that the men are the heroes of the story and that they are mainly there to save the princess from some danger that has come her way.  It gives a false reality of what life is really like, but these are movies that boys and girls alike are watching hundreds of times.  While what they are seeing might not affect them immediately, over time it gets in their head that this is what life is like, and that this is what they should strive to be.   “The media function as symbolic vehicles for the construction of our gendered selves” (Gambles, 46).

          “When it comes to their portrayal in films,  men are commonly depicted as hard, tough, capable, sexually aggressive, brave, and in control” (Gambles, 367).  These men are following the stereotype of extreme masculinity and also the gender stereotype of having to be a protector.  The men are typically asserting themselves, and their masculinity, by showing how weak another male is compared to them.  In my opinion these movies give little boys every where the wrong idea.

Michael W, Teri Kwal, Gamble (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Article 13 – Communication Differences among Friendships

          This is a clip from the hit show Friends.  I absolutely loved this show and all of the situations that each character was placed in.  This clip helps to show the gender differences between males and females when it comes to disclosing information and working on relationships with other members of the same sex.  We can see how Rachel describes to Monica and Phoebe all the details between the kiss of her and Ross, while Ross just tells Joey and Chandler that he kissed Rachel, and that there was some tongue.  This helps to show that women truly do disclose more information with each other in order to build up a better relationship and to establish a closer connection.  It also helps to show how guys only reveal the information that will help to build their status among others.

          “Women choose as their friends other women with whom they can talk freely and in whom they can confide.  Many female-female friendships are expressive; they center around talk and develop from the sharing of self-disclosures” (Gambles, 150).  Men do not typically talk about things that havve happened with them emotionally like a woman would.  “Discussing such things may seem too feminine to males whom you will recall approach talk from a content rather than a relational perspecative” (Gambles, 154).

Michael W, Teri Kwal, Gamble (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Article 12 – Gender Differences and Movies

Gender differences still matter in movies – a lot

          When looking at going to the movies these days there tends to be the guy movies and then there are the ever so popular “chick fliks”.  I say that lightly as most guys do not want to see them, and they are in reality not that popular.  I have made a pact with my boyfriend that I will never make him go see a chick flik because I know that it is not something that he enjoys, and there is no point in going to see a movie in which both parties are not going to enjoy the movie.  This article exams how movies can share some characteristics, but some movies will bring in more money than others.  When comparing an action movie with a chick flik it can be seen that the action movie is made appealing to both groups (males and females) while chick fliks there is some actual work that must be placed inside of the movie in order to keep the attention of the male.