Gender in the Media

This week, I used television as my main way to track how women are portrayed in accordance to stereotypes. Below are my ten occurrences i took note of.

1. Monday, February 23, 2009 at 7 p.m.
ABC Family- Television
The Secret Life of the American Teenager

Amy's mother's portrayal as a woman incapable of getting a job in the real world after a divorce and lack of education. The thought of a woman working while not being dependent on a man was seen as laughable.


2. Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 9 p.m.
Bravo TV- Television
The Real Housewives of Orange County: Reunion Special

Gretchen is portrayed and outed as a typical California young blonde "gold digger", waiting for her old fiance to pass away and claim his money. This is the general stereotype and portrayal of all women in her position

3. Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 10 p.m.
Bravo TV- Television
The Real Housewives of New York City

This show portrays women as living the easy life out at the Hamptons with maids and nannies. The women are also seen party hopping and never actually doing their career stuff. This shows the typical look of women only out "playing" while men are working for the money to carry on this lifestyle.

4. Wednesday, February 25, 2009 11 p.m.
Movie at my house
Waitress with Keri Russell

This movie is the perfect example of a woman being forced to stay at home to raise children and serve her husband. The main female character is stuck in what is seen as the stereotypical housewife's job and only allowed out of the home to work and bring the money back to the supervision of her husband.

5. Thursday, February 26, 2009 11:01 a.m.
Mass e-mail - Internet
Sorority E-mail

We receive weekly updated messages from my sorority on upcoming events and announcements. However, this week there was an excerpt in there about when to wear your sorority letters out and when not to. The e-mail pretty much said to only wear your letters when dressed like a lady, handling yourself in an appropriate manner, and looking well put together. Again, claiming the thought that women must look perfect always.

6. Thursday, February 26, 2009 7 p.m.
ABC Network - Television
Ugly Betty

Wilhelmina Slater gives a slightly overheard speech about how women have to choose between either a career or a husband and you can't have both. Obviously, men can have both but this representation claims only men are capable of handling both aspects of life.

7. Friday, February 27, 2009 11 a.m.
Lifetime Network- Television
Desperate Housewives

In this episode, a dummy of Bri is made and found at the home of her ex-boyfriend who committed suicide. This portrays women as a sex object and used primarily for that purpose.

8. Friday February 27, 2009 11:20 a.m.
Lifetime Network- Commercial
Kelly Ripa Electrolux Commercial

Kelly Ripa is portrayed as the perfect housewife running around and cleaning, yet you never see her many careers whatsoever. This makes it seem as though the housewife and mother role trump having a career.

Reflections:

1. Honestly, I was not very surprised about the amount of stereotypes in the media today. I think gender roles are something that have been around for years and more than likely will not be going away anytime soon. I strongly believe the media holds the stereotypes strong in their minds while writing scripts or staging a reality show.

2. Personally, I get very offended if I am stereotyped. I am not the type of girl who looks forward to being a mother and running my home. I look more forward to furthering my education and obtaining all my career goals before settling down, or ever, having children and staying at home. I do get easily offended when people second guess me for having this outlook on life. I do not find it that rare in our society anymore, but it is still looked down upon to not dream of becoming a mother and that upsets me.

3. I can definitely see how the continuous representation of women and races in the media can become harmful to our society when discussing how individuals gain their certain perspectives on people. I think that when we are young outside of our family, the media is the one way to become more aware of the world. Often times, the media is what makes us have certain outlooks on life or preconceived notions. As we grow older and become more worldy, I feel as though this begins to slowly dwindle and stereotypes are broken down.

What is Privilege?

The Tim Wise video definitely opened up my eyes to the thought of privilege. Personally, I had never really thought much about privilege before. However, I feel like Tim Wise had a lot of great points in his speech and really did make me aware of how real and extremely common privilege is. I think privilege is most definitely still a problem today, but I see quite a bit of hope for privilege to begin to diminish in the future. I think we all can agree that privilege has slowly, but steadily, become less prominent in our country, with much thanks to our younger generations. I think as times go on and we move farther into the twenty first century, people will begin to accept each other without regards to small aspects such as race, maybe I am a "glass half full" type of person, but that is just how I see the world. Obviously though, for the time being privilege is still a current problem, whether it be with job promotions, housing or simple other things like switching social classes at an easier level.




A perfect example of privilege in the media right now is Caroline Kennedy wanting to take Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's former senate seat. Of course Caroline Kennedy is well known for her hard work as a philanthropist and her extremely well known name, so she got quite a bit more media coverage over the other people wanting this spot. If it was not for Caroline Kennedy's well known family who has a strong history in politics, she would not have received this privilege. The media follows around those who can give them the best stories and amp up ratings, and that is just what Caroline Kennedy did.

I found it extremely hard to come up with a minimum of eight ways I find myself or others to be privileged throughout my daily life. Again, this could completely be because I have never thought about too much about privilege, but I feel as though I work hard on a day to day basis to accomplish and earn everything I receive. However, I did make a list and it follows below.
1. My two roommates and i were able to sign a lease for our loft without being questioned at all. Perhaps it was because of the types of cars we drove or way we carried ourselves that the company we chose to lease from had no problem letting us sign without a parent to co-sign. Yet I like to think it was because of my good credit and recommendations from my previous land lords.

2. I did come up with something I see as other's privileges. I am currently applying to eight different law schools and all of them have a very similar essay question that requires us to all talk about a personal hardship we have suffered in our lives, specifically racial or economic. I come from a middle class white family and have struggled to come up with a hardship I have encountered. I have lived a very fortunate life thanks to my parents hard work, yet that isn't what they are looking for. I find it difficult for many people to answer this question and do feel as though it is a bit skewed.

3. My mom is a kindergarten teacher in Plano, TX and has a class not only of neighborhood students but also of inner city children that are bused into the school. My mom has noticed that the inner city children are by no means less intelligent than the neighborhood children, but they struggle when it comes to reinforcing their lessons at home. Many of their parents are single and working two jobs with hours on the weekend to just be able to provide for their families. Because they work so often, they tend to have lower education levels and less of an opportunity to work with their children than that of the neighborhood kid's families.

4. Another example of my mom's students are her hispanic kindergartners. Again, they are not of a lower intelligence level than that of the neighborhood kids, they just typically have parents whose native language is spanish. Their parents can't help them with their homework such as reading or spelling because the english language is not native to them like the other kids' parents.

5. A privilege very noticeable on our campus at OU is the multiple scholarships given to Native American students. This is also common at many other state universities, such as Kansas. My brother's girlfriend is half Creek and so is one of my roommates so I have become fairly familiar with their situations. From what I understand, due to their nationalities they are able to receive certain scholarships and tuition cuts to different universities, OU included. I definitely find this to be a racial privilege not everyone can enjoy.

6. Next, I see gender privileges fairly often. I work at a boutique in Norman that sells exclusively clothing and accessories for women. Of course it was easy for me to receive the job there because I am a woman, but what if a man wanted to apply? I seem to believe that a few of the jobs I have received are because of my gender, not only at the boutique but also in the past as a cart girl. Never have a seen a cart boy!

7. Playing the devil's advocate, there are also jobs that are exclusively male. I have a good friend who just got a job as a bouncer at a bar on Campus Corner. I think if I would have applied for the job, it would have been much harder for me to get it because of my size and gender.

8. I also thought quite a bit about Tim Wise's example of kids driving nice cars. I am fortunate enough to have received a very nice car from my parents, but not because I am a spoiled brat but because they set certain guidelines for me to follow and if done I would receive the car. It makes me think that if a person of another race was driving the same car would others perceive them like Wise said and think they are drug dealers, or would they look at me the same way and unjustly call me a spoiled brat for the car?

I think the one drop rule is slightly held onto nowadays. For instance, President Obama is a person of many racial backgrounds, but it seems like people only notice his one drop of African American ancestry. Yet I believe anyone who comes from multiple racial backgrounds can choose how they want to be perceived, whether it is by one certain race or openly accept everything they are made up of.

I agree with Tim Wise and Beverly Tatum. The times are changing and improving when it comes to privilege and other important racial factors. I think everyone needs to open their eyes to the changing times and accept each other and themselves for who they are and become who they want to be in life. It is you as a person who decides how your life will play out. I think as we grow and mature as adults if we keep an open mind and chose to stay aware of others around us things will only continue to improve.

The 2009 Grammy's - With the text this time!

Usually, I am an extremely picky person when it comes to which music award shows I will watch, and the Grammy Awards are really not much of an exception. I am a huge indie, rock and alternative music fan and do not typically branch out into other types of music besides these. I often blame my older brother for making me so narrow-minded when it comes to different musical styles because as a child he had me only listening to the Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana and Led Zeppelin. Typically, I know the exact awards I want to see presented or performers I would like to see and fast forward just to those segments. This year I acted the exact same way and went straight to the best rock and alternative album presentations and watched one of my absolute favorite bands, Radiohead, perform.
However, I am definitely a little disappointed in my narrow point of view when it comes to award shows, especially this year. Originally, I was planning on going back to my recorded video of the Grammy’s and watching particularly for how race was portrayed through out the awards show. Yet before I could do that, I learned about the whole Rihanna and Chris Brown spectacle that happened at the Grammy Awards. I did a little research on the situation, which of course led me to Perez Hilton and MTV’s websites. Although a domestic violence case is something extremely serious and should be handled in private, anytime something like this happens to two celebrities it will never be kept quiet.



My only concern about the domestic violence case between these two celebrities is how it would be perceived in the media. I almost feel as though the entire scene of Chris Brown having to turn himself in at the Grammy’s fit into everyone’s stereotypical thoughts of a black rapper. You wouldn’t have expected one of the three Jonas Brothers or a member of Coldplay to be arrested, but maybe you could just imagine a black rapper being in a situation such as this. However, I do think the way he handled the entire deal, by turning himself in to the police, showed a certain level of maturity and responsibility for his actions in this case. Yet, will anyone even notice that or will the media just settle on another black rapper getting into trouble and being put in jail for violence yet again? It’s hard to say for me really, but I hope the media can put away their preconceived thoughts about race and see the situation for what it really is.

Personal Reflection: First Day of Class

When I first entered class on Monday, I have to be honest, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I didn't have any classmates or friends that had ever been in the class. My older brother, Jonathan, is typically my go to person when it comes to picking out classes in the journalism college. However, he wasn't much help and had not heard much about the class either. I must say it is very rare for me to actually enroll in a class that I have not had recommended to me or chosen through Pick A Prof. 

I originally thought our class on Monday would be just like any typical first day of class, or "syllabus day" like many of my classmates and I refer to it as. During a normal syllabus day I am used to the professor reading the entire syllabus in full. The professor typically goes into very deep analysis of their classroom policies that they think vary greatly from those of other professors, yet the policies rarely ever vary from professor to professor. But our class on Monday was very different from the typical "syllabus day" I, and I am pretty sure the majority of the students sitting in the classroom, had even imagined. 

I was a bit shocked when you asked us all very open questions such as "What is your personal definition of race?" I think at that very moment we all looked down at the floor, up at the ceiling, or any other possible direction we could to not make eye contact with you and avoid being called on to start. The tension in the room was very noticeable, as you had pointed out, and I think we all let out a sigh of relief when we were not the first people called on to start the discussion. 

Although I believe a majority of the class was extremely uncomfortable opening up so much on the first day of class, I have to say I find it very important that we open up with each other. We are all going to spend the entire semester discussing topics we normally would not discuss and at some point we must get comfortable speaking about these issues. I think as the class progresses we will all begin to step out of our comfort zones and slowly start to be more comfortable talking about these hot issues in the media. 

I think that in the media there are a lot of common misconceptions about many different races, whether it be black, white, Asian, or Indian. As soon to be college graduates, we will be entering the work force in many different areas of the media. I think it is our job as well educated students to break down the previous misconceptions of each race and gender. By the end of this class I think I will be much more comfortable talking to new people about issues I originally thought were unacceptable to talk about.