Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Log #3: Degrading of Women in Society

When I was first going to write this "log".. I was going to come at it at a completely different, partially sexist angle. (As hinted at the bottom of log #2) But upon further discussion with among namely my father, some friends and some researchers on the internet I've come to an entirely different conclusion. In fashion and the media, I don't believe that women degrade themselves. (At least the percentage of the female population dedicated to not dressing inappropriately.) But before I address these matters let me just say one little thing...


See?.. I even got a panda for you!
I really am.. But I'm not going to spend this whole log trying to reestablish my "ethos". You're just going to have to believe that I'm sorry. But now back to the matter at hand. Coming back to last weeks point of women basically remodeling their clothes during the sexual revolution to be more provocative I must correct. While there were some controversial styles during this time period, the change of clothes was designed to make clothing for women more comfortable, and functional.

Today, Women's clothes are still mostly designed by... you guessed it; Men. That helps explain, A LOT. And actually brings a lot into the Women's defense for the way some of them are forced to dress. Women beginning to finally make a footprint in their own sector of the fashion industry was such a big deal, that even BBC News had to post an entire article on the subject. ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15088308 )

I honestly can't say I'm complaining. But maybe it's because I'm a boy?

Women are degraded pretty much everywhere, mostly by the miraculous idea that being female means you're: Weak, Emotional, incapable, stupid, and essentially just baby-makers. None of these factors come along with being a woman, except maybe the second one. Because girl's typically have more empathy than guys. But all of the rest are not true, and if they are true for an individual woman, they could easily be just as true for the individual man. Guys have an advantage biologically with being stronger, but that strength can't be maintained without exercise, and both sexes can easily exercise, right?

These thoughts and ideas are generally force-fed to us by the media. It's ingrained into everyone that woman are basically coveted sex-trophies. From basic children's stories, to children's media, to adults stories, to adult media. A Woman can't be strong, she can't lead and she most certainly doesn't have a future beyond the kitchen. These ideas all stem from the ideas that women are the more "submissive" sex. While on a universal basis this may be partially true it's not a 100% constant.

Does she look like she wants to take any crap from you?
 The Media is sneaky with this kind of thing. They try to brainwash you since you're little. Too little to understand what "sexism" really is. Take for example beauty and the beast. You watch the movie, you're all "Nice start.. Songs are a little cheesy.." *Belle puts off the typical chauvinist douchebag that all the Disney princess' fall for... Good, good.. We might actually like this one. She reads books, dang she even has a brain too! 

And then..... BAM!

 A few scenes later and we've got this smart, forceful girl kidnapped by a monster and TRAPPED inside of a castle inhabited by talking furniture. (Because this is normal in the land of Disney) I know that there was the obvious trouble with the forest, and the wolves being between her and the town but come on... An 8 foot tall bear, dog, demon-thing has you trapped in it's house, with it's even scarier piano and eerie talking furniture.. And you wouldn't rather risk going back to town through the woods?... No. She's going to sit forever in the castle and read to herself while she develops a grade A case of "Stockholm Syndrome".

Seriously?
Disney is famous for indoctrinating the children into these ideals. But it's not just Disney, almost everyone does it because it's universally accepted that if a female is going to be in your story she's got to fulfill the "damsel-in-distress" archetype at least once. But come on CK.. That's just a children's film? I've seen plenty of badass women in the movies.. I mean just look at "Kill Bill", or "Columbiana". (Both ironically about women seeking revenge and going on to kill men.) But yeah. I'll give you that, it's getting better. We're a bit past horrors of seeing "Princess Leia" victimized in star wars. (She plays an epic role in the films, but come on.. Was what they did to her in Episode VI necessary?)

I actually came across a blog post which talked specifically about this particular scene... They were disturbed that this was all that was to be remembered of Princess Leia, besides her weird haircut. Their was the inherent symbolism of Slave Leia strangling the fat nasty snail guy: "Jaba the Hutt" to death. But as said by the author of the piece in "Slave Leia's" popularity she is only relished as a sex object. A Woman of high-standing who is basically made into a Sex-Slave and has to be rescued by men. (To see the blog I'm referencing click here: http://www.socialjusticeleague.net/2011/10/how-do-you-solve-a-problem-like-slave-leia/ )

These are some very sexist and offensive overtones. Would we have felt differently if let's say, it was "Han Solo" stuck wearing a speedo, while chained to Jaba the Hutt? And Leia frozen in the carbonite? Yes.. We would have. It probably would have ruined the whole movie. This just shows how hardwired we are to attribute women with sex, and how we've been desensitized to thinking that this kind of behavior is okay.

Star Wars ain't special. Apparently Star Trek's had it's own slave variant.
Women are also degraded in the workplace. Oftentimes getting paid less than men for the same job. And being treated like they couldn't possibly understand what's really going on. Even if they hold a higher degree than their fellow man.. And if they're put in charge; They're generally not well respected. Because somehow being a woman will automatically make you incapable in business. Even if you own the whole damn company.

Yeah. Some cookies and Equal Pay.
But the reason for the degrading of women all boils down to one issue. Comparison. If men and women were not constantly being compared this wouldn't be an issue. Now it's impossible to not compare, but could the comparisons be more balanced? We should all know that men and women AREN'T equal. But we should recognize that we both hold different qualities in different areas that make us naturally superior to the other sex. Not saying that with dedication that these factors cannot be changed.

But that would lead us into Friday's topic... Log #4: The Battle of the Sexes. That wasn't cliche at all, right? ;)

4 comments:

  1. I was really looking forward to you throwing us girls a bone... I think you did quite nicely, considering. But still, why is Leia in the metal bikini? Because the demographic of Star Wars is male. When asked the inevitable question "Which Star Wars character are you?" us girls have few options: 1. Leia, (so mainstream, so...trampy.) 2. Padme (but I try to pretend the prequels never happened) 3. the slave dancer at Jabba's (killed.) You pick a movie like...hmm... Twilight (dirty creatures) and you've got Taylor Lautner and his abs. That is so, totally, female based (unfortunately). Why is Beauty and the Beast so popular, but so sexist? It shows that nerdy girls can get the guy, and look good doing it. And speaking of nerdy girls, I am one, and I cannot comment without saying that Leia did not have a weird haircut, she just had a weird hairstyle. Men will never learn the difference.

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  2. How True, though I didn't reference Twilight because I've never seen it or read the books. ;D I'm glad that you find beauty and beast so motivating. Hopefully your man can win you over without giving you stockholm syndrome first. But you're right about one thing, I doubt I'll ever understand women's haircuts. Only thing I know is; don't perm then shower. Legally Blonde ftw.

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  3. I only read the first book, dry heaved, and took a nap. I learned by osmosis, being a girl and all, that Taylor Lautner is "hot" and his abs are "super hot". I don't understand teenagers, and that includes me.

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  4. Before I a comment on what was said above, I wanted to say hehe panda. Now that that's over, I have to say that i agree with this post.
    The media does what you said it does. It's not untill were older that we reizle such, espically with Disney Movies. It makes me wonder if there will ever be a Disney movie with a kick ass girl who dosen't end up married and and love with a guy at the end. Disney is also the cause of princess syndrom i think its called.
    Now that my disney rant is over, i pretty much agree with the rest. The women in the workforce as true as it is, is just ugh and makes me angry thinking about it so I won't focus on it at all.
    Reading the comments above about Twilight and Taylor Lautner, made me think of things. I acually read all of the Twilight Books, which can lead to a lot of rainting that I just won't do. But I think the main chracter Bella is a perfect example of society's deffention of a woman, the weak emoutional, babymaker. As for Taylor Launter, I think that his is deemed hot,becouse pop culture tells people that he is so people believe it and agree without forming their own opinions. Same way that Robert Pattison, is deemed hot though he wasn't thought of as such before.

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