Weekly Reflection

This week I looked at gender issues over several media that are all around us in our daily lives. I looked into two TV shows – one a “reality” and one that is completely scripted and how they both interpret gender issues. In “Trading Souses” I saw how women that stay at home can be portrayed and how they can be insulted by their own kids and significant others for the work that they do. In the scripted show, “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,” the female characters do not seem to have the ability to have relationships outside of work while the males do. This is clearly a gender issue. Furthermore, I looked in the media and BBC revealed just how much trouble women are having balancing work and family life because they have more chores at home and so it’s hard to find that harmony. What is surprising is that 80% of women actually would quit their jobs because they are struggling so much, but do not because they need the money. Like I said in my post, if things were more equal at home, I think they could be more equal in the workplace. Until people stop thinking that the cooking, cleaning, etc are the roles of the women then I don’t think that gender issues at work will ever go away. Lastly, I even examined shopping and how it seems that the more practical things are in the men’s section while the women do not have this selection. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that women are known to be the shoppers, while men are considered to be more practical when it comes to their shopping decisions and so more thought goes into the product that gets put out. There’s another stereotype that I found to be quite insulting.