Weekly Reflection

This week I talked about several different ways that represent gender roles. First one is music. I have always noticed in music videos that men tend to dress very causally, usually a t-shirt, jeans and a pair of sneakers. That’s not the case with many women that are in videos. They’re either back up dancers for rappers or they’re the main artist themselves. Either way the point is that women are usually dressed much more provocatively. Women do not usually dress in casual clothes in videos. Usually they’re dressed in very revealing outfits that show a lot of skin, that most of them would not wear everyday when meeting a friend for lunch or going to get some shopping done. Guys seem much more relaxed and laid back while women have to be all “dolled up” with dramatic make up and clothing that leaves very little to the imagination. Sex sells, but this seems only to be the case for women. I showed an example of this when I posted Shakira’s new video. Shakira along with her back up dancers are wearing very revealing outfits for the most part while Lil’Wayne wears very comfortable everyday clothes. Another discovery that I made was that of how nature relates to this. For instance, I think that women have much longer rituals when it comes to getting ready – there’s the hair, the makeup, the wardrobe and not to mention all the shaving that has to go in. However, most men do not have to do so much to get ready. Some girls even like the rugged look and that doesn’t require much effort. And if they do “groom” themselves, I don’t think it’s as extensive as that of a woman. Why is it that women have to put in all the effort into attracting men while men wait around for women to flock them? Women have to do a lot to make themselves seem attractive and desirable. However, nature shows us something completely different. Instead, women are the one that get to lay back and take their pick at the most appealing male. The male counterpart is usually the prettier one with something to offer – like a song or a elaborate mane. The males have to attract the females. I’m not necessarily saying that women should let themselves go while men are supposed to go above and beyond to attract women but I’m just saying there should be some kind of balance. Lastly, I talked about the extremes. Sometimes it seems like there’s only two sides of the spectrum. On one side you have the extreme feminists that believe that women were disadvantaged for so long and now women should work while men stay at work or whatever it is that they think will make up for all the struggles that women have faced. On the other hand you have the other side which completely disregards women and doesn’t think that they belong in the “man’s world.” Throughout this entire project I just tried to strive at one thing – why is it that when it comes to gender issues it’s either this or that? There’s never a compromise or a balance. I think that’s definitely something that our society should work on.

December 6

Yesterday I met up with some friends to study for tests and finals. We talked about schoolwork a lot and I told one of my friends that my microbiology teacher constantly talks about Nobel Prize winners and how I think it’s ridiculous that they’re all male. Furthermore, in my Polish Culture class a group made a presentation about famous polish scientists that influenced science as we know it, and what do you know? They’re all male. What about Marie Curie? She left a giant footprint in chemistry, however, no one mentioned her. My friend that goes to a different school chimed in and said that her genetics teacher is a female and she only talks about other female geneticists and never about the male ones. I thought that this was quite interesting. I think it’s ridiculous that we can’t find a balance. It seems like males always choose other males when it comes to examples and females always choose other females because they feel like they have to catch up and prove something. I don’t understand why a class cannot find a balance. I think this is interesting because that’s what I chose to write my paper about, well a variation of it. I think it’s ridiculous that women cannot find the balance between work and family and instead are forced to chose one path, because if they choose both it will mean that they are sacrificing performance on both and it’s as if they are doing a poor job in both aspects. Another thing that I found that bothered me was something that I heard in church today. My priest kept talking about how women are not allowed to be priests and how many feminists now think that it’s unfair that they can’t be something that a man can. He then said something along the lines that it’s okay if women can’t do everything because not all men can do the same things as women – for example have children. Men are incapable of this job and so it’s perfectly acceptable for them not to be priests because that’s a job that only men can do. I understand his way of thinking but at the same time I found it to be a little bit ridiculous. if we apply the same logic to other things we might as well say “oh it’s okay for women not to be doctors or CEOs because they have other jobs that are specific for them that most men can’t do like stay at home, cook and clean.” I feel that logic can be spread out to accommodate that and next thing you know you once again have the jobs that are specific for women and once again high positions will be only a “man’s” job. If we apply this logic we’ll go backwards in time and undo all the progress that has been made thus far for women. However, at the same time I don’t think that an extreme feminist approach should be taken that states that women are owed more than men because of all the hardships and I don’t think that we should degrade men. I just think middle ground should be reached. Maybe I’m just being irrational and unrealistic but I’m just saying that it would be nice to see equality.

December 2

I woke up this morning and I thought to myself “if I don’t straighten my hair this morning I can sleep another 15 minutes or so.” Seeing as I went to sleep at 4 a.m. and had to wake up at 8 a.m. my choice was obvious. I pressed snooze. I thought about this issue (later on when I woke up of course) and how it relates to gender issue. It’s my personal belief that there is much more pressure on women to look attractive and spend time on their appearance. While men have several pressures to go work out and have a six-pack, women have a few more pressures I believe. We highlight our hair, wear make up to conceal everything, we don’t wear shorts if we didn’t shave our legs, and we wear uncomfortable tight clothes to highlight our silhouettes. I don’t think men are as pressured to do so much to make themselves more attractive to women. I think this is very interesting considering nature. Usually in nature (as far as animals are concerned) the male has to attract the female. For example, a male peacock has a brilliant blue color and an elaborate tail in order to gain attention from the female. However, a peahen isn’t as special. She doesn’t have to be. She’s the one that has to be attracted, not so much attractive. Another example is a lion. The male lion has a luscious mane in order to attract the lioness while the lioness is much plainer looking in comparison to the male. So how it seems that with our species it’s the women that are considered the ones that are desperate for the mate and that they have to make themselves more attractive in order for men to be interested?