"Men are Better Bowlers than Women"

In an episode of "Family Matters," Laura beats Eddie at a game. Eddie of course is angry, so Carl has to talk with his son telling him that "losing to a girl is not so bad." Of course Eddie replies with "yes it is." Later, the whole family goes bowling, and Carl loses to his wife, Harriette. Of course, Carl demands a rematch, because his wife could not have possibly actually beat him at a sport. This is ironic because he was giving his son a speech about the same problem that day.

This episode of "Family Matters" says a lot about gender and roles in sports. Basically, it says that men should not be flustered if women beat them at something, but still, the men in the show can't believe that girls actually beat them. Carl can only leave the bowling alley once he wins, and he runs around claiming that he is the champion. The girls talk about why they hate bowling, and Eddie comes around and says "because it's a man sport!" The aunt even calls the men in the episode "gloats."

Too Furious

After watching the fourth "Fast and the Furious" movie that recently came out in theaters, I realized that a lot was being said about gender for both males and females. Vin Diesel and Paul Walker are shown as the big bad boys in the movie. They are shown as muscular and can work with their hands. At the end of the movie, they are shown as the heroes. The girls at the races are in tight and minimal clothing. They wear heals, and make sexual gestures to the guys.

Basically, "Fast and the Furious" said that men are supposed to be muscular, have an action-packed job, and drive fast cars. Women are supposed to wear very little and tight clothing and grope all over men. Even the two girls that are not supposed to be a part of this image (the girlfriend and sister) are always shown with a ton of cleavage. Overall, the movie was great and I enjoyed seeing Vin Diesel and Paul Walker together once again.

The END!

Girls are just....

This week, while watching the ritual "That 70's Show" every night, I noticed one line that stood out like no other. The guys were talking about girls and that Kelso should dump Jackie for multiple reasons. He says something to the effect of "without the long fingernails, boobs, and butts, I wouldn't want to date any girls." I thought this was an extremely sexist comment and it gives a huge meaning of what he thinks it means to be a girl, or to be feminine. In this episode, Kelso says that the only reason he likes girls is because they have long fingernails, boobs, and butts. This sends out the message that in order to be liked, or to be dated by a guy, a girl should have long fingernails and a "perfect body."

I think that this is an incorrect portrayal of female because despite what Kelso thinks what a woman should be. In the actual world, women come in all shapes and sizes and don't all get their nails done weekly. I think that this episode of "That 70's Show" is wrong in what it means to be feminine.

The Provider

"George Lopez" is a show that gets turned on almost every evening. After watching it so often, I have started to notice a lot about femininity and masculinity. First, George is an important manager at his job, a husband, and the decision maker (or so he thinks). Angie (the wife) mostly stays at home to cook and clean. As part time jobs, she sells make-up and is also a wedding planner. Are these not the most stereotypical female jobs?

In my opinion, I think the show is trying to convey the message that men are supposed to be the head of the household and the women are supposed to cook, and have side jobs; George actually called Angie's wedding planning business a hobby.

In one episode, Angie wants to throw their daughter, Carmen, a 16th birthday party. George had just gotten laid off so he wanted to save money. Angie refused and planned the party anyways. At the party, Angie thanked her husband for his "emotional support" and he got upset because he thought everyone knew he had no money.

It is ridiculous that men think that they need to make more money than women, and I think we will see less and less of this as time goes on.

Just a little to much cleavage

As I was watching CSI: Miami, I was noticing that every female on the show was wearing nothing but revealing clothing. On one of the episodes, one of the investigators goes to speak to a delinquents foster father and she is wearing an all white skirt and jacket, with 4 inch heels. I would like to know who in their right mind wears something like that on a dock. In the real world, it would be very easy to get a heel stuck in the crack of the dock and go flying into the water. In another part of the same episode, a different investigator was talking to a suspect with a very low cut shirt on and half of her boob hanging out.

Why is it that women are portrayed as mere sex idols in even the least sexy shows? It's pathetic that when you turn the tv on to watch a suspenseful episode with Horacio, women are showing extreme cleavage and are wearing clothing that is not even practical.

Big Boys Don't Cry

Recently, I went to the movies and saw "Paul Blart: Mall Cop." This is a comedy starring Kevin James as Paul Blart. Blart is a security guard at the local mall who takes his job very seriously. His wife left him after using him for citizenship and he is single for years. His mother and daughter convince him to use an online dating service, and he searches for a match online. He meets what he thinks is his perfect match, Amy. After a bad evening in a bar, Amy wants nothing to do with Blart, but things change when he saves lives.

Although the "Mall Cop" is a big tough guy and saves lives, there are many times throughout the movie that he is crying. After the bad night in the bar, he starts crying when he thinks of Amy. He also cries in front of other cops. Blart is looked at as a baby because he cries in certain scenes throughout the movie. If there was a female crying in the movie, it would have been completely normal. Why is it that men cannot show emotion and be tough at the same time? I think this movie was good because it showed a full grown man crying. Society should not judge anyone for showing emotion.

Thanks for reading!

Just for the sympathy

Most all of you have seen the SPCA commercial with Sarah McLachlan telling us all how we should go to our phones and call the number to save animal's lives. If you haven't, click on the URL below and view it. As McLachlan says "With $18 a month, just $0.60 a day, you will save animals from their abusers, provide medical care, food, shelter, and love." Her song, "Angel" is playing in the background and she goes to say "right now, there is an animal that needs you, your call says I'm here to help. Please call, right now."


I'm definitely an animal lover and I support the SPCA, but I think that this commercial had intentions on being completely heart-wrenching with the famous female singer, Sarah McLachlan, as the spokesperson. On top of McLachlan petting a dog in the video, showing how supportive she is of the SPCA, she has her music playing the entire time. I don't think that the commercial would be as effective if there was a male as the spokesperson because females are often portrayed as more loving than males as seen in this video.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gspElv1yvc

Girl Fight

This week, we watched a film, "Girl Fight." In this film, Diana is a female that wants to train to be a boxer. At first the trainer, Hector, wanted nothing to do with Diana. Diana gets a lot of crap from people for boxing, and eventually she proves everyone wrong and wins in the ring.

Why is it that women aren't accepted as fighters? The movie was out in the year 2000, and even 9 years later, there are not many female boxers. Personally, I don't think that there are not many females in the ring because they don't want to fight, but because they are not accepted for what they truly want to do. For example- yesterday, one of my customers asked me if I knew any female boxers. Of course, my answer was "No," but her parents were actually shaking their heads telling her she cannot be a boxer.

Towards the end of the movie, Diana is forced to box her boyfriend (Adrian) in the championship, and he refuses to fight her. She told him that he better fight her, and when they did, she won. He was angry about it and then eventually got over it. I think that it should not matter male or female in the ring. It is proven in this movie that it doesn't matter, and it should be accepted that boxing is not just for men.

Anchors Away

This week I was watching the first episode of season 5 of Sex and the City, "Anchors Away." Basically, this episode is about "Fleet week" in NYC where a bunch of navy guys are in the city. Carrie and Charlotte, two of the main characters are looking for a hot navy guy. One of the guys stops Carrie in the middle of the street and invites them to a big navy party at the end of the week, and of course they accept. So, at the end of the week the girls are at the party.

I thought it was kind of strange that every navy person at the party was male. In reality, there are many women in the navy. I thought that this episode (and of course MANY of the Sex and the City episodes) was stereotyping. This episode was stereotyping that just men are in the navy. Also, I noticed that all of the men were model like men that were good looking and physically fit. I thought that this was saying that all men in the navy are in great shape and look like models. Although this was a good episode, there were a lot of things said about gender.

Thanks for your time!

Girls can get dirty too!

Last night I was watching "That 70's Show," "Career Day." In this episode, Red (Eric's father), is working on his car and cannot get help from anyone. Jackie comes by and Red asks Jackie to "hold the flashlight on the carburetor." Jackie does exactly what was asked of her. Red then shows her how to change a tire. Red was surprised that Jackie knew anything about fixing cars. So I just want to know why is it so strange when a female knows how to change their oil or change a tire?

Also in this episode, Eric is with his mother, Kittie, at the hospital she is a nurse at. Kittie runs around taking care of people all day while her doctor is rude to her. The doctor tells Kittie to prescribe a penicillin medicine to a person and Kittie says that she doesn't think that is a good idea and gives another suggestion. The doctor comes back with "and why is that NURSE?" so Kittie says that Mr. Harris is allergic to penicillin and she thinks that the other medicine will make him a little less dead. The fact that the doctor is so rude to her is unacceptable. Just because the doctor is a male and Kittie is a female, does not mean that she is incapable of doing her job correctly. Gender should not influence the way people are treated, especially at work.

Thanks for reading!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce_qOfQ3Vq4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDBxA6pZlWQ

Wall-e and Eve

In June 2008, Walt Disney came out with a film "Wall-e." The movie was about a robot named Wall-e who was left to clean up the Earth's trash while humans went on a spaceship cruise. The Earth was supposed to go through a regeneration period, and the humans would be able to return once life was found. Robots on the spaceship were sent down every so often to check on the status. One day, while Wall-e was cleaning the dump area, a spaceship landed and a girl robot came out. It was love at first sight for Wall-e. The girl robot, Eve, found a baby plant and had to return to the spaceship. Wall-e followed her because he didn't want to lose Eve. Through many adventures, the spaceship came back to Earth because humans could now live there.

I thought this movie was stereotypical to both males and females. Wall-e was a dirty, falling-apart robot. He was left on Earth to clean up everyone's trash and do the dirty work. Eve was created on the spaceship and was extremely clean and a much better looking robot. I think the movie "Wall-e" was sending messages that men are for doing the hard labor and don't keep themselves up as well as women do. Walt Disney showed that these robots had differences and they were able to overcome them to find true love.

The following is a link to a "Wall-e" trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZisWjdjs-gM&feature=related