Dr. Pepper 10... It's Not For Women

I very rarely watch TV. When I do, it’s online, and after the show has been aired. But this past Thursday, I found myself watching comedy central at friend’s apartment. The blatant division of gender roles portrayed in the commercials was shocking, and it reminded me of a comment that was made during last weeks discussion. During the presentation about cross-dressing and homosexuality in films, the question was raised about films being marketed to men. One commercial that addressed this struck me the most. It is a Dr. Pepper 10 commercial that makes fun of the stereotypical male action movie. It does not do this in a way that makes the audience question the way movies are marketed to men, but rather provokes a sense of masculine camaraderie through the imposition of gender categories on certain activities. The commercial begins with a caricaturized jungle action scene, complete with background lazar fire and chase music. The hero stops against a tree saying “hey ladies, enjoying the film? Of course not.” Your left with a feeling that he might be about to present an alternative, or that the shot will cut to a group of women having fun doing something ells. This still seems like a possibility as the hero jumps of what seems like a large cliff screaming “cause this is our movie!” The hope is extinguished when he lands in an opened top jungle car, and proclaims, “and Dr. Pepper 10 is our soda!” At this point I’m wondering what about Dr. Pepper 10 is so masculine, and my confusion only deepens when the hero tells us “its only 10 manly calories, but with all 23 flavors of Dr. Pepper, its what guys want…”

When I realized they were selling a diet soda I wondered why they would want to exclude women from buying it. Society puts more pressure on women to be thin then on men, and from a marketing point of view, it seems silly to dissuade them from buying the soda. Yet still, the commercial is very adamant about this. In the scene, the car skids to a stop in front of the camera and the hero looks into it an says “So you can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks” the car then screeches off as the hero shouts the final catchphrase “Dr Pepper 10… its not for women”. These words are then come up on screen, next to a can of Dr. pepper 10. The entire marketing strategy for this product seems to be getting men to buy it by telling them its not for women. The commercial itself mocks masculine stereotypes, but at the same time reinforcing them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iuG1OpnHP8

American Apparel: Advertisement or Pornography?

http://www.funtasticus.com/2008/11/05/american-apparel-ads-too-sexy-for-comfort/

Unless you haven't noticed, American Apparel has a large series of advertisements that consists of young, attractive, women wearing next to nothing. The purpose of an advertisement is attract viewers to the product that a company or business is selling, but it's rather obvious from looking at this ad that they're selling more than just pretty socks. This advertisement pretty much screams "I'm female and I'm horny, let's fuck." There are a few male models for the advertisements, but rarely are they exposed to the level of those with female models. These advertisements are striking in that they expose a too much sexual implications for one to be comfortable.

If you don't believe me, you can look at American Apparel's very own advertisement link.
http://americanapparel.net/presscenter/ads/index.aspx
Yes, those are legitimate advertisements. It's rather ironic that they are using nearly naked models to advertise a clothing line.

This poses a serious gender and social conflict, in that we ask is it acceptable for these women to be showing off their bodies so freely for the sake of a clothing company advertisement? Maybe if it was Playboy or Maxim magazine, this would be more suitable, but come on, this is being posted on wall advertisements, magazines, and public billboards for everybody to see.

American Apparel is seriously pushing the limits of sexually exploiting the female gender by publicizing these sexually driven explicit advertisements. Almost every other advertisement suggests that the female model wants sex. What kind of representation are we making of women? By socially placing these images in our environment, we're corrupting and dehumanizing the female's role and identity in society as a respectable human being. Not only do these advertisements suggest sexual behavior, but they expose it to everybody in the public, such that teenagers and kids can even see these things and be easily influenced. 

Women Character's Roles in Video Games

http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/true-female-characters

After our discussion today about how video games can promote social change, I became interested in exploring the gender issues that surrounded gaming in general. Being a huge gamer myself, I knew of a web series where intellectual points of gaming were explored an

d I found one particular entry to reveal a lot about the topic I was curious about (the link is posted at the top of the article). The entry, entitled "True Female Characters", explored the idea of how to make a "good" woman character within a video game. Oftentimes the public hears about how women are constantly being objectified in games, and to that I say this is actually a very accurate assertion, for the most part. There are so many female characters within video games who are devoid of personality and only exist to show off either their physical appearance (Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball anyone? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KEBg6YQ8pE) or act in a very "female" role by getting captured, hiding from battle, etc while the men characters

do all the real work. The web episode asserts that this isn't the only way a woman could be used in gaming and in fact, a realistic, strong, multidimensional female character could be created if 2 simple aspects of a woman's characteristics were explored and utilized when designed.

The first characteristic mentioned was a woman's genetic traits. The web episode raised an interesting point of what sets women so apart from men is their ability to bear children. They argue that there has not been a game yet about a mother and her struggles and challenge the idea that if such a game were to be created, there could be potential for a really moving and complex character. Additionally, they claim that game developers have yet to cover other more subtle traits like a woman's ability to generally be more dexterous than man, or a woman's higher tolerance for pain. They argue that if any of these various genetic traits were explored, a female character could be better fleshed out and made into a compelling figure.

The second aspect that defined a woman's personality were through societal pressures. The web episode argued that there were forces within society that worked to define how a woman should act and think. The thought that girls like the color pink or should wear skirts are just a couple of many societal expectations placed on women. The web episode asserts that if a female character were to defy and fight against some of these traits, she could be a rather intriguing person. However, they also warn that one should not create a female character who rejects ALL female expectations because in doing so, she becomes a stereotype. Thus they must find an equilibrium of accepting some societal roles, while fighting others in order to be a truly realistic figure.

This being said, there are a few games who do achieve the creation of interesting female characters, most notable Madison from Heavy Rain (pictured below), Alex from Half Life, and Samus in every game of the Metroid series besides Other M (which failed to characterize her as the independent, fierce bounty hunter that she is). If any of you have time on your hands, I suggest looking into a few of these ladies, as I think they pave the way into breaking down walls of female stereotypes in games, making video games more credible and stronger story tellers.

Little Boy in a Princess Costume

[Excerpt from the Los Angeles Times article]
"A good day is when Luc wakes up and wants to be a tractor for Halloween. Or a helicopter. Or Hercules. Or anything other than a princess, bounding door-to-door in tiara and tulle.

A few weeks ago, the 4-year-old boy's desire to trick-or-treat as a princess sparked a dilemma for his two moms, Anna and Louisa Villeneuve: Which do you honor and protect, your child's independent spirit or tender feelings?"


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1022-banks-20111022,0,21747,full.column

An article in the Los Angeles Times, "The princess costume and the trick-or-treat dilemma," Sandy Banks describes the trouble a couple is having with their four year old son, Luc Villeneuve, who wants to be a princess this Halloween.  Knowing the negative reactions of having Luc dress as a princess, his parents are finding it difficult responding to his decision.  They do not mind having their son wear this costume.  However, they are concerned about the comments people will make when Luc is seen in a princess costume on Halloween.  What determines a person’s gender?  Society has made physiological characteristics determine whether a person is a male or female.  In addition, there are social norms regarding gender, boys play with trucks and girls play with dolls.  Gender identification has been constructed by society and deviances from gender roles receive negative social sanctions.  For Luc, dressing up in a princess costume will shock people who see him because it is strange to see a little boy wear a “girl’s” costume.  In responding to Luc wanting to be a princess, female children say he should be a wizard instead because only girls can be princesses.  The expected reactions from society regarding Luc’s choice in costume make it difficult for his parents to decide how they should handle the problem.  

Another example in Film: Yentl

There are a lot of similarities between The Lieutenant Nun and Yentl.

Yentl, is the story of a young Jewish girl who goes against tradition by discussing Jewish law/theology with her rabbi father. When he dies, she decides she wants to continue to study the Talmud. She cuts her hair, dresses as a man, and begins to live a secret life as a man named Anshel.

When entering the Yeshiva, Yentl befriends Avigdor and meets his fiancee, Hadass. Hadass's family cancels the wedding to Avigdor because they fear his family is tainted with insanity and want her to marry Anshel instead (Yentl). The story becomes even more complicated as Hadass falls in love with Anshel (Yentl), while Yentl falls in love with Avigdor.

Later on in the story Anshel's (Yentl) study partner, Avigdor, discovers the truth about Yentl's gender identity. Similarly to the Lieutenant Nun, Yentl asserts that she is "neither one sex nor the other" and has "the soul of a man in the body of a woman." Both these assertions suggest a gender identity crisis, especially when at the end of the story she decides to continue living as Anshel instead of Yentl. She moves from Europe to America in hopes of living her life as a freer man.


Yentl Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL5_ErSq9EM




Clip from Yentl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwCPAo5e_F8

Transgender in Film

Boys Don't Cry, starring a young Hilary Swank, is based on the true story of Brandon Teena, a transgender teen who decided to lead a life as a male. Unlike Maria Felix in La monja alférez, Swank's performance as a male character in Boys Don't Cry is believable. In fact, the film won 43 awards and was considered to be one of the most controversial films of the decade. Touching upon issues of sexuality, confusion and oppression, the film raised awareness of the injustices that people of transgender face today. 


While films such as La monja alférez focused on the beauty of the transgender characters, films such as Boys Don't Cry and Transamerica are aware of the room for change and advocacy.They focus on the reality of oppression and how believable and credible the characters are. These films go beyond a simple story. They allow us to raise questions, provide room to interact with the masses, and affect the way we perceive gender. 


Below are clips of the trailers for Transamerica and Boys Don't Cry.

Intersexed Patients

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14459843

I thought this article was relevant to Preves's discussion of intersexed individuals, and a good example of its continued treatment in some medical communities as a pathology. It certainly focuses on the "feelings of alientation and despair" criticized in Preves's article: patients describe themselves as a "psychological mess" and living in "shame and secrecy," implying that intersex is damaging to the child's identity. No one has anything good to say about the intersexed condition; it is solely presented as something devastating that must be dealt with through science. This article celebrates the same medicalization that Preves criticizes, when I think it should be asking the same questions Preves asked, like "Does it really matter if one's genitals do not measure up to medically codified norms?" The article attempts to show the progressiveness of new medical procedures, and the care they take in creating a stable identity for the child. While this is progressive in its movement away from the invasive procedures and rigid binaries of male/female anatomy that Preves criticized, the approach still celebrates science "fixing" problems of the body, even when it is not necessary to the health of the patient. The article concludes by arguing for a more widespread definition of sex, yet the crises of identity presented throughout the rest of the piece demonstrate how important definitions of gender and sexuality remain in society.