Thursday, August 2, 2012

Does thinking this is funny make me a bad feminist?

I thought Tuesday's discussion about gender stereotypes was really interesting, because they show up EVERYWHERE. It's telling that when it came to listing stereotypes of each gender, everyone agreed on the lists that were written, and it didn't take long at all for us to collectively compile those lists. As evidenced by the Fergusen et al. reading about representations of promiscuity and the Aubrey & Taylor study regarding priming through lad mags, we are bombarded on all sides by stereotypical representations of both men and women in the media.
The Fergusen et al. reading specifically talked about stereotypes regarding women's sexual behaviors, and how assumptions about those behaviors lead to judgements about their character, or minimizing the negative effects of sexual attention if they're perceived as promiscuous. Julia brought up in class that at least three blog posts (my own included) brought up situations of satirical hyper-sexualized TV and movie characters who, while over the top, could still provide a negative and lasting impression to the viewer. While the examples given in class and in the readings largely addressed negative stereotypes about how women present themselves physically, what about representations that satirize the way women present themselves emotionally? The Harvard Sailing Team is a sketch comedy troupe that makes fun of gender stereotypes in their video, "Boys Will Be Girls."


The video features four guys sitting around a TV watching The Biggest Loser while speaking in abbreviations and discussing stereotypical female topics, like their unhealthy dietary habits and complaints about not getting enough attention from their significant others. They aren't dressed as girls or pretending to be girls (a la the Shit Girls Say saga), but seem to find strength in how ludicrous it seems to have four straight men with female mannerisms, emotions, and behaviors.
I admit, I think this video is funny. Perhaps that's partially due to the fact that it was shown to me by five of my guy friends who lived together last year, quote this video all the time, and are self-proclaimed "besties with testes." Jokingly, but not really. In any case, this video is extremely gendered and heightens the contrast between men and women by having men act like women. Again, this is over-the-top, and uses the most obnoxious representations of stereotypical female irrationality. But if representations of satirized female sexuality can be a concern, and can lead people to think that those representations are authentic and typical, do satirized representations of female emotions carry the same concerns?

No comments:

Post a Comment