State of Distress

On September 20^th, 2001, hardly a week after the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, President George W. Bush faced a terrified American public, and delivered his State of the Union address. In this speech, the President consoled the wounded American spirit, by asserting that the United States of America was proving itself to be as strong as ever. Through the course of the address, President Bush explained that the United States Military would be taking action against the terrorists, and countries whose governments functioned in ways that aided in the training of al Qaeda. Along with this, President Bush also took time to address the terrorists themselves. In doing so, President Bush spoke in ways that asserted the traits of masculinity that the terrorists possessed.

            President Bush made a point to make it clear that the terrorists that attacked the World Trade Centers were individuals that were a part of a group that functioned under a belief of radical Islamic ideals. President Bush stated that “The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children.” This statement expresses an extreme form of masculinity that the terrorists possessed. They were horribly aggressive, and would not stop at anything in order to achieve what they believed in. Violence is also a trait that is considered to be masculine. President Bush went in depth into the prior attacks on American people that al Qaeda had committed in the past. By revisiting attacks on American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as the bombing of the USS Cole, President Bush is trying to prove how violent this group can get. By stressing their apt for violence, he is also stressing their internet masculinity, which in this case, is an extreme, negative, form of masculinity. Their masculinity is put to the point where it is almost unhuman, and animal like in nature, or at least barbaric.

            When it comes to gender stereotypes, hatred is often seen as a trait associated with masculinity. In his address, President Bush plays up the amount of hatred that these people possessed, and as a result, played up their sense of masculinity. From hatred of the United States as a whole to hatred of the concepts of freedom and democracy, the terrorists are framed as a group that will accept nothing other than their extremist views. The terrorists are portrayed as being unwilling to spare even women or children in their effort to dominate over the cultures that they are attempting to dismantle. From the perspective of George Bush during this speech, he sees this as being an example of their pure hatred.

            Something interesting that President Bush makes a point of in this speech has to do with the religion of the terrorists. In his speech, Bush makes it clear that the religion of Islam is in no way to blame for the attacks, but instead, a group of individuals which have skewed the teachings of Islam in order to conform to their violent desires. In doing so, President Bush exhibited excellent foresight into the future discrimination that Muslim Americans have been unjustly subjected to since these attacks. Many of the reports of these attacks, as well as other attacks that have been carried out by Muslim extremists, often times stressed the fact that they were simply radical Muslims. They disregarded any other motivation for their atrocious crimes, and instead, simply reported to the American public that these individuals were carrying out were encouraged by the faith of Islam. This notion simply isn’t true, and is what led to the horrifying acts of discrimination, based on ignorance, and disregard for the actual teachings of Islam, substituting in this violent bastardization of the Muslim faith.

            President Bush’s speech after the terrorist attack of September 11^th provided a sense of safety and pride, to a country that had so recently been attacked on its own soil. The United States, being a part of the Americas, has been so isolated from the rest of the world that an attack on home soil had seemed to be such a foreign idea. Faced with a challenge that many presidents before him had never even had to consider, President Bush gave hope to a fearful population. In doing so, he characterized the enemy that the military was looking to take down. This characterization of the terrorists, for better or for worse, built up the concept of their masculinity.

The Lost Lenore

           

 In her vlogs for Feminist Frequency, Anita Sarkeesian focused primarily on tropes in popular culture that emphasized negative female gender stereotypes. While her representation of female tropes leads to the conclusion that the majority of female characters embody these negative stereotypes, there are plenty of tropes that female characters that are not necessarily destructive. One such trope is the Lost Lenore, from the Lenore from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven.” This trope is similar to the concept of the women in refrigerators that Anita talked about, but this trope takes it a step further. The Lost Lenore is a female character that has been deceased from the beginning of the work, and acts solely as a plot device for the writers to work off. While Sarkeesian would likely argue this trope as being a negative objectification of a female character, it could be argue that this trope acts as a way to complicate gender norms, and work in positive ways for female characters.

            In many ways, the Lost Lenore represents exactly what Sarkeesian was against. These characters are females whose death has more importance to the story than they did when they were alive. In this sense, they are little more than a plot device. It could be argued that, as women, they have been belittled to the point where they are only being used as a justification for the actions of the men. Given Sarkeesian’s arguments for other tropes, specifically in her interpretation of the trope of the women in refrigerators, this seems like a likely approach for this trope for someone arguing from her standpoint. This interpretation, though, belittles the importance of the character as a whole. The whole point of a character acting as a Lost Lenore is that their absence completely alters the life of the lover that they left behind. For Lenores that have passed before the work begins, the audience never sees them, and never gets to know their character. This does not belittle their existence as women. As a matter of fact, their effect, in death, on their former lovers is a testament to their significance.

            When the Lost Lenore is thought of, thoughts of gothic literature, such as Poe’s work, or modern Hollywood dramas are the first thing to come to mind. For this reason, one distinctive type of the Lost Lenore is seen in comedy. For example, the television sitcom Full House is based upon a father and his daughters, who have lost their mother. Danny, the father, must cope with the loss of his wife throughout the entire series. To the viewer, Pam, our Lost Lenore, is never seen. From a plot standpoint, she remains rather insignificant. Her back story is almost non-existant. The only information that is given about her is that she was killed in a car accident. Very few episodes, especially in later seasons, revolve around Danny’s lost lover. However, the significance of her lost can be seen in the effects of the characters. In this way, the Lost Lenore complicates gender norms, instead of reinforcing negative feminine stereotypes. After her death, Danny is left to raise three daughters by himself. Apart from the anxiety, and possible obsessive compulsiveness, that the loss of his wife gave him, Danny’s character is decidedly more feminine than other males in the series. Without a female figure in the house, Danny is forced to adopt the roles that she would have played. This concept is often played on by making Danny appear humorously over-feminine. After the death of his wife, Danny not only has to cope with the emotional side of loss, but the familial side. From a superficial viewpoint, some would say that Pam only acts as a plot device to serve Danny, but when taken in as a whole, the significance that this female plays cannot be denied. Of course there is very little to her actual character that is revealed, which is an argument that Sarkeesian offered against female tropes. Though, her roles in the family in no way enforce a negative stereotype towards women, and through her death, her positive aspects are only enforced further.

            Most characters across any form of media can be fit into a specific trope. The call that Sarkeesian is making to Hollywood writers to “write realistic characters” is quite ridiculous. No matter what traits are given to a character, they are always going to possess some traits that fit them into a specific stereotype. Even when the character is purposely given traits to contrast with those stereotypes, they can be overanalyzed to the point where their contrasting characteristics are linked to negative stereotypes. When analyzing tropes, it’s important to understand the ways in which both negative and positive stereotypes are being presented. Along with that, it’s important to understand why these tropes are being used. In the case of the Lost Lenore, the character is belittled to be little more than a plot device, who could be argued as using her femininity as a tool for the male characters. However, the greater context of the character, and the audience consuming the media must be considered in these situations. While Pam possesses many of the stereotypes that Sarkeesian is condemning, it is hard to see these features in the Lost Lenore as being negative.

Body-Positivity and tumblr.

                Blogging has established itself as a unique method in which people can independently voice their own opinions, and spread their ideals to the largest audience possible. The blogging platform Tumblr has provided an easy way for users to create their own blogs, as well as to follow blogs that appeal to their interests. While many users use this service to look at funny pictures, and read interesting news, there is a large portion of the website’s population that is interested in the Third Wave Feminism movement. Tumblr has become a modern platform to spread awareness of issues facing women in the present. Along with these issues, there is a focus on female portrayal in media. Specifically, the physical expectations for women to conform to. Through these blogs, there is an attempt to raise questions to the expectations of female appearances, and create a counter-culture of body positivity. However, due to the vast population of users on the website, not all people agree with the attacks on modern beauty myths.

                Tumblr has almost become synonymous with the concept of feminism, to the point that it is parodied. While some users take their political beliefs to unrealistic extremes, the website still works as a platform for spreading information and ideas. It has made it much easier to directly put an advertisement, or a screen grab from a piece of visual media, and immediately add personal commentary. A common criticism is that the media, whether it be a movie, or more commonly, an advertisement, is that it creates an unrealistic expectation for women. Doctored pictures of celebrities paired alongside the original photographs show how the media works to create this unrealistic representation. The posts are then reposted to thousands of blogs, increasing the amount of people that will see them, exponentially. The website then becomes a real-time representation of the public’s feeling regarding these beauty myths.

However, these stereotypes of feminine beauty have been around for hundreds of years, as Naomi Wolf pointed out in her book The Beauty Myth. In her book, she states that “Like any economy, it is determined by politics, and in the modern age in the West it is the last, best belief system that keeps male dominance intact” (12). In this passage, she refers to the constructed myth of beauty as being created by those that perceive it, and due to its widespread nature, it enforces male dominance. As these strict notions of feminine beauty are continually advertised to young women, they begin to believe it fully. The ways in which feminine and masculine beauty standards are portrayed in the media are grossly uneven. The focus on feminine beauty as being simply physical further emphasizes male dominance, in that respect. This fact is where tumblr takes a stand. They refute the standards of feminine beauty, claiming it to be a remnant of patriarchal society. The concept of beauty as being confined to the models that are pasted in magazines no longer has a hold on these bloggers. Hundreds of blogs, which function as independent websites, have been created in order to spread the idea of female body-positivity. This counter-cultural movement stresses that beauty isn’t confined to a Hollywood check-list, but instead comes from positivity. These blogs offer an alternative view to the women that feel overwhelmed by the beauty ideals they have been fed their entire lives. Instead, they are taught to love the way that they look, and reject the idea that they must conform to those ideals to be beautiful. Unfortunately, there are others who do not believe this, and instead, continue to force the ideals of feminine beauty, but in a more extreme way.

Pro-ana blogs, ana being an abbreviation for anorexia nervosa, are blogs that promote eating disorders as a way to conform to feminine beauty standards.  These blogs idealize the idea of not eating, and starving oneself, and almost glorify it. With artistic shots of women with concave stomachs and bulging hipbones, they create an ideal beauty based around unhealthy activity. Luckily these blogs are generally thought of as harmful, and are condemned by most tumblr users. Though, this does not exclude them from the general tumblr movement. Those who fit into the ideal are not excluded, but instead are treated as equal. There is no disdain for those who strive to look like the models in advertisements, only for those who believe that it increases their worth as a human being. The movement to disregard personal appearance when evaluating the worth of a person, and framing all appearances as equal, creates an opposite culture than that which is enforced through the media.

The concept of body-positivity is by no means new, but it adds an interesting twist onto the way in which people perceive beauty myths. The primary focus of this particular culture is to spread the idea that it’s okay to look like the models in the advertisement, but it’s also okay to look like yourself. The promotion of this idea aims to reduce the amount of young women which undergo drastic changes to their lives, in order to change their appearance. With the number of young women, as well as men, who suffer from eating disorders, the concept of body-positivity can help promote healthier lifestyles, and hopefully change the way in which the public perceives objective beauty.

The Evolution of Female Gender Roles in Video Games

From ancient mythologies, to modern blockbusters, it’s a trope almost as old as storytelling itself. A man desires a woman, and sets out to save her from a certain danger that she is faced with. The man, portrayed as the hero of the story, is either successful, and is immediately loved by the woman, or he fails miserably. This damsel in distress myth has been retold, time after time, in almost all forms of storytelling. Video games are no exception. This myth is undeniably based on gender stereotypes. The man is heroic, bold, and aggressive, while the female is weak and passive. The man is strong, and able to defeat the enemies that had kidnapped the poor, defenseless woman. However, as storytelling within video games has become more advanced, partially due to the ability to created larger games, these basic stories that are based on stereotypes have been called into question. Now, there is a distinct movement to challenge these stereotypes that they had been perpetuating, by essentially challenging the gender norms themselves.

            Many people are familiar with the stories of early home console games such as Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, or, more accurately, the lack of story. The player is dropped into the game with no knowledge of the world that they are in, knowing only that there is a princess missing, and it is their job, as the masculine hero, to find them. The primary consumers of this medium, at the time, were boys and men. Due to this, the boys playing the game would see themselves as the masculine protagonist. As they controlled the character, they would feel powerful, and vicariously through their avatar, they would feel like they could save the defenseless princess. They could slay their enemies with ease, feeling wholly masculine. However, this has changed since the eighties. As more females became vocal about their desires for games that catered to their needs, companies began pumping out games that conformed to female stereotypes. These games did not have all of the violence, but instead, took a more peaceful approach to the game play. The appeal was to the stereotypical feminine characteristic of passiveness. Games such as these continued to be made, as the female audience fought back. While men enjoyed being able to see masculinity in the characters that they played as, women were not enjoying the stereotypical femininity that was being thrown at them in their games. The female antagonists were unrealistically feminine, and held very little qualities that women actually wanted to present. This fight back has led us to today, where female protagonists in game are finally being given their due. A good example of this is Lara Croft from the Tomb Raider series. Lara Croft has consistently been the epitome of gender stereotypes in video games. While she is portrayed as being intelligent and athletic, most of the emphasis of the design of her character was on her sexuality. Lara has consistently been designed as being an ultra-thin, big breasted, computer generated sex icon. This emphasis on female gender was not working to encourage women to play their games, but instead, to encourage men to play a game where they were able to stare at the backside of this polygonal heroine. Again, the gender stereotypes being portrayed were still quite feminine, but female gamers were still not pleased. Their demands were clear. They did not want to play as a character that was a beacon of femininity. They wanted a character that seemed real. In order to do this, in the latest installment of the Tomb Raider series, Lara Croft was masculinized. Her breast size was reduced to that of a normal looking human. Her muscles were pronounced, as any athletic climber’s would be, and most importantly of all, she was wearing pants. This version of Lara was considerably grittier. She could withstand being cut, stabbed, and essentially impaled, and continue on the quest that was at hand. No longer was she a symbol of female sexuality and feminine gender roles. She now represented a mixture of the feminine traits that she had, and new masculine traits of aggression and independence. This was met with praise from female gamers, but this notion lead to a complication in the ways that masculine and feminine stereotypes were to be portrayed in games.

            While it appeared that most men desired to take control of a character that possessed traits that matched their gender, it would seem that many female gamers did not. While they desired to play as a character that matched their sex, they did not want one who strictly conformed to feminine stereotypes. Thus, it has been determined that most female gamers look for a female protagonist who does not serve as a symbol of their gender, but instead, acts as a realistic character. This discrepancy between male desires for their fantasies, and female desires for their fantasies provides a noticeable complication in the stereotyping of females by feminine traits.

Dr. Pepper 10: It's Not for Women

         
   When it comes to food and beverage advertisements, it is easy to see a clear bias when it comes to which products are marketed to which gender. Generally, high calorie, high protein food is marketed towards men, whereas lower calorie alternatives to those foods are almost always marketed to women. Consuming foods with large amounts of protein and fats is generally seen as masculine, while eating lightly is often viewed as feminine. Due to this trend, in this advertising, Dr. Pepper has attempted to appeal to many different stereotypically masculine activities and attitudes in order to present their low-calorie beverage as a manly beverage.

            Opting to not use their original slogan for this beverage, “It’s not for women,” in this ad, Dr. Pepper decided to pair images of their product with masculine activities, in order to assert that this beverage is intended for those who consider themselves to be manly. As the commercial opens up, the camera is set on a man, emerging from a tent, with scraggly hair and an unkempt beard. Facial hair, of course, being a trademark characteristic of masculinity. As this man comes out of his tent, to grab and eat bark directly from a tree, the singer of the background music sings “There’s no such thing as no man’s land to me,” meaning that nothing is off limits to this man. By saying this, the commercial is giving off the sense that this man is a dominant, aggressive man who takes what he desires. Dominance and aggressive tendencies are often considered to be very masculine characteristics, versus passiveness, which is generally seen as being feminine. After he takes a bite from the tree bark, the camera cuts to a shot of him holding a massive tree trunk. This shows the man, once again, as a dominant, masculine figure who takes what he desires. Next, the man is shown with his hand, elbow deep, in a raging stream, reminiscent of a bear hunting for salmon. This shot establishes a sense of self-reliance, a traditionally masculine trait. When he pulls his hand out of the stream, the product is revealed to be in his hand, covered in layers of ice. The man does not flinch as he swings his fist into a rock, breaking the ice. Again, exhibiting a sense of dominance, and a lack of fear towards pain. Then comes a shot that shows the man, acting in a masculine way, almost exactly how Devor would have described it. He is standing erect, legs spread out, arms held away from the body, as if to take up as much space as possible, while letting out a loud yell. This stance embodies the ideal masculine stance, showing him as standing his ground, ready to dominate any aggressor that attempts to challenge him. This represents the epitome of masculine physicality. In this shot, the advertisement is establishing that this product fully exudes masculinity, and has no traces of femininity associated with it. This entirely masculine behavior is desired by many men who wish to appear as masculine as possible. By showing a complete lack of femininity in their advertisement, Dr. Pepper Ten establishes their reduced-calorie beverage as a beacon of pure masculinity. The desire for masculinity becomes completely associated with the idea of drinking this diet soft drink. As the commercial draws to a close, the narrator comes in and states that Dr. Pepper Ten is “The manliest low-calorie soda in the history of mankind.” This act of disassociating the concept of a low-calorie soda from preconceived ideas of femininity creates a desire for the beverage, based completely on one’s desire to appear as masculine as possible.

            Dr. Pepper Ten’s ad campaign appears to be based on a simple premise, disconnect the beverage from the idea of femininity, and focus on appeal directly to men’s sense of masculinity. By doing so, their advertisement seemed to follow Devor’s stereotypically masculine characteristics, word for word. By showing their product as a symbol of masculinity, Dr. Pepper was able to associate their product with the concepts of ruggedness and manliness. By making these associations, they were able to create desire for their product, solely based on consumer’s desire to be masculine.

Blog 1

Tobacco advertisements have long been a source of controversy. From vintage ads featuring incorrect health advice, to common ads accused of pushing tobacco products onto children, tobacco ads have continuously been fought against by citizens and government alike. While it is clear why people are repulsed by certain ads, such as those advertising to kids and teens that smoking is “cool” and “hip,” different aspects of the advertising of tobacco can be much more fascinating. Like Jack Solomon had said in his essay Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising, ads commonly do not reveal information about their product, but instead, utilize other techniques for creating a mass intrigue for their product. In this particular Newport ad, the creators play off of the western myth of the desire for a happy marriage, and the idea that their product will make the buyer belong, in order to raise desire for their product.

            The most striking aspect of this ad is its complete lack of information regarding the product. In addition to that, the models in the photo are not even using the product. By removing the cigarettes from the central portion of the ad, they manage to remove every negative connotation from the picture, even though the negative association that people would make with the photo comes from the product itself. The general, non-smoking, public views smoking as an unhealthy habit, and most smokers do as well. However the goal of this advertisement is to draw away from this aspect of smoking, and focus on how the product is pleasurable. Tobacco advertisements face a particularly difficult challenge when it comes to ignoring the negative health impacts the product can have, due to the obligatory Surgeon General’s Warning that must be posted on each advertisement. Through the use of vivid, contrasting colors, such as the bright green background and bold orange text, the eye is drawn immediately to the picture, not the fine print on the bottom. After someone’s attention is grabbed, their eyes immediately draw down to the models. Instantly, it can be seen that the models are happy. This reveals one of the most basic messages that advertisements try to convey. They are trying to show that if you purchase their product, you can be as happy as the two models in this picture, even though there is no evidence that the models have even used the product. However, this advertisement exploits a more basic human emotion, which Solomon noted in his article, which is the fear of not belonging. The advertisement features a newlywed, happy, couple. Against the backdrop of “Newport Pleasure,” this ad subconsciously claims that if you don’t smoke Newport brand cigarettes, you won’t find love. This idea brings up the fear that many Americans have, which is, marriage is the key to happiness in life. This cultural myth expresses marriage as being the end goal of life. Not only is it the norm to find someone to marry, but it is almost expected by most people.  If you find love, you will be happy. Newport is asserting itself as the key to finding this happiness. The statement they are making is that if you don’t buy this product, you will not be happy and you will not fit into this ideal notion of love. Thus, you will not belong. The fear of not belonging is a large driving force in advertising. By showing their product as a normative object, essential to one’s culture, a person is prone to purchasing the object in order to feel like they fit in. While smoking is seen by many as an atypical behavior, this advertisement attempts to instill the idea that smoking is the norm, and the key to all things pleasurable.

            This specific ad adheres to many of the criticisms that Solomon put forth in his essay. The lack of information regarding the product it is trying to sell, the incorporation of the cultural myth of a happy, American, marriage, and the exploitation of the fear of being alone are all prominent in this advertisement. While these unconscious appeals to the viewer’s emotion will not resonate with everyone that sees it, the prevalence of this and other similar Newport advertisements, across the internet and magazines, are a testament to their overall effectiveness.