Women and Pop Culture Entry 1

Hannah Dickie

1/30/15

 

Feminism and Pop Culture by Andi Zeisler

In the first chapter of Andi Zeisler’s Novel Feminism and Pop Culture she defines in her own perspective the meaning of different words, one of them being the male gaze. She defines it as ‘the idea that when we look at images in art or on screen we’re seeing them as a man might because those images are constructed by men.” Before reading this I had never heard of the term male gaze. After reading about it I started to think about what she was saying and tried to decide for myself if I believed it or not. In today’s world almost all movies have women playing either a sexual role or a side role but almost never a lead role that isn’t sexualized and most films are directed by men. According to the website Women Make Movies a study in 2013 women accounted for only sixteen percent of all directors. This means that many of the movies we saw in the past year were directed by men who made the movie the way they saw it being played out and how they thought the women should be acting. Zeisler also says that “the male gaze affects how women view pop culture and how we view ourselves” I think she’s completely right. Growing up watching TV there was always the mother in the kitchen with her daughters helping her and the boys out working with their dad. So from a young age children are being taught (whether it’s on purpose or not) that women are supposed to stay in and clean the house and take care of the children while the men are out working. Also watching TV growing up you see the beautiful actresses who are skinny with beautiful hair and makeup and think that that’s what you should look like when you get older. It’s putting in children’s minds as they grow up what things should be like and how they should look.

In the class discussion today we talked about how even children as young as six are able to make distinctions between genders even though they might not fully grasp what they are talking about. I have seen this in action myself at my little cousin’s house. My female cousin has a bright pink room full of dolls with many different outfit choices and a play kitchen, while my male cousin has a green room with sports figures on the walls and toy trucks everywhere. My younger girl cousin refuses to play with the trucks and other toys in her brothers room because “those are boy toys”. Liam who is my younger cousin around the age of 7 was playing catch one day and I asked if I could play. His response to me made me so mad. He said I could play but he could throw the football father then I could because he was a boy and I was girl. So to teach him a lesson I gave him the ball to throw first, then he stood were it landed while I threw it. Of course mine went much farther because of the age difference. But then he came back over and told me that I could through a football pretty good even though I am a girl. I think it’s pretty disgusting that children that young are somehow learning that just because of you gender you better then someone else at something. I think this needs to change children should be taught that it doesn’t matter what your gender is a girl can be just as strong and good at sports as a boy can and a boy can be just as caring and artistic as a girl.

In conclusion Zeisler is right everything is seen through the male gaze and it’s something that has just been accepted for years. However it’s now influencing the views of children as to what is right for males to do and what is right for females to do. If more movies begin to be directed by females the world might be able to see women through different perspectives.