Reflection

Though out this course i have learned a lot about women,gender issues, and sexuality issues. Looking back at the beginning i thought that this class would be about reading women's writing from the past and writing about it. I was wrong, we were ask to look at the media from a different stand point and how the media reflects women. Now after this course i don't look at magazines the same and the way the media portrays women. Its opened my eyes to how women are mistreated in the media which i never saw before because i thought it was normal. Doing my first blog i had no clue what to write about, i kept thinking what issues do women face? Couldn't really think of that much but as the course went on i had so much more to write. My views on sexuality have changed too, i never saw how the media limited sexuality to heterosexual relationships. I always thought there were shows with homosexual so i never saw how they were being discriminated against. Now when i look at shows with homos i can see how "G" they keep it compared to heterosexual relationships. The essays i have wrote challenged me to view the media in a different light and to write about it. I'm not really good with writing about the media and how it portrays women and sexuality so writing about it was hard for me. As time went on i had more to say so it became easier to write about it. I have learned a lot about women in this course and my views have changed since the beginning of this course.

Essay Three

For essay three I'm going to do something different and do it on Desperate Housewives. The episode I'm going to focus on are earlier ones when all the wives were stay at home moms or in Gabby's case she was a stay at home gold digger. The reason im picking this show is because it represents the many different families that there are today. I want to find out why producers decided to do a show about different kind of families that all live on the same street. Weather they were suppose to represent the many different type of families there are out there or just because each family can have its own drama played out for America to see. I'm going to examine how each wife's life differs and what role the husband plays if they have a husband. I want to talk about how each family goes for or against an argument from a reading (not sure which ones yet so any ideas let me know) I also want to look at the episode where Brie's son comes out how he is gay and Brie tries to change him back to being "normal" and relate that to Yeps reading and queer as folk reading too. I want to re-write an episode where the husbands stay at home while the wives work. Desperate housewives has a little bit of all different kinds of families, single mother, widow then remarry, and the traditional family with a husband and wife. I think i will have more to write about doing Desperate Housewives because it has a little bit of everything in there. Most of my sources are going to be Internet sources to find out the meaning behind the show and also the readings we have done. I want analyze the episode where Brie's son come out that he is gay and analyze how the TV show portrays his sexuality and how it related to Queer as Folk. I might want to analyze how times have changed, Susan is a single mother and all the wives on the street accept her and how if it was set in a different time period how things would be different.

Women in the Military

Over the weekend i saw the movie Valentines Day. There was this one scene where this women played by Julia Roberts was on the plane heading home and she was in her army uniform. There was this male sitting next to her being friendly and asking questions, he asked how long she was going home for and she said until the next day. The man was in total shock and said that the man she is going to see was a lucky guy. At the end of the movie the man she was going to see was her son. This made me think that women's roles have changed a lot in the military. They are now not only allowed to serve but they are getting deployed and in some cases engaging in combat. I came across an article in the New York times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/17/us/17women.html its about how women's roles have changed in the military and how more people are accepting them. Just because there is more acceptance for military women does not mean they don't face problems like sexual harassment and assault. Women are encourage to take extra precautions like not going around base or out alone and to carry a weapon for safety. Put that aside they are doing what the men are doing in the military. I'm sure a lot of us heard about Jessica D. Lynch how she was capture and held captive until rescued by USA forces. Her and other soldiers were involved in the mission pushing from Kuwait to Baghdad, they were involved in combat. One women died in the process. Women are gaining more respect in the military and more opportunities are opening up to them as time passes, 50 years ago women would have never thought that they would one day be allowed to join the military and work along the side of men in fighting for the freedom of our country.

Proposal for your next essay

For my paper I’m going to analyze the candies ads because I have seen them on TV and have always wondered why they picked these ad’s to put there name out there. I remember watching the news when the advertisement came out, when Jenny McCarthy was on there sitting on the toilet, it was a big controversy. She was half naked with her panties down reading a magazine. I always wondered why Candies pick these controversial ad with half dress women to sell there product when what’s in there ads really has nothing to do with it. I’m curious to find out why Candies pick these kinds of advertisements and why they pick these certain celebrities to be feature in them like Jenny McCarthy.
Thesis:
Even though Candies ad’s can be controversial, and make the audience wonder why they pick these ads, they represent everything that Heteronormativity stands for.

This ad is what Heteronormativity defines, they have a female and male on them trying to attract in there audience. The women in the ad’s are barley wearing anything which what catches the males eye while the males too are barley wearing anything they are there to catch the females eye. These ad’s are doing there job they are getting attention of the media which is getting the attention of potential buyers. What I want to know is why they pick these certain types of ad’s, was it to just get publicity or was there a different reason? I want my audience to know that there is a reason why ad's are a certain way, that companys thoughfully create ad to get the audience's attenetion. Also that companys conform to this idea of Heteronormativity in there ad's.

Women in the Work Force!

In class we have been talking about women's roles and how the media See's women. They see women as a sexual object and make them out to be physically perfect. When the media thinks of a women and what there role is in society they think that she is a house wife that has to look good for her husband! Well times have surely changed. I came across article about women and the workforce, women are about to make up the majority of the US work force so obviously these roles women are suppose to have, have changed in the past 50 years. The article states that husbands are working less, going to school less, and living longer. Why are men more willing to take the backseat and let their wives bring in the income? Now in days men have a lot less pressure to support the household finically. Well according to the Washington post women use to get married to give them a finical boost since back then the men were bring in most of the income. Well now in days men are getting a better deal finical wise, that is if they marry a smart,career driven women. It's amazing to see how times have changed, women are not expected to become house wives but they have the opportunity to make a career for them selves. In some families the whole women and men role has changed some men are being staying home dads while there wives bring in the income. It just shows you that society is capable of change,women have gone from being a males property, to being the provider for her family and it gives me hope that maybe one day we wont be seen as object and that advertising will become more realistic. Women's roles in society have become bigger and more important over the last 50 years but then again it puts more pressure on us to be the perfect women. Weather its being the perfect wife that balances a career with raising the kids at the same time maintain that good body or weathers its being a good student and becoming a successful women all while having a good image. Yes women's roles have changed but is there too much pressure being put on women to live this ideal life by the media? Right now yes but hopefully in time that will change!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/18/AR2010011803834.html

Abuse of women in the media

We see images like these all the time. Using celeb. to show the mag. readers what is a good body and what is a bad body to have. Rarly will you ever see guys being compared on whats a good body for a guy to have and whats a bad body to have. Even if the guy has a less than perfect body, in the media its considered okay but if it was a women that has a less than perfect body then she is ugly. This kinda abuse keeps going on and people wonder why so many young girls have eating disorders and self exsteem problems, its because the way the media portrays women. Women are not portrayed in a positive light but more as obects to men. When we watched Killing me Sofly women were used as some kind of sexual object to sell something that had nothing to do with what the image was portraying. There is this kind of abuse of the womens body out there. They are always portrayed women has these sexy picture perfect girls and thats just not reality. With ads saying women are submissive, ignorent, and powerless this creates a whole new perception of what is a women. Is she just a object to lural guys in or a powerful figure used to make guys do what she wants using her image? Women are portrayed in many different lights but mostly negitive ones. With all these images going about and all these picture perfect bodies no wondering girls have problems seeing themseleves in a positive way.


This girl is looking in the mirror and seeing a healthy normal girl but what she really looks like is a frail skinny girl. When she looks in the mirror she is seeing herself as ugly and not perfect but in reality what she looks like in the mirror is healthy looking but what she really looks like is scary. How do you balance the media saying to look skinny but then bash someone if they are too skinny. So one needs to ask what is beautiful? They need to defind it for themseleves not defind it baised on what ads say looks sexy and beautiful because what the ads look like arent realist. For the sake of advertising womens bodies are being exploited and abused to sell something. Why cant women be portrayed in a positive light? As long as women contunied being portrayed this way girls who see this abuse of women will think less of themselves. After seeing all these images of perfect women out there, can one look in the mirror and like what they see? All women are being compared and it makes the extreams nessary in order to be compared in a positive light. Maybe the media needs to look at all these girls with eating disorders and blame themseleves because they are the ones telling them to look a certain way.

Intro and Women's Bodies and the Media

Hi there, my name is Katharina Zardinskas and im a junior. I have an older brother than goes to Ohio State and a godson who was just born Dec. 4, he is my world :) I just trasfered here from Bluffton University which is by Findlay, Ohio. Most people know of Bluffton from the baseball bus crash in Alanta Georgia 4 years ago. I played varsity Basketball and Soccer for them which was a lot of fun but my life was hetic with traveling every where. I liked Bluffton but i felt it was to small of a school for me and wanted something bigger.(my high school had more people) I graduated from Reynoldsburg High School which is out side of Columbus. Im a Political Science Major and i would like to become an International Relations Officer for Ohio when i graduate and maybe run for office one day. I also have a minor in Business and have interned in the Marketing Department in a Company called R.G. Barry in Columbus. Im currently taking a womens gender studies class also so i think it will help me with writing about women in this class. I decided to take this class because i thought it would be intresting to see how women are viewed and to write about it.

While reading Bordo's "The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity" she says there is a plight of women. I feel like the media makes women this way. You see these images every day and feel the need to compete with that image and look a certain way. That where you get this plight of women who diet, exercise so they can achive this look. A girl in class said even her friend cuts out a ad with a women whose body she wants to achive. Bordo say there is hope for these women if they relize what they are doing. I think as long as a women can see an ad and know that that type of body may not be realistic and not try to achive it but instead try to achive a better/heathier body for themself then there is hope. As long as ad's are showing women as these thin stick like women some women are going to try to achive that body and might take it to extrems.