Target Women

I have recently become somewhat obsessed with watching target women videos, not only is Sarah hilarious but she is also completely honest and gives women a way to fight back. While these videos are very female gendered, they give women a feeling of power because she shows you that you can be completely honest. One of my favourite videos is on beauty contraptions, I recommend you watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEAaHpFGKac . I love these videos because sarah says all of the things that most women want to say but don't know how.
One thing that i thought reallly makes these videos gendered is that only women really understand the issues she addresses. i was watching these videos with my boyfriend and I was laughing and pointing out all the things I loved about it but he had no clue what I was talkign about or why it was funny.
-princess consuela banana hammock

Brides love Mr. Clean...

I was trying to find a household cleaning product that was marketed using men, or at least using both men and women equally. Overall, I found that task pretty difficult. The majority of the websites that I found used a motherly figure to sell the product, or an image of a part of a woman cleaning (ie a delicately manicured hand ). Then I came across Mr. Clean's website which features a section on Mr. Clean through the years. This image was featured in advertisements in 1957. I thought that it was quite interesting. It does not portray the stereotypical man (especially for the 1950s) as a person who partakes in household cleaning, but rather a man being comically placed into a 'woman's role' to make a point.

I find it mostly frustrating that all of the commercials that we see on TV that deal with cleaning in the home feature a woman, usually a mother, and a wife in a heterosexual relationship (when relationships are featured) doing the cleaning. As if the only concerns that she has is how to make her whites whiter and her brights brighter, or how to get rid of the most dust with the least amount of effort. I do remember a swiffer commercial from a while ago that showed a man doing the cleaning...however, the message that was being passed on was along the lines of 'so easy to use a man could do it'. I think that this type of message is equally as problematic. It is offensive to men. To sell cleaning products we don't need to make one gender look stupid.

Also, as we talked about in class...the new angle that swiffer is using to sell their products. Here is a little sample of what they are doing. They are making the women in the commercials look like they are having a love affair with their new cleaning tools. Really, swiffer? Sexualizing inanimate objects now?
***Looie***

Twilight Fan Sites??

I got to thinking about texts we read and how they are gendered, and how the wonder of the world wide web has connected fans together. Since we've spent a bit of time discussing Twilight in class, I decided to search out Twilight Fan sites and see if they were gendered or not. We know that girls make up the major audience of the text, but is this evident when examining their fansites?

I've come up with one that seems to answer this affectively... I've always been curious about 'Twi-Mom's" but this website really hasn't given me many answers. TwiMama's Blog consists of a group of Mom's who "went from a shopping addiction to a Twilight Obsession". Don't even get me started on the stereotypes that supports... but then check on the actual blog material, which consists of about 20 images of Robert Pattinson and disclaimers such as "Warning: Spontaneous Ovulation and panty dropping may occur! You have been warned!" They actually have an entire gallery of Robert Pattinson that you can check out on the site.... and I thought this site was about the Twilight Books??

Since I'm in the library and supposed to be researching for a paper and not creeping Twilight Fansites... I'm gonna leave this one up to you... Do you guys know of any particularly gendered Twilight Fansites, or fansites in general?? Or do you think fansites can be gendered at all??

Aubrey B.

TSN and Sports Sites!!

Alright so I've been having some difficulty coming up with gendered websites for this assignment... The websites I frequent most, besides Perezhilton.com are pretty genderless, so I turned to my man friend to get another perspective on the question.

He informed me that his most frequently visited sites were CNN (and other news sites) to keep up on politics and TSN. Then a light bulb went on..... Of COURSE he would be visiting a sports site frequently! He's a 'guy' right??? And 'guys' are always into sports, right??

I then proceeded to visit TSN to check out if it was in fact gendered. I counted 13 images of MEN playing sports, and 3 images of male sports commentators / columnists. Where are the women's sports teams?? Women's sports highlights? Women sports analysts?? Is it just me or does this website seem like a boy's club only? After visiting, I decided to ask my man friend why there weren't any women's sports on the front page of the website. He chuckled and informed me that most women's sports 'aren't real sports'..... Excuse me???? As a female athlete, I contemplated giving him a swift drop kick to the stomach region... But I thought I would leave this one up to you guys. Is TSN and other sports sites gendered?? Hasn't society today made progress in recognizing female athletes achievements? Do any girls n in the class frequently visit the site, or other sports ones like it?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts :) !!

Aubrey B.

A match made on...ABC

I am very proud to say that I do not partake in watching the ABC reality-TV charade...I mean series
known as 'The Bachelor'. However, since the finale episode on season 14 aired I can't turn on the TV or read a tabloid magazine without being forced to see that Jake, the 32 yr old Christian 'pilot' (aka small business owner that happens to have a pilots license) chose 23 yr old hard-partying, bikini-contest-winning, ex Hooters waitress Vienna. Sounds like a real match made in Heaven!
The theme of the Bachelor is as follows; a handsome sucessful man that hasn't had any luck in love chooses from 25 different women in hopes of finding a wife. The winning 'fiancee' is the last-woman-standing after everyone else has been individually eliminated through a rose ceremony (ceremony at the end of each episode in which the bachelor hands roses to each woman that is invited to continue to partake in the contest, the unlucky woman who couldn't quite "woo" the bachelor during the casts group/semi private dates does not recieve a rose and is asked to pack her bags and leave immediately).

The Bachelor portrays women as desperate creatures that will do just about anything to marry a man that they know very little about just because he's handsome, perhaps is wealthy, and is on a television series. These women fight, cry, get caught in embarrassing lies, and pretty much anything else you could imagine that would bring the thought "where is your dignity??!!" to mind. The series genders women by always choosing the same 'Barbie-like' type girls that wear hair extensions, fake eyelashes, love cocktail parties, and would give up everything to marry their Prince Charming. Not once has their ever been a female contestant on the show that weighs over 130 lbs, plays sports, or god forbid has short hair!! How can ABC pride themself in being a 'Family Network' when they air a show that reflects so negatively on women?!! For example, I've seen many clips on entertainment shows of Jake giving one of the final contestants the 'heave-ho' by telling her (while stuck on a boat with 4 camera-men in her face) that he can't choose her because although they have an "emotional, and physical connection...their is no sexual connection". O-M-G! He basically just told the world that she: A) Had sex with a man that 25 other women were in a relationship with at the same time, and B) She wasn't very good in bed! Could it be that The Bachelor is so incredibly popularized because we live in a society that enjoys viewing women as desperate and weak beings? Or is it just the fantasy idealized version of a romantic fairy-tale ending? A sort-of 60min "escape" from the boredom/drudgery of peoples real life not-so-happy endings like we talked about in class yesterday towards romantic novels. I think it's a probably a combination of both, however shame on the women who allow themselves to represent their gender in this manner after everything femininists of our past and present have fought for.

*Silver

*Clean and Clear and Under Control*

Lately I've been noticing that I can't watch certain channels on TV without seeing a "Clean and Clear" commercial every commercial break. These ads are broadcasted the most on channels that have a target audience of tweens,teens, and young adults Ie) MTV. MTV is not gendered, it offers various types of reality-esque shows that would interest both males and females. So if Clean and Clear is trying so hard to reach the viewers by putting these commercials on every commercial break why do they only have female actresses??? I mean males get zits/acne too! It just does not make sense to me!! I even found posts online that headline the question "Can I use Clean and Clear if Im a guy??" Why would they want to gender their product and cut their potential buyers list in half? Another thing that 'grinds my gears' about Clean and Clear is that every ad contains these young beautiful teenager girls that have probably never had a blemish in their lives! Im almost positive that the casting call but read "Pretty girls between the age of 14-18 with exceptionally great complexions".

While gendering their product to women Clean and Clear also uses that catchy little phrase "Clean and Clear and Under Control". To me this comes across as:

"We're clean" (virginal) "Clear" (smart) "Under Control" (controlled, "good girls".). Maybe I'm looking too far into it but the cheesiness of these ads just get to me!!

**Check out this video off of their site http://www.cleanandclear.ca/en/friends_online.asp

*Silver

Victoria's Secret?!??!

Okay guys, I'm posing my post as a question because I honestly just don't know... I was just checking my email and had an email from the one and only Victoria's Secret. Alright, so I bought some pjs or something and they now send me emails like 5 times a week telling me about bra sales. Whatever! I know their target audience is women, because that is who their products are for. But how do you explain the ridiculously fit models wearing lingerie on the front page??? Are those pictures appealing to women or is it an example of the dominant male gaze??

This website is all about sexy!! I get emails titled "New! I LOVE MY BODY BY VICTORIA Bras", "We Heart Bras: The Miracle Behind the Miraculous Push-Up", "Wild at Heart: The Sexiest Valentine's Day Ever" and "Spring Fling Must-Brings: Your Best Break Ever Starts Here"... What does this explain about marketing to women?? And do you think this website can be considered gendered?

Aubrey B.

Girls get Thin Guys get Jacked

After reading the post on weight loss sites I thought about the male equivilent to them because men don't feel the pressure to get thin they feel the pressure to be buff. I found this website http://www.muscleandfitness.com/ This website shows men how they can sculpt and build their muscles to look jacked and super strong. This site in gendered in a way to appeal strictly to men, showing men who are extremely muscular being "checked out" but atractive girls. It gives men links to high protein supplements and tips on getting bigger muscles. This website also devalues women who are muscular treating them as "butch". These website are also what drives some men/boys to use steroids because the men on sites like these give an unrealistic vision to try to acheive. The gendering of these sites continues to show men that they need to be strong and cannot show weakness.
-princess consuela banana hammock