Overview of gender/race/class

  Before I took this class, I had a very narrow viewpoint of gender, race, class and sexual orientation in the media.  I thought that there was no representation of these things in media except for incorrect portrayals that were influenced by the society.  The media seems to have influenced a white male dominated society. Below are images depicting models from Abercrombie and Finch.

 http://www.abercrombie.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Casting?catalogId=10901&storeId=10051&langId=-1
 

  As you can see, all of these models have things in common.  They are all white, rarely is there a model with dark skin in this company’s advertisements.  The men depicted in these images are very masculine, and seem as if they want to be dominant.  The females in the ads, however, seem as if they are weak and vulnerable.  Given what we know about hegemony, it would seem as if that is what society wants us to think.  

  Hegemony is described as a group in society that has dominance over others.  Given that media tends to depict dominant dominate white men, it might be safe to say that heterosexual, white men are what is expected to be the dominate group. Shows that aired in the 50’s are a good example of this.

 

  “Leave it to Beaver” was a very good example of a show that had a “perfect family.”  The children were well behaved, and the mother was a housewife.  The father was a white man that brought home the money for the family.  He was also the one to give orders to the members of his family, and discipline the children when necessary.  Society wanted the public to think that this was the way that all families should be.  As such, shows like this were very common in society.  They wanted everyone to have a family that was run by a male, and these families were expected to be white.

  I view that all of the above information is terrible.  Men of a specific race are expected to be the dominant group.  This is immoral because men are not always the dominant ones.  There have been plenty of examples of women filling the role of the dominant figure.  If society continues to hold this to be ideal then men will always be thought of as dominant.   

Masculinity-Be tough! Be a Man!

          One of topics that we covered in class last week how males are expected to be tough in modern day society.   It seems that males are expected to have muscles, be brave, and be powerful figures.  Even in children’s programing, males are shown to be the dominant figures on the show.   In this entry, I will cover some examples that I have noticed.  I will use an example form the Anime Dragonball Z.  

The picture above depicts the character, Gohan.  He is a twelve year old boy in this picture, and he is not your typical hero.  He studies hard, sacrificing a social life in order to please his parents by becoming a scholar.  While he looks like your typical preteen boy in this picture, the picture below makes him look completely different.

Gohan is also a skilled fighter.  Unlike most scholars, he has muscles and is able to raise his power to very high levels.  In this picture, he is in battle.  As such, he has blood on his body and no longer has a smile on his face.  This is implying that even smart males should be strong, and not afraid to fight.  While Anime is not targeted solely toward children in Japan, it is when it is dubbed in English and aired on television here in North America.  This can lead an expecting child to think that this image of toughness is normal for any age.  They might then feel as if they need to mimic what the show portrays, or else they will not fit in. 

This example relates to what the documentary we watched in class portrayed.  At one point, the documentary showed us that action figures are beginning to become exaggerated.  They almost always have abs, and are depicted as being strong men.  This can sometimes contrast the character that the figure is actually based on.  Children might then expect that this is how men are supposed to look.  Whether or not this is done intentionally, it is wrong to continue for this image to be enforced.  It is a false perception that does not identify with all males.

 

Dragonball Wikia. (2010, June). Gohan. Retrieved November 2011, from Dragonball Wikia: http://dragonball.wikia.com/wiki/Gohan