500 Days of Summer, Nicki Minaj, and 6 Feet Under
So although the movie's copyright is 1993(?) the images in the film are more representative of the late 70s early 80s. So in the span of 20 years, has there been significant change in the dominant portrayals of women and men? No... but there have definitely been changes nonetheless.
The film states that men are perceived, in Western society, as fearless, tough, decisive and that he knows what he wants, and that he wont let anything get in his way of achieving that desired goal. He does this mainly to impress the ladies, and to impress others with his "manliness." On the other hand, women are perceived as beautiful bodies, no brains, and are there to please men. They are shown as willing and eager to serve men, and are willing to be manipulative to the point where she can "trap" the man that she desires. Also, she is perceived as clumsy, helpless, panic stricken, especially when things go wrong.
When I was watching the video, it reminded me of the first or second day of class where we blurted out descriptors of males/masculine and females/feminine. In summary, the adjectives we used pretty much echoed what was said in the video so those senses, nothing has changed. What I did find interesting about the video was during the "musical" description of males and females with the male's segment being very punctuated, terse, and staccato, almost "efficient" and the female's song being very melodious, sensual, and legato. The overall impression that I received from the video is that males are more objective, "get it done," scientific, with females being more creative and subjective.
However, I really do think there is a change significant enough in today's Western world that at least challenges the established norms. This is evident in a lot of media today, music, movies, in that males are looking for Ms. Independent who has accomplished and gotten everything herself, and females are looking for a man who does more than just provide a shelter and food, someone who perceives her as an equal and is not threatened by that status. In terms of nontraditional gender roles, i.e. homosexuality, intersexuality etc. these images and relationships are now present in popular medias as well.
I definitely think that you're right in saying that these gender roles have substantially changed in regards to what people look for in a relationship. I can absolutely say that when I first started dating my boyfriend, I was mainly attracted to the sensitive and caring parts of him, apposed to the manly man parts of him. I do think, however, that this was still the case when this movie was made. Sure, the media portrayed the men as these manly providers, yet I still think that women found the caring, sensitive men to be the most attractive. It's human nature for a woman to want who they're with to care about things and feel the things that they do. You're right in saying that the portrayal of that side of things has increasingly become more apparent and present within our media. It's way more common to see those sensitive men on the movie screen than it was back when the film was made.
I didn't even think about the kind of music being played over the different gender role descriptions. It's interesting to see that even in the way that music is played, men and women are portrayed in very different, distinct ways.
AND... I love 500 Days of Summer. I vote we watch it in class :)
I agree with you. On the first day of class we were asked words we would use to describe the perceived masculine/male and feminine/female figure. The words we used echoes that of the terms used in the video we saw. From the moment we sat down in front of the television as a child or the first movie we have seen in the theater, images have flashed before our untainted eyes illustrating what is or isn’t okay. These images should us how a man should act and how woman should behave. In Scooby Doo, although a cartoon about a group of teenagers solving mysteries on the surface, really highlights these gender roles. Daphne is the beautiful damsel in distress and is subliminally the love interest for Fred the macho, head strong, muscular leader of the group. Velma the female nerd is not as beautiful or sexually seductive as Daphne, she is rarely kidnapped and given less attention. Shaggy is the opposite of the male ideal, he is scrawny and cowardly. He shows children that if your not handsome, strong, brave and overall a real man like Fred then the best thing you may have going for you in life is to eat endless amounts of food and be best friends with your talking dog.
Again, you found something I paid very little attention to, music. Thank you.
There are some women who are who they are and can not be portrayed anything other than that, but media seems to add a bit to it. For instance, Sarah Palin, who happened to think is as smart as a fox, was first portrayed as an idiot (that was on the presidential campaign trail), now she has become a heroine, a saviour. People do sometimes become who we want them to be, we use and are used.
I think for some of us, if we did not have guidelines as to what/who someone is supposed to be i.e. feminine, masucline we would not know how to be in this world. For instance, how does a young man, who has had no father image, or a young woman without a father image view love, mating, parenting and etc.? What does she base her choice of men on, does she look to the media or to men who have participated either negatively or positively in her life? Or what does a man look for, is he still defined as the "head of family, bread winner, and etc.", is he looking for a wife or is he looking for a life partner?
We are all looking for something, how much are we looking for coming from ourselves, our upbringing, our needs and our on desires? There is quite a bit we can put to the media's charge, but are we also charging ourselves with "mal-thing", are we really that easily manipulated? If that is the case, we should stop killing one another or should be killing everybody, everybody should be bi-curious, and super intelligent, sexual beings. Yes, that is a ridiculous statement! It only takes a few rotten tomatoes to spoil the batch. Are we the few or the many and if we are the many why don't we act like it? I'm just saying!
Hi Say What. Please disregard the previous comment. Thanks!
Again, you found something I paid very little attention to, music. Thank you.
There are some women who are who they are and cannot be portrayed as anything other than that, but media seems to add a bit to it. For instance, Sarah Palin, who I happened to think is as smart as a fox, was first portrayed as an idiot (that was on the presidential campaign trail), now she has become a heroine, a saviour. People do sometimes become who we want them to be, we use and are used.
I think for some of us, if we did not have guidelines as to what/who someone is supposed to be i.e. feminine, masucline we would not know how to be in this world. For instance, how does a young man, who has had no father image, or a young woman without a father image view love, mating, parenting, integrity and etc.? What does she base her choice of men on, does she look to the media or to the men who have participated either negatively or positively in her life? Or what does a man look for, is he still defined as the "head of family, bread winner, and etc.", is he looking for a wife or is he looking for a life partner or do they both look for someone who will perpetuate their current life history? How do you change when the formula for successful change turns out to be a bill of stolen goods?
We are all looking for something, how much are we looking for that begins and ends with us, our upbringing, our needs and our on desires are we blaming on others? There is quite a bit we can put to the media's charge, but are we also charging ourselves with "mal-thinking", are we really that easily manipulated? If that is the case, we should start killing everybody, manipulating every manipulative situation, everybody should be bi-curious, and super intelligent sexual crazed human beings. Yes, that is a ridiculous statement. It only takes a few rotten tomatoes to spoil the batch. Are we the few or the many and if we are the many why don't we act like it?