According to Frith and Mueller, "generally, the criticism of advertising fall into three areas, the stereotyping women into passive and less powerful players of society, the portrayal of women as sexual objects in ads, and the cumulative effect of these portrayals on women's self-esteem." The cultivation theory plays a part in translating this into a reality for people. The most recent example I've seen is from this Instagram account with growing popularity called ByeFelipe. On this account women (yes, it is more bias toward hetero women) are encouraged to submit screenshots of conversations they have had with men where they become hostile in conversation because the woman has rejected or ignored them. So at first, upon reading about it, I assumed no one wants to be rejected or ignored because that is unpleasant. However, these men take it to the next level. They assert dominance and revert to hyer-masculinity over the women and feel like they are entitled to their attention and their bodies on some occasions. I believe this has been reinforced through ads showing women as sexual objects, and inferior to men. Here is an example from ByeFelipe:
Another trend I found on this relates back to the video shown in class about banning the word "bossy", they thought the women were stuck up because women wouldn't respond to someone the men retaliated by calling them stuck up, seen here in these examples, also notice the time :
What is it about these men that they feel the need to say such things? One may think it's due to essentializing. As Wood defined it, "the tendency to reduce something or someone to certain characterisitcs that we assume are essential to its nature" the problem with this is not only does it assume characteristics for a sex as a whole but it's used as an excuse.
Another discouraging part about most of the post on ByeFelipe, the men insulted the women with something about physical appearance. As Wood explains, gender is learned. Society tells women what femininity is but cautions to do certain activities and praising them on physical appearance. So naturally, people think the best way to bring someone down who displays feminine qualities is by attacking their physical appearance.
As seen through this Instagram account of ByeFelipe, I found many applications of the coursework from Gender Issues. Taking off the rose colored glasses and seeing the world through a critical eye can open many avenues of acknowledging the lack of inequality and gender issues that still are around today. The medium of communication may be different but the gender issues are still the same.
Works Cited
http://instagram.com/byefelipe
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