Women, race and stereotypes... what message is Disney giving girls today?

Disney Movie Princesses: what messages do they send out to young girls on how to be a woman and will it lead to 'happily ever after' today?  Danielle reviewed these questions using examples of Disney characters.

"For example; Cinderella why did the Prince choose her? Why didn’t he give the UGLY step sisters a chance but gave the household maid a chance first up from her looks? Do all men only go for beautiful looking women and not care about what comes with it? We also see in the movies every successful male is always the strongest and always seems to save the female from anything she couldn’t handle. The Princess is beautiful, always innocent and does what she's told. Is that the messages Disney Movies wanted to make children think life’s all about? Getting told what to do just because you’re a woman?

You will find little aspects in life where you never knew stereotypes were hidden that seem to reinforce those stereotypes in society. Times have changed but it seems these classic childrens films have not and therefore may mean that these stereotypes and expectations stay around for a long time to come!"

A real man...

Thanks to Camille for this excellent discussion:

Are you a real man? Do you know someone who is a ‘real’ man?

1.       Are they chivalrous and respectful? That’s pretty ‘manly.’

OR

2.       Are they disrespectful to women and constantly put them down? That seems to be pretty ‘manly’ these days too.

Herein lies our paradox.

Jackson Katz’ book, The Macho Paradox, profoundly challenges the definition of manhood. Are men real men when violence against women is involved physically and verbally? Are men programmed to be violent or are people naturally violent?

Society and culture are highlighted repeatedly in this book. Concepts of gender and power are major features, as men fearing women constantly slam women to defend their ‘masculinity.’ Are men brought up this way, passed down by enculturation? Has violence against women accelerated along with the technology that allows access to the 10,000 porn videos released in the U.S.A every year? This pattern has led people to evaluate continuity and change that come with gender violence and how societies can prevent it. 

From Eminem to high school sex scandals, this type of violence concerns every individual and influences them to make decisions. This is not a ‘women’s issue’, it is something that men play a role in too and it should be acknowledged. True manhood most certainly shouldn’t involve harming of another human being. Jackson Katz’ discusses hundreds of factors more on this topic from personal experiences to quantitative data. He also acknowledges the book called the ‘Cinderella complex’, where it claims that very independent women still desire to be protected by a male. The gender stereotypes are overwhelming and cease to end! The Macho Paradox proves to be as complex and puzzling as society and culture itself.

See the powerpoint accompanying this here.

Race in TV

Thanks to Marianne for this review of current issues of race and culture in TV media.

The article relates to society and culture concepts because it highlights cultural stereotypes and the power the media has to dictate what is put on television; people are highly influenced by what we see in the media. This also links to continuity and change because Australia has become a more multicultural country in the last 20 years, so we should therefore portray this image on TV. However, the media still perceives the Australian audience to be intolerant to other races and believes we would rather see white people on TV.

Major television networks are accused of TV racism as it is believed that there are few roles on commercial television for people from Australia’s ethnic mix. Soap operas such as ‘Packed to the Rafters’ and ‘Home and Away’ are being criticized for ‘Racial Tokenism’ as well as reality game shows and news/panel/chat shows which are being described as very anglo-centric. Multicultural Arts Australia also say that when there is racial diversity it usually depicts cultural stereotypes which is being labelled ‘Colour Blind Casting’. A lot of ethnic actors are portrayed as the villain, eg  Middle Eastern actors are portrayed as drug dealers and‘Wog criminals.’

 TV networks and advertisers argue that they are worried that white Australians will tune out if there is more ethnic mix in the media, despite 2009 census revealing that 44% of Australians are born overseas or have at least one foreign born parent. Hence, Australia would be more accepting of other cultures and more ethnic groups might watch shows if they were being represented on television. A professor of sociology also claims that media are worried that they may portray ethnic races in a way that people may deem as offensive and so they stick to the white, ‘mainstream model’.

Read the full article from The Vine.

Parents raise a 'gender-less' child

"Sex is what is 'between the legs' and gender is what is 'between the ears' "
This is quite a nice differentitation between sex and gender for the purpose of our understanding, but has been taken a stage further for a couple and their most recent child in Canada.
They have not told anyone what sex the baby is and will raise him/her as neither a girl or a boy, so that he/she may make their own choice on their gender.

Read one of the news reports on this here.

Clinical psychologist Dr Brenda Todd , a senior lecturer at City University , said the experiment has been tried before in the 1970s by a feminist academic and her husband, with limited success.

"When the child gets older, the influence of the peer group is much stronger than that of the family so, like it or not, it will become gender aware."
Dr Todd pointed to research she and a colleague did on children between the ages of nine months and 36 months.
"We found that they really did have stereotypical preferences even at that age, with the girls going for teddy bears and dolls and the boys going for balls and cars."

Find other reports on this and think about:
- Do you agree with what the parents are doing?
- Why do you think they have chosen to raise a genderless child?
- What benefits or problems do you think this could bring to the child as they grow up?