Double Standard

This is actually the craziest thing: Double Standards.

I guess we all assume that men and women are equal, but because how we view femininity and masculinity there is a double standard that is created. I hate how this video is a commercial, but there is so much truth to this idea of women as leaders and men as leaders.

I really don't know how this relates to hair at all, but I do think that the message portrayed is the right one. Why can't women working late at night not be assumes as selfish? Why can't women be dressed up and not be considered a show off? What if i just wanted to dress up when I woke up in the morning? This actually makes no sense to me. This double standard that is created by society just annoys me.

This is what the "Sociological Student Sheep" says:

http://www.upworthy.com/nailed-it-this-ad-calls-out-5-ridiculous-double-standards-women-face-in-less-than-60-seconds-2?c=ufb1

Surprise! Sale has been extended! BUY MORE!

For the past week and a half, I've been getting Black Friday and Cyber Monday-related emails. They started flooding my inbox a couple days before Thanksgiving, alerting me of amazing sales that would last only 24 hours, so I had better shop quickly and without thinking too hard about my purchases, because the astounding deals would soon be over. So, I went to the mall on Black Friday and bought clothes I didn't need because I was convinced they'd only be super cheap for one day.

I woke up to a slew of new Black Friday-related emails the next morning. The sales had unexpectedly been extended by one day, because the stores were so committed to providing the best deals to as many customers as possible. Or at least that's what they said. In fact, these sales probably caused people to give the companies more of their money than they otherwise would have on the day after Black Friday. The day after Black Friday is probably usually a slow day, because everyone has done their frenzied shopping the day before and shopping the day AFTER a big sale isn't what most people want to do. I thought about going back to the mall to see what else I could buy, but decided I had more important things to do.

On Sunday, there were more emails. "SURPRISE! ANOTHER DAY OF HUGE MARKDOWNS!" they bellowed. "BLACK FRIDAY WEEKEND CONTINUES!" I once again contemplated going shopping. I felt like I'd be missing out if I didn't, but I really had too much homework to do. Also, tomorrow would be Cyber Monday, so I could wait.

On Cyber Monday, more emails came. The next morning, the emails talking about how Cyber Monday was extended to Tuesday came. These came on all the other days of the week as well, always emphasizing that the companies were being so generous by extending their sales so the people who missed them the previous day(s) could have a chance to buy some very cheap merchandise. The last email came this Sunday, warning me that it was the last day of "CYBER WEEK" and I had better shop some more.

None of these emails were actually inviting me to save money. They wanted to get me in the door or on the website with promises of cheap prices on some merchandise, and then get me to overspend on other merchandise. When I went shopping on Black Friday, I felt justified buying full-price merchandise because I had found other items for 90% off, so these counteracted each other. Sales are exceptional marketing techniques, especially when they're described with language like "last chance!" and "limited offer," because people don't want to miss out.

Women Also Fart!!

It is absolutely normal for individuals to fart or burp. The release of gas through the anus or the mouth is part of the human nature. However, our society has managed to set the norm that woman are in a way different than man. In the recent commercial called “Why Girls Don’t fart” we can see how woman are expected to not fart.

The commercial reflect the idea that our society has made us believe that even thought women and men have the same body systems we are very different. Aside from giving men more respect and dominance they have other advantages such as farting and it seen perfectly normal. Yet, when a woman emits a gas it’s instantly viewed wrong.  This commercial emphasizes the custom that our society has of making women look without flaws if they want to be the ideal social woman.

The idea that women do not FART is extremely DUMB because they are human beings and same as men they have to release gases. The commercial only shows how women in front of men are scared to even burp because it is going to ruin their reputation or the way they are seen.

 It is embarrassing that in the 21^st century our society has this mentality. By now both women and men should be treated the same. If a woman wants to burp she should not have to be scared to be seen by men. There is no need to go fart secretively as the video shows. It is time that our society stops making women feel that they are not the same creatures as man.

So Next Time that you feel like releasing a gas remember it is something natural!

Hula & Entanglement of Gender and Economy

 From Sociological Images


Hula is a prime example of the power of advertising in a consumer culture.

The way most mainlanders perceive hula-- sexy ladies in grass skirts swaying their hips-- was essentially invented for the purpose of advertising. By the late 1800s, Hawaii had been colonized by the US, and their economy became largely dependent on tourism. US mainlanders who witnessed hula-- then still widely a male-dominated religious dance-- thought it would be way sexier to watch women do it. They'd even pay to see it.

So "hula girls" became poster children to draw in the (wealthy, white, mostly male) mainland tourists. The association of hula dancing with femininity was so strongly imposed that even today, it's considered odd to imagine men dancing the hula. What started as an advertising stunt wound up impacting gender roles for people in Hawaii.

I came across this article posted earlier this year on Soc Images that talks more about the racist and sexist motivations behind using women of color "to embellish a place or experience" for the pleasure of (again, mostly white male) tourists.

There is also a wonderful documentary about men who are working to reclaim hula's place in Hawaiian masculine identity called Na Kamalei: The Men of Hula.

Bill Hader: From SNL to T-Mobile

Bloody fingerprints around an apartment are the only defining features for the first ten seconds of this ad. The words "day 319 of 730" and the eerie ring of an unanswered phone call alarm the audience. For a moment, the audience may believe to be viewing a horror movie where a murder has just taken place.

Suddenly, Bill Hader, a famous comedian from the hit show Saturday Night Live, is shown. Laughter arises from the relief of finding out that this home was not the scene of a vicious crime. Smiles come about as well from the man's predicament and facial expression. Instead of getting a new phone, he allows his fingertips to be cut in order to answer his cell phone. He says, "Mhhmmm, hello?!" through searing pain and gritted teeth.

This commercial for T-Mobile's new 'Jump' program is successful. It uses a celebrity to make the ad memorable. It also uses the technique of an exaggerated example of why the upgrade program for cell phones is important. Moreover, these thirty seconds make you laugh. My friends and I were watching TV and this commercial came on. Two girls asked people to be quiet so they could hear Bill Hader's lines.

It is surprising that people find pain and violence in media amusing. Being able to watch aggressive sports and violent TV shows is the highlight of some people's week. In some ways, I am disappointed that this has become socially acceptable.

Think about the kind of violence you view in the media every day. Should there be regulations on it? Or is that against the freedom of speech?

Movie Previews

I went to see catch Catching Fire yesterday night at my local movie theatre. Initially we came for the 9:30 showing but it sold out so we bought the next show time at 10:30. To save seats, we sat down at 10:15. The movie didn’t start until 10:50. It felt like 4 hours. I use to always be late for the movies so I counted on the previews to run for about 10 minutes so that I wouldn’t miss my movie. Even though I haven’t been to the movies in a long time, I still realized that the previews had changed. Because we sat there for 15 minutes before the “show time”, the theatre played commercials for us…

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There, I questioned the existence of commercials in a movie theatre. Is this a new thing? Or maybe I’m just starting to realize it.

I find it so strange that commercials would play before a movie starts. We sit there and are forced to watch the commercials in order to save our seats.  This made me think of our last class discussion when we talked about the extremes that commercialism will go to have us exposed to its content. The only solution to this is going into the theatre at the exact minute a movie starts. Commercials put such a strain in our lives and I’m just starting to realize how universal the concept is/has become.




(blog post #10)

Beauty Stretches

A natural process that women do is criticize the appearance of themselves. Dove creates an ad that pushes this idea into the faces of the viewers. This ad shows multiple women describing themselves and another person describing other women. In facing both images created based on descriptions viewers can see the difference in perception.

When I saw this ad, I was really touched by this idea. I think that it is an important massage that the advertisement is portraying. It brings up the idea that women always assume that they not beautiful because of what the media and advertisements portray.

What is kind of convoluted is that this video itself is an advertisement. This video make you vulnerable that it it makes you think that dove is going to be the natural beauty that is different from the other advertisements. The font that is "Dove" uses is signature to them, and although the advertisement is not selling directly to sell products, this association causes the assumption that Dove is the brand for natural beauty.

It is hard for me to tell is this is a good or bad advertisement, but I know that the meaning that is it trying to portray is an important and affective one.