Dingmin Lin Wrap-Up

The Progression of Gender Roles in Media

            As technology is getting more advance, Human receives a lot of information from the social media, and social Media like files, music, Television show, and advertisement have deeply affect the different gender behavior. Therefore, after finished research on different time and evaluate and understand that the mediating impaction of gender and gender role self-perception on response to different time period of music. The research shows that is different time period, music can reflect human desire. Many female singers (I only did research on woman) put their desire of freedom in to song’s lyrics. So a lot of time, from the song’s lyrics, we can see what woman’s desire at that time period. In this collaborative research blog, from 1960 to early 2000, woman is getting more freedom and more right, because we can easily see that from different time period’s music.

                        As we can see from the music how did women work step by step to become independence from man and have same equal right as man have. At first step, women just asked for the respect from the man in 1960. The music “Respect” by Aretha Franklin, she raised her voice when she singed: “sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me…….” This shows that she is a very confident woman, and demand his “respect” to her. At the second step, women wanted to have same equal right as men have. Music like “I am Woman, “by Helen Reddy and “Want Ads” by Honey Cones between 1970s and 1980s, there is a famous cultural movement called Lesbian feminism. At the third step, woman wanted to be independent from the men. Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” (a song written for the comedy film of the same name), from the song she wants to show that woman can also like man work from 9 o’clock to 5 o’clock. And later on, women wanted the government to create law to protect their right. D.C. Riot Grrrl bands often address issues such as rape, domestic abuse, sexuality, racism, patriarchy and female empowerment.  Finally, in 2000, men and woman both share almost same equal right.

Not only music show that woman was getting more freedom and more equal rights through time, but also from other research group member also show the almost same result. In the 1960, the Velveeta’s advertisement, sellers used woman as a figure to promote household products. And a slogan from the advertisement: “How Velveeta can help you in the big job of being a mother,” this lets men to believe the role of women should be a house wife.

In In this 1970s poster of Honda Civic, the Honda Company use women to promote their product. However, the slogan is “women only drive automatic transmissions,” this also shows that men is better than woman because men can drive automatic and manual, but woman only can drive automatic.

In 1980, in the poster of Budweiser, they used women to sell their product and target the consumer. Men were their main focus of consumer and therefore, they use women as a sex appealing character to purchase the product.

In 1990’s Maidenform’s poster, the company neglects the face of woman and instead, they uses their only the body parts. However, poster uses women’s breast to promote their product of bra lines. And in the past, woman should cover up all their body. But in 1990, Company started to use sex appealing to promote more men or women to purchase the products.

In 2000, Michael Kor’s advertisement, both genders are being placed in the same image. The world today gives more opportunities to women where they become strong powerful force in the advertisement field. And also in 2014’s Tom Ford advertisement uses Esther Heesch as an attraction and also this image depicts the dominance of women in the field where as the model is on top of men and men are to support her. From those advertisement we can see that woman has become more and more independent from the men. And woman can also be the center of advertisement. Although there are some small different between how music and advertisement reflect the gender role in society from 1960 to 2000, we still can see that women is getting more freedom and less sexual discrimination from the society.

 The result of my research actually surprises me, because at beginning of writing the proposal of this collaborative research blog, media (music) is one of way to influence people’s thinking and behavior. But I never thought media and human are co-influence. Artist put down their desire and think in to their lyrics and the song influence people to think way. From this, it creates more research need to done to answer what causes this kind of co-influence exists, and does this kind of co-influence relationship provide a positive effect or negative effect?

Final Post - Waleed Malik

The established roles and views of both genders have changed dramatically over the Past 60 years. Where society once perceived them to be the maintainers of the household, reliant on the finances of their male relatives, now they are seen as fully independent member of society, who need not rely on others for their livelihood. In the 1950s, men were meant be the hard working, tough and persistent. Today these “Manly” traits are still common and valued, however, there are other unconventional lifestyles that men can lead with much less scrutiny than they would have faced in the decades previously. The gradual changes that gender roles went through were well documented by media over the years. As American society changed, so did its depiction in books, movies and television.

As I said in my opening post, my blog focused on films from the 1950s till the present. When I choose this form I did not realize the expansive amounts of information it would cover. Every year, hundreds, if not thousands, of films are made by big budget studios, student directors and other film makers. They have varying genres, stories, styles and messages. Some of these films are much ahead of their time, highlighting many of the issues and disparities of contemporary society, while others are merely meaningless slasher horror films that are only meant to provide basic entertainment.

While doing my research, I decided that I had to focus on films from the middle of the spectrum. By this I mean mainstream Hollywood films that were widely watched but also had powerful dramatic functions that engaged the audience heavily. I thought I would find very few examples of such movies, but they were a lot more common than I initially believed. I discovered that many directors wanted to add messages to their films, but they had to work in the confines of Hollywood guidelines and censorship. Many of them took major steps to make their movies stand out from the rest, and this often lead to dynamic or controversial characters in the narrative.

As I wrote my blogs, and jumped from decade to decade, I began to notice a pattern in the depiction of the genders. In every decade, the changes that female characters went through was subtle. More and more portrayals deviated from the standard female characteristics that had defined Hollywood in the 1950s. Filmmakers began to realize that female characters were more than a just prop to drive a narrative and that they could touch upon on their conflicts as well. More and more films began to depict female protagonists. It was an entire side of the human condition that had yet to be explored by the medium and whichever director took the initiative often became successful.

In my opening blog post, I mentioned that I would attempt to draw a conclusion as to whether changing society caused the new depictions in the media, or if society shifted its norms after the media began to showcase more diverse portrayals. In my opinion, it seems to be a combination of both. A marginalized group in society would begin the cycle by adopting an unconventional lifestyle or practice. The movement would grow and face opposition which would to lead to it gaining some level of publicity. Eventually, the ideas of the group would make their way to Hollywood and filmmakers would incorporate them into their works. They saw themselves as artists who would shed light on the societal issues while also providing entertainment to the general public. These depictions would become common place in several films and other forms of media. It is a well-known fact that the media exerts great influence over society, particularly the youth. As more and more people see those films, they began to accept the previously unconventional depictions as normal, and this facilitates change in society. I am not saying this is how society always evolves, but film is a form of art, and the goal of art is comment on the world and try and change it for the better. A major example of this is how women were perceived in films during the 1980s. During the 60s and 70s, many feminist groups fought for equal rights and treatment in all levels of society. Feminists were eager to shed the weak and feeble image that had been attached to females. Eventually, their crusade paid off and one of their victories was Title IX, which prevented sex discrimination in schools and allowed female athletes to prosper. Then films began to depict females as being strong and independent, and as more and more viewers began to watch them, the views of the majority began to change.

While reading through my group member’s blog posts, I was particularly interested by what Michelle said about Advertisements today: “This poster portrays how the advertisement field sometimes accepts and wants women to be more powerful than men.” I think gender roles have changed significantly, and that the way society perceives the sexes has evolved at well. However, I do not believe that the Genders are, in fact, equal. The truth of the matter is that the males and females have stark differences which will be difficult to reconcile. There will always be disparities on how the media depicts and targets the two. Being unequal does not mean one is better off or worse. Rather, the fact that we have these differences is something to celebrate. Today, men and woman have the right to live their lives as they please; watch what they want, eat what they want, meet who they want. The genders are no longer held back by restrictions placed upon them by society.

All in all, I believe that our group covered our topic very well. We covered several forms of media from each decade and this allowed us to see the change gender roles went through as a whole. My research also allowed me to see films under a different light. I began to pay more attention to the characters, especially the females. I analyzed every word they spoke, and action they took to understand the filmmaker’s opinion of women. I re-watched many of my favorite films and began to appreciate the different characters much more. 

Final Blog Wrap Up (Michelle)

After a couple weeks of research of our group blog project, every member in our group learned new information based on their topic and came up with conclusions. Our research blog was focused on the factors in media that affect the transformation of gender roles from 1950s to present day. Through our research, we selected different media factors such as advertisements, TV shows, films and music to further investigate the transformation.

In my case, I focused on the media field of advertisements. Advertisements can be seen as relating changes in society. First, advertisements in the late 1800s and early 1900s were used as a tool of propaganda. Those early propaganda was an essential tool to target the audiences to believe in them. Advertisements in the 1900s were also a targeting tool for producers to introduce their product to the community and to persuade people to purchase their product. In the time period from 1950s to present day, advertising posters and images are closely connected to the gender role of the society.

In reflecting on my proposal of the blog project, I have always believed that women in the early era were housewife materials. Men on the other side have the dominance and priority over women whereas they take over the role of being the “boss” of the household. It is because of this belief society chooses to believe in for the past centuries, women shown on advertisements are always portrayed as housewives and children bearers. In my proposal, I predicted that women’s role would change, as time progresses while men’s role remain strong and still. It was hard for me to predict the specific timing, however, in my research of my blog, I was able to estimate the timing that women’s role in society changes. The role women were portrayed as in the early mid 1900s were weak and as time progresses, women then takes the advantage of being in social media and uses their physical appearances as a sex appeal figure to attract the public.

In the 1950s, the baby booming events took place giving women the role of a housewife and children bearer. In this decade, women in advertisements were shown as housewives with babies on their side in kitchens. In that blog post, I used 1951’s Margarine poster as an example of housewives in kitchen. Men, on the other hand, take the role of professional jobs wearing suits and ties. In respect to this era, I selected 1957’s Kellogg poster to portray men in this era wearing professional clothing. In the next decade, the gender role between men and women did really change. Advertisements remained to target consumers using women as figures in household and men in businesses. However, there is one significant change in this decade. Many advertisements begin to place both genders on the same page and as to this change; this also means that the society will soon accept women to be equal as men. In the later decades, women started to wear less clothing on advertisements making them an attraction for men and also a sex-appealing figure in society. A drastic change was widely seen in the 1980s with producers using women as sex appeals to attract consumer and on the other hand, it created career path for women in the advertisement fields. Not only women are becoming sex-appealing figures, men also use their masculine and muscular body types to promote advertising products. The trend of using both genders on advertisements has set out a path for future generations to follow.

On the other hand, my group members focused on films, music and television shows to further depict the progression of gender. From their blog post such as the film industry, the role of women from a weak figure have greatly transformed into a more “complex” character. Another one is the music industry; female singers are more likely to express their feelings in their music videos by using their physical looks to reveal their thoughts. Lastly, the television shows also changed, throughout the time period the definition of family did progress. Overall, the previous predictions I made about gender roles matched. First, I predicted that women in the early 1900s were stay home wives and mothers taking care of household duties and children. Men on the other side, take dominancy over women in society where as they are being portrayed as strong heads of the household who is the only source to support the family. It is because of society’s definition of men and women, the role of men always have priority over women regardless. However, as time progresses, society’s view begin to slowly change and reform. Women’s presences in public such as advertisements are starting to promote them as a source of essential targeting factors for consumers. As time progresses, women shown in posters from being housewives changes to sex appealing characters with less wore clothing. Therefore, the trend of less wore clothing are becoming useful and most of the time successful in introducing products to consumer. Not only did women became sex appealing characters, but men on the other hand picked up the trend; both men and women worked together in the commercial field to better the advertisements. As the blog depicted the usage and importance of media, we can conclude how social media greatly influences the daily lives of Americans.  Social media such as advertisements have influenced the society’s view on gender role from men dominancy and priority over women to equal standards of both genders.

Dingmin Lin

2000s in music about woman’s right

                        The 2000s were for the most part as pop music fragmented in to smaller trends. In the first half of the decade saw a lack of division from the second half 1990s because it still had the same musical identity of the past decade. As more people are using internet, the internet allowed unprecedented access to music and allowed a lot of artists to share their work freely by using the internet. At the same time, female musicians use their music to more freely to express their feeling. One of famous American R&B singer and songwriter Blu Cantrell was born in Providence, Rhode Island. One of her song from her first album “Hit Em Up style (Oop!)”

“While he was schemeing

I was beamin in the Beamer just beamin

Can't believe that I caught my man cheatin'

So I found another way to make him pay for it all

So I went

To Neiman-Marcus on a shopping spree

And on the way I grabbed Soley and Mia

And as the cash box rang I thought everything away”(Lyrics from “Hit Em Up style”

Form the Lyrics, we can see that she want to let others woman know that women should take revenge on cheating men by draining them of their available assets, both monetary assets and property. And in her Music video, Blu Cantrell is massive bad ass in the video and promotes a distinctly beginning of attitude (don’t get mad get even). She shows that woman should not just let their man cheat on them, and didn’t take any action. She wants to all woman knows that in 21 decay, they are all independent woman and don’t need to rely on man. And another artist Britney Spears’s song “Stronger” shows that almost same story about a girl who is tired of her cheating boyfriend and decides to live without him, and she believe she became stronger after she broke up with her boyfriend. Both singers’ songs shows that woman become more independence and freedom.

Music video website:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMOKlXfXn50&feature=kp

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJWtLf4-WWs

Advertisements Today (Michelle)

In our society today, the presence of gender discrimination is decreasing tremendously. Men and women both share almost every aspects of living. Unlike the previous eras, women are defined as house wives and child bearer. However, society today defines women as independent women who deserve the same rights as men. They are to be treated as normal human beings.  Just like the advertisement fields, women’s career greatly improved and is becoming the main target for advertisement, while men   remained the same.   

Men and women are appearing almost everywhere together. Just like Michael Kor’s 2014 advertisement, both genders are being placed in the same image. The world today gives more opportunities to women where they become strong powerful force in the advertisement field. Their physical body becomes the main attraction for targeting audiences and consumers. Not only this applies to women, but also men. Both men and women today needs to have the required height and attractive figures to become a model and to appear in the advertisement field. 

This advertisement in particular portrays the dominance and power of feminine character in advertisement field. This 2014’s Tom Ford advertisement uses Esther Heesch as an attraction and also this image depicts the dominance of women in the field where as the model is on top of men and men are to support her. This poster portrays how the advertisement field sometimes accepts and wants women to be more powerful than men.

 

Our era today is accepting the transformations the past has done. The gender changes affected everyone’s lives today. It is because of the changes, our society is providing more opportunities for women. They take advantages of it and prove to the society that they can perform the same skills and tasks as men. The past era have help change and shaped our world today. Both genders are defined to be in the same level with equal rights and opportunities.