Week 6

Sociology had opened my eyes, there's no doubt about that. Because of this class, I have become sociological mindful of what is happening in the world around me. One way I have been impacted but did not expect it, is in the issue of gender. I have now realized the way our society forces our young members to be either one gender or the other. When applying for college, we get the choice of either being male or female. No if, ands, or buts, we have to be either one.

Through the video we watched in class, "Tough Guise 2" I relaized the impact that society has on boys. I always knew girls were changed because of it, but I didn't know everything that boys were put through. While surfing the Internet, I found 2 pictures that perfectly summarized how boys were shaped to be (please excuse the language in the second one, it was too good to not post!)

The first picture depicts the struggles that young boys put together of what they experience on a daily basis. The second depicts the struggle of a young boy trying to show some femininity but it not being accepted by his family members. This behavior is not only shown by teenagers, but a young boys' own family members. These boys are told to be tough and brave and are "suppost to like violence". The fact that a young boy can describe this while many people are blind to it shows that they are not trying to see what is wrong with our society.

The pressure experienced by young women is just as great as that experienced by young men. As shown by a Dove commercial we watched in class, women in our society rarely think highly of themselves, though others may think very highly of them. Around Halloween-time, we looked at the Halloween costumes worn by young girls and boys. The girls were always depicted as fun or girly and something as minimal as a fairy or cheerleader while the boys were members of the military or firefighters. Simply put, the girls were supposed to cheer on the boys while they saved the world. As they grew up, they could be the same thing, only with less clothes. One picture I found again perfectly depicts the struggles a young girl experiences through society. 

Pictured here is a young girl and boy posing together. This billboard is from The Body Shop and I don't think I've ever been more proud of a company for depicting something wrong with our society than I am with them for having this. Because the girls name is Alex and it names all of the things she aspires to be when she grows up (and none of them are a housewife) the reader automatically assumes that it is talking about her brother. It is not until we read the lower right hand corner that we find out that her brothers name is Chris, and it was talking about her. While this hit the nail on the head, I still want more. I want companies to depict the exposure of young girls to ads of women naked with a product placed strategically to still be printed. These ads have gotten worse and worse, and it is because of this class that I really saw what magazines were printing. All in all, I find it sickening the amount of pressure experienced by our young members of society. Boys are told they have to be strong and cannot be at all feminine, and girls are told they cannot have a job that does anything and they have to wear next to nothing to be noticed by anyone.