Gender in Pop Culture

            After a brief scroll through the ‘News’ app on my iPhone, I found an interesting article that immediately caught my attention. It’s titled “Rejoice: Image Searches Just Became More Gender-Balanced” and written by Semcon and published by Chicagoist on December 2, 2016.

            Basically this article is about a new “open source software” called “Re-Search” made by Swedish company, Semcon. What this new search engine does is gender balances searched internet images. For example, if you were to go on Google and search “engineer” you would get thousands of images of a man in a hard hat holding blue prints, looking very intrigued at his work. This gender unbalance goes the other way too, for example, if you sear “teacher” you would get mostly of images of a woman in front of a blackboard. This of course, isn’t fair, and Semcon is working to fix the problem.

            What I think is very interesting is that I’m sure most of us, including myself, never though that this was even an issue. We all probably just searched things on Google Images and never batted an eye as to the gender gap there was, even though we would hear about it all the time in the news. It was just one of those things that went right over our heads. But now that I am aware of it, it does make a me a bit angry. When I was younger, there was some road construction going on by my house, and the team working on the road was all women. There had been a sign put up that said “Men At Work”. The first day they were there, my mom and I drove by and saw one of the crew members duct taping “Women At Work” on to the sign. That’s something that’s stuck with me for a long time, and a small event in my life that I really looked up to ever since that day. So when I found this article about this gender imbalance on the internet, that I had never thought about, I was very excited, even if I wasn’t worried about it before. I especially liked the part of the article that included the ‘flip side’ to this problem as well.

            I think it’s a wonderful opportunity, Semcon is doing more than what they need to by closing the gender gap. Something as simple as this, can cause a big impact. Just image a 10-year-old using Google images to research a career project for school, and all they find is pictures of men in that field. This way, children can be taught too, at a young age, that you truly can be anything you want to be.

Works Cited Page

Semcon. “Rejoice: Image Searches Just Became More Gender-Balanced”. Chicagoist. 2 December, 2016. Accessed 6 December, 2016. http://chicagoist.com/2016/12/02/rejoice_image_searches_just_became.php

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-nFP4PKaW4

Unit 3 Project

          For the Unit 3 project, I chose to analyze the film Me Before You directed by Thea Sharrock, produced by Alison Owen, Karen Rosenfelt, and Sue Baden-Powell. The producing companies are Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and New Line Cinema. It was released May 23, 2016 and earned $18.72 million opening weekend. The film was based on the novel Me Before You written by Jojo Moyes.

The film focuses on a woman named Louisa ‘Lou’ Clark, who is chatty, quirky, and loves her bold fashion. When Lou loses her job at a bakery, she is given to opportunity to help care for Will Traynor, a successful, wealthy, and once-active man, who became paralyzed two years earlier in a car accident.  Will has a negative outlook on life, he believes that he is only merely existing, because he is unable to live the active lifestyle he once had. Slowly but surely, Lou’s cheery attitude persuades Will to go out to different events with her. The more time that Lou and Will spend together, the more they get to know about each other. Lou, how she once was going to go off to college, but her family fell on hard times and needed her support. Will, how he once pretty much had it all, a gorgeous girlfriend, active and thrilling lifestyle, countless friends, and lost it all to the accident. But Will has more secrets that Lou eventually finds out about. Will and his parents had made a deal, after Will tried to end his own life, that if he still wanted to go in six months’ time, they would go to Switzerland as a family and Will would be medically induced. Of course his parents were very much against that, but had to honor his wishes and the deal they made. As a counter-move to get Will to change his mind, his mother hired Lou hoping that she would bring light into Will’s life. Will and Lou do fall in love, through their romantic trips to the horse races, and the symphony, and even his ex-girlfriend’s wedding. But on their final trip, a tropical paradise island, Will finally tells Lou what she knew all along. Will explains that even though he does love Lou, he still won’t be able to live life the way he would want to, and how he believes that’s not a life worth living. Through a lot of soul searching, and a talk with her dad, Lou decides to go with Will and his family to Switzerland to see him go. The film ends with Lou sitting in a cute café in Paris, reading a letter from Will explaining how he set up a bank account for her to use for school so she can finally stop taking care of everyone else and do something for her.  

From a feminist standpoint, I would have to say that this film does reinforces patriarchal views and stereotypes. The film reinforces it in the way that Will is a handsome, athletic, rich, white male. Where Lou is more average, quirky, and smart. Will is clearly superior to Lou. If it had not been for Will’s accident, these two surely would have never met. Of course after the accident, Will is still handsome and rich, but he isn’t able to live the life he once had so he has to almost “settle” for Lou’s company.  It also reinforces the idea that men in general are superior to women.

There are also many, typical romance elements to this story. Lou is the poor, kind of an outcast girl, from a poor family, and no real future. Will is the handsome prince that comes to save her from her life. He saves her by 1. Employing her to help out her family and 2. By then giving her the bank account so she can go to college. This implies once again that Will is better than Lou, and almost says that she couldn’t have gone off to college without Will’s help. There aren’t really any evil queens or ugly stepsisters in the film, except maybe Will’s ex-girlfriend who breaks up with him after his accident. And that’s where the tables turn in the “who saves who” debate. Lou teaches Will what true love is like. She loves him after his disability, so not just for his looks or for his money, but for who he really is as a person. So one could argue that Lou also in turn saved Will.

Overall, I did really enjoy the film and I liked the story line, except the part of Will dying in the end. Once going more in-depth though, I could see the flaws in it, from a feminist standpoint. All in all, it’s a great movie and can teach someone a lot about love, life, and that we really need to enjoy the time we have, because everything can change in an instant. 

Unit 2 Project

           For my Unit 2 project, I chose to research a woman named Tulsi Gabbard. At 21 years old, Gabbard was the youngest female to be elected into the Hawaii House of Representatives, at the time. Gabbard served from 2002 to 2004, when she then volunteered for a 12-month long tour in Iraq as a part of the Hawaii National Guard. She then worked under U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka until 2009 when she volunteered again for another tour. Upon her return, in 2011 she was elected into the Honolulu City Council and served until 2012, when she then decided to give up her seat on the council to focus on her campaign for the 2^nd Congressional District of Hawaii for the U.S. House of Representatives, which she won with 55% of the vote. But not everything has been peachy for Tulsi Gabbard. As a woman, in a position of power, and in her position in the Hawaii National Guard, she’s faced many challenges, but in those challenges, has overcome so much.

            One part of Tulsi Gabbard’s life that has really impacted and influenced her political career, is her time spent in the Hawaii National Guard. Gabbard describes being in congress comparable to being in combat, “There are weapons and things being thrown back and forth”. I think there is a lot more truth to what she stated there, than one might initially think. There are a lot of dirty parts to politics that can get just as ugly as being in the military, I’m sure. But Gabbard is very strongly opinionated that while she can see these similarities between the two, she expresses how she doesn’t think the similarities are a good thing. Gabbard message she learned while in the military is that people from all over the world, coming from many different places with different ideas, can still work together because they’re a part of a team, fighting for the same bigger mission. I personally agree very much with her ideology, and I’m sure a lot of people could agree we need more of this in congress.

            One thing that makes Tulsi Gabbard different than many others in politics, except the fact that she’s a woman, is that she’s divorced. Women in politics are often ridiculed about their family life, like we saw in Parks & Recreation, how Leslie was asked where her children are and who was taking care of them. There’s no doubt that in the society that we live in today, Gabbard has gotten some sort of backlash for being divorced. This is just another stereotype that women face that they should have the perfect life. They need a perfect husband, have perfect children, a perfect home, and be the perfect wife. But the reality of that is, not everything can be perfect. But when you’re in the eye of the public like that, women and men politicians are held to a higher standard than ‘normal people’ are.

            Something that Tulsi Gabbard is very proud of, and mentions in her Makers video interview is the “Helping Veterans Fly Act”, which eases travel for wounded and disabled veterans. This was Gabbard’s first piece of legislation that was unanimously passed in congress, and signed into law by the president, all within about four months. “Here in congress sometimes people assume that with youth comes naiveté and inexperience, but I think it allows for a different type of energy and a different type of contribution; Not willing to except “No that’s not possible” as an answer.” Gabbard’s quote here can be taken into context of feminism as well. She believes in herself, as a woman, and as a legislature. I think she sends out a great message to women aspiring to practice politics, or anything that is held to a high standard in our society. Whether you’re a man or a woman, we all have some sort of obstacle to overcome and Tulsi Gabbard sends out a great message for anyone trying to achieve those high goals.  

             Tulsi Gabbard grew up as a shy, Hawaiian girl, but has transformed into a headstrong, heartfelt, down to earth congresswoman, and Hawaii National Guard member. When Gabbard first started out, she said her biggest obstacle was working up the courage to knock on people’s doors to talk about her campaign. Some people would call that naive and would say she wasn’t ready for the responsibility she was about to take on. But I believe that just showed how much she really cared about all of this, that she was concerned about what individual people thought about her topics. And now she’s met with the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and has spoken at the Democratic National Convention in 2012. Tulsi Gabbard is a great role model, some one that everyone could look up to, and is making big changes in the world of politics for women. 

Works Cited

Cavuto, Neil. Gabbard, Tulsi. “Interview with Hawaii Congresswomen Tulsi Gabbard”. International Wire. January 21, 2015. Accessed November 12, 2016.

Cavuto, Neil. Gabbard, Tulsi. “Interview with Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard”. International Wire. June 18, 2015. Accessed November 12, 2016.

“Tulsi Gabbard”. Makers. Accessed November 12, 2016.

*I know those two articles are named the same, and by the same person, but they are in fact different articles*

            For my Unit 1 Project I am choosing to look at and analyze the Instagram social media accounts of four very different, yet influential and powerful women. Accounts like Kim Kardashian’s and Sommer Ray are very well known to many people, but the accounts of thelittleeblog and Tess Holliday might be a new introduction. I chose these accounts for the soul purpose that each one of these women are very different from the last, but all have one thing in common: they uplift themselves and other women in ways that they see fit.

            The first social media account is none other than the social media and ‘selfie’ queen herself, Kim Kardashian. Her Instagram account can be found with many various pictures, highlighting everything of her fabulous life from her children, concerts put on by her husband Kanye West, fabulous clothing items, self-promotional adds, and of course selfies. Next we have Sommer Ray, a 20-year-old fitness guru, with her Instagram account filled with very impressive pictures of her body that she worked very hard to obtain. Sommer Ray participated in teen bodybuilding competitions until she was 18 years old. Now at 20, she mostly just posts at-home fitness techniques and pictures, and does some modeling here and there. The next Instagram account is a polar opposite of the last two, it’s the account of plus-size, tattooed model, Tess Holliday. Tess has been well recognized in the last couple years as the world’s first popular plus-size model. Her account features pictures of herself, pictures from some of her shoots, feminist campaigns, and even some of her children. Tess is a big advocate for body positivity and has her own trademark hashtag, #effyourbeautystandards. The last Instagram account I’m going to analyze is one that I had stumbled upon by accident, but grown to love. It’s called “thelittleeblog” but the blogger herself is named Emma Gustavson. Emma is a style and hair blogger and has a very cute, girl-next-door flavor to her that is very relatable for her 10 thousand followers.

            Starting off with Kim Kardashian’s Instagram account, one’s first initial take on it would most the stereotype that Kim is just a sex bimbo and her only claim to fame is her sex tape and people have no idea how she’s even still a relevant part of our society. But in my perspective, Kim Kardashian West is so much more. Sure, there’s no denying that her sex tape is most definitely what got her, her status symbol in the world, but since those days in 2007, Kim has really evolved herself to be a very good business woman, and an activist in many different social areas. One thing that surprises many people is that Kim takes an interest in politics. She has been known to comment on this year’s presidential election, and was actually very publicly upset about a bill that was denied to tighten gun safety laws. Some would say that Kim only reinforces the idea that women are supposed to look and act a certain way, and while Kim definitely does care a lot about her body and looks, she does it in a way that’s for herself and no one else. Throughout the years and all the negativity that she has gotten, she’s never backed down and stayed true to her beliefs.

            Sommer Ray is one of many females that have Instagram accounts dedicated to her fitness life and goals. At an initial look at her page, you see many pictures taken professionally, and unprofessionally, of her butt, actually almost every single picture features a nice angel of her behind. Some people might think that’s degrading to women, and she’s setting a standard that’s impossible to achieve, I think she’s actually empowering women. Sommer has been in the fitness world since she was 16, her whole life is dedicated to fitness and she has the results to account for it. Some say her bodacious booty pictures only reinforce the male gaze, and that she doesn’t actually know anything about real fitness and she ‘just wants an excuse to show off her butt’. I think her Instagram account is the exact opposite of that. I believe that for her, fitness really is her lifestyle, and it has been for many years. Something that is personally important to her is maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and she deserves to show off her results.

            Another blogger whose body is the root of her account is Tess Holliday. Tess is a size 24, plus size model. In the last two years she has gained much recognition for being one of the most popular plus size models and has really gathered up a large fan base. I think Tess’s account is awesome because like Kim Kardashian and Sommer Ray, she loves her body and isn’t afraid to show it. Tess is a huge activist for body positivity, which has been a very big recent trend and issue in our society. I think the fact that she’s completely defying the modeling industry’s beauty standards, and changing the game for all women, is just, amazing. It takes so much courage and strength to put yourself out on social media like that in the first place, but then to also be completely out of ‘the norm’, makes it even harder. Tess Holliday teaches girls all around the world that your body is beautiful no matter what you look like, and challenges us all to redefine and question society’s beauty standards. #effyourbeautystandards

            The last Instagram account we’re going to look at is the account called “thelittleeblog” but run by Emma Gustavson. I’ve really come to like Emma’s blog for two things: One, that she has a wide range of style that pertain to many different people. And two, because she is very relatable. In my opinion, I think Emma has an amazing style, she shows women ways to pair different items with different things, and how you could make two completely different outfits with the same article of clothing. I’m personally very into style and fashion so I find her posts very useful, and what’s really great is most of the things she wears she finds in thrift stores, so it gives you hope that you can look just as cute as her without spending a ton of money! The other thing I really like about Emma’s blog is that she’s really relatable. She’ll post about her family, most importantly her cats, and even teach you all the different ways she styles her hair. I think Emma does a great job incorporating many different styles and aspects of one’s life. She’s almost like your big sister that teaches you how to put on mascara for the first time.

            Through all these different women, and their different blogs, one theme stays in place: they all love themselves, what they do, and they set an example that you should love yourself the way you are too. Whether you prefer Kim Kardashian’s high class style, Sommer Ray’s fitness life, Tess Holliday’s body positivity morals, or Emma Gustavson’s friendly and relatable fashion tutorials, no matter which way you chose to portray yourself, love it. As long as you’re happy with who you are, and the things you do give you empowerment, there’s no right or wrong way to live.