Representations of Gender in Advertising

This under five minute video is excellent, with some shocking statistics and thought-provoking images, and it is a great entry point to talk about how men and women are "supposed" to be, and how we need to break free of that mind trap...





Created for

"a Women and Gender Studies class at the University of Saskatchewan by Sarah Zelinski, Kayla Hatzel and Dylan Lambi-Raine [who] wanted to show how ridiculous media portrays gender roles and stereotypes in advertising through presenting gender roll reversals."

It was also interesting that in the "real" ads, all the women conformed to the thin and buxom stereotype of beauty, while in the role reversal ads, there were many different kinds of men portrayed.

What do you think?

Rachel Maddow and the blog Good As You catch the anti-gay marriage campaign FAKING support in New Hampshire

Check this video out, it's outrageous:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

And get this, at the Good As You blog, they show how after two days the anti-gay marriage organization took down the fake anti-gay rights photo Rachel showed above and replaced it with... wait for it... a photo from the New York City march against gay marriage. Um, still not actually showing support in New Hampshire for taking away gay people's right to marry.

It's so important for us to be savvy consumers of media and advertising, and this story really highlights how critical it is to have reporters and bloggers and the media as watchdogs to catch these kinds of tricks and expose them.

I love how Rachel says "Caught You!" at the end.

Yeah. We sure did.

Namaste,
Lee


ps- thanks to Kathryn for the heads-up about this!

Boys & Book Cover Shame: Will e-books get boys reading more?

So recently on the amazing twitter #kidlitchat that's on Tuesday nights (6pm west coast time), a discussion of e-books came up, and it was mentioned that Romance is the biggest selling category of e-books.

The theory was Book Cover Shame. The idea that it's embarrassing walking around with a book whose cover is pretty much the equivalent of you SCREAMING:

"I'm reading a bodice-ripping romance novel because I need more passion in my life!"

In contrast, an e-book is completely anonymous. You could be reading about Proust's remembering his pastry (Remembrance Of Things Past) or Orwell's dystopia (1984) - nobody knows what you're reading except you.

And I think that there's an amazing upside to this idea.

See, there's this parallel concept in Children's and especially Teen publishing that boys won't read books that they don't want to be seen with. Hence, boys won't read any books that "look" girly. And thus most of the marketing and promotion of Teen books - especially any books with female protagonists - skews towards girls, because they are the "readers." This makes "girl book" covers look even MORE girly, to appeal to girl readers.

Boys, if they read, are seen as reluctant, and only willing to read about boy protagonists on "manly" adventures. Boy book covers are macho.

Much of the time the cover art pretty much conveys to everyone if the book is considered a "girl book" or a "boy book." Look for yourself:

Girl covers:

Boy Covers:

But enter e-books. If I'm a 15 year old guy, I may LOVE vampire stories, but I don't necessarily want the other kids at school seeing me walking around carrying "Twilight." Especially after the movie and all those sparkly-in-the-sunlight Edward moments. Now I can read it. If I want to read "Wintergirls" or "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" - well, now I can. And nobody has to know, unless I tell them.

Think about what this means for GAY books. Boys AND girls can now carry around and read the amazing GLBTQ titles here on this blog anonymously.

Nobody will know if you're reading "The God Box" or "Gravity." Nobody will know if you're thinking about "can I be Gay and believe in God?" or if you're thinking about which Jonas Brother is cutest... err, most talented. If it's on your e-book, you could be reading ANYthing, and no one across the cafeteria would know.

E-books allow everyone access to stories and information in a way that's private. And there are moments as a teenager when I would have LOVED that level of privacy (After all, I read Anne McCaffrey's fantasy novels with girl protagonists!)

So while I love paper books (or as I recently heard someone call them, "the dead tree versions of books") I think there's quite an upside to this whole e-book transition.

And sure, I look forward to the day when anyone can carry around ANY book and not be embarrassed or made to feel bad about themselves because of what that book is. But for right here, right now? E-books mean that boys and girls are going to read more. Without fear of Book Cover Shame.

And that's a great thing.

What do you think? Have you ever experienced or seen Book Cover Shame in action? Do you think e-books might change that?

Namaste,
Lee

GSA Monday Topic: Watch This Amazing Video... and Discuss

Okay, so for this week I'm loving the idea of everyone finding great video clips of movies or shorts or TV shows on DVD or youtube, sharing them with your GSA, and discussing them.

There's so much great stuff OUT there (in both senses of the word) that can springboard conversation.

My contribution, here at our virtual Gay-Straight Alliance? Two brief videos (the first is under 2 minutes, the second, under 3 1/2 minutes long.) They're both from the TV show Dawson's Creek, which I never watched, but had I known it had stuff like this in it...





I am now, officially, a HUGE fan of this show!

Thanks to Greg Hernandez, who's blogging now at Greg In Hollywood, for highlighting these video clips on his old daily news blog.

Enjoy discussing!

Namaste,
Lee

What's With the Lipstick? Neil Patrick Harris on the cover of New York Magazine

The article by Emily Nussbaum is great. Neil Patrick Harris is awesome (full disclosure: I'm a huge fan.) But the cover photo of the September 21, 2009 issue of New York Magazine, taken by Art Streiber is...






So, is having "Hollywood's First (Openly) Gay Breakthrough Star" putting on lipstick telling everyone:

"Relax and don't be so uptight about gender roles and sexuality."

Or is it telling the people who don't know better:

"Yup. Being Gay means you're a Guy who wants to be a Girl."

A picture, as the cliché goes, speaks a thousand words. What's this one telling you?

GSA Monday Topic: Angry Gay Men, Sad Lesbians: Deconstructing Media Images of the Same-Gender Marriage Controversy as Prop 8 Goes Before the Court

It's fascinating to look how we're being portrayed in the most prominent photos accompanying the news articles on Prop 8 going before the California Supreme Court this past Friday.

What do these images say about media biases?

What do they say about how good a job we are doing as a community in being heard?

Take a look at these photos below (click on them to go to the on-line article they came from) and see what you think:

Angry Same-Gender Marriage Supporter, from the Los Angeles Times

Angry Same-Gender Marriage Supporter, from the Wall Street Journal

Sad/Hopeful Lesbians from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Hopeful Same-Gender Marriage Supporters, From The Orange County Register:




Earnest Defense: Here's one from the Sacramento Bee of an angry anti-gay marriage protester, which shows a more nuanced response from a pro-gay marriage supporter:



And The New York Times' photo lets you focus on whichever side of the issue you're on:


My eye goes right to the gay couple in the foreground, one with his arm around the other, holding up the "Love will Conquer H8" sign , but I bet that people who DON'T want Gays to have the right to marry focus on the woman and man on either side of the male couple who carry "traditional" marriage signs.


Take a look at YOUR local news coverage of Prop 8 being debated in front of the California Supreme Court. What does it say about the biases of the media where YOU live?


What images really speak to you?

For me, the image that spoke the MOST was this one, from The Seattle Times (It was also used on the front page of The Philadelphia Inquirer):


What do you think?

Namaste,

Lee