The idea of how media reinforces damaging ideology is fascinating because it goes unseen. Change moves at a very slow pace and no one really seems to recognize this. Certain media tricks you into thinking it is a more progressive piece, when in fact damaging ideologies are still intact and ultimately protected. With media all around us, all the time, this type of hegemony is unavoidable it seems. These negative ideologies are reinforced constantly, even in the more progressive pieces. When media tries to encompass new progressive ideologies, we see the same repetitive stereotypes push through. For example, in the movie Bridesmaids, we see some progressive positive movements towards equality ideals. We see an all female cast and the actresses play with dirty jokes (or typical mens humor qualities) and the movie even passes that low bar that the Bedchel Test sets. Yet patriarchal ideals are slipped in without much notice. Like the construct of marriage and how a women must give up her life for the one with her new husband. This kind of ideology stems from the idea of women being property, and marriage being the symbol of a purchase of that property. In the movie, the main character Annie, is in a state of 'Rock Bottom'. Throughout the film Annie is given blow after blow to her life, either brought on by herself or others. In this scene you can see where some patriarchal ideals are snuck in to this seemingly progressive movie.
In this clip, you see that Annie is ultimately not capable of putting her own life together. Even in the simplest way like fixing your car. This reinforces the stereotype that women need a man to be put together or whole, and that Annie is not capable of taking care of herself and needs a man to tell her what to do to fix it. This scene also implies the subtle stereotype that women are terrible with cars. Annie is regarded as a bad driver, and doesn't care to fix her car or know how. Therefore expressing the need for a male to help.
We can ultimately conclude that moving away from damaging social stereotypes and patriarchal tropes is a slow moving process. This is because of the amount of unnoticed hegemonic ideals that slip in to an otherwise progressive, feminist type of media. What makes it difficult to deplete these negative ideologies? I think that these ideals are so engrained into our society that it largely goes unnoticed. This could be a result of too many men in the movie industry, as we saw in Miss Representation. Also, the media system is trading safety for progress, being afraid that too much change will result in failure of an audience.
The subject of exotic beauty really resonated with me after reading more into what was gone over in class. I realized how absolutely prevalent and normalized it is to fetishize 'exotic' women. To define fetishization, it is the selecting of characteristics of a race/culture that are deemed coveting and then assuming that all people of that race should have those qualities. For example, Yellow Fever, which is the fetishization of Asians. It is romanticizing certain qualities that are usually white-centric and not a true model of what asians look or act like. What is most fascinating to me is how normalized this is. I see ads on facebook for asian women, there is a whole porn category fetishizing the entire race of Asians, and so many more examples of this in day to day life. For example, here is a link to the Top 8 reasons why guys like Asian women where the author describes stereotypes that encompass all asian women. It is absolutely abhorrent to think that all women of a certain race would contain the exact 'Wifey' characteristics that men want. Some of the reasons include cooking, cleaning, and submissiveness, along with other qualities that a man is looking for in a mother, I mean, wife. The worst part of this racist, fetishizing, click-bait article is the pictures that accompany the 8 Reasons.
Like this photo which accompanied Reason #7: Asian girls are submissive
How does this affect these women who don't fit into this pigeon-holed view of beauty? It ultimately creates a problematic view of what they should look like or act like. Forcing women of color into a stereotype that fits the patriarchal needs of man is problematic for their culture and self-esteem. The qualities that are desired are decided by men and if you don't fit that stereotype, you are not considered a beautiful women of color, but regarded as an 'other'. This is extremely damaging to asian women who may have hair on her body, or doesn't cook, or hates to clean. They will believe that they are unwanted because they don't fit into the regular standard of beauty as well as what is perceived as their race's standard of beauty. As well as the rest of society will uphold these standards and 'preferred' characteristics and act upon them, creating an entire system that holds unrealistic expectations of an entire race that doesn't accurately represent that race at all.
In another article fetishizing Asian women, the author points out the key qualities that all asian women posses and why they are better than the white women, or any other women.
"1. FeminineAsian women have held close all the family values passed on from their mothers and grandmothers before them. Values that tell women to respect their man and be submissive to them. Being feminine is an ancestral cultural characteristic that most Asian women have, one that most western women wrongly interpret as slavery. Asian women have learned to talk softly to their husbands and be submissive to them; they actually HEAR what you have to say, not just pretend and then do what they want.
2. Traditional valuesYou can expect to eat a meal from the hands of your lovely Asian lady every single day, even if she also has a full-time job and works hard at it. Your house will be spotlessly clean and well-taken care of. Try asking a western woman to cook for you on a daily basis and you’ll probably end up with a bump on your head from the flying ashtray, or with a dreadful sex-starvation week!"
This type of racism towards Asian women is just one example of how women are subjected to the qualities that men pick out. As you can see with these two qualities, it seems like a man just wants to design his own women and they project that onto Asian women, because his uncultured mind doesn't comprehend what an actual Asian women is like or that they are not all alike. Defining these traits as something for women to aspire to in order to please men is damaging for all women. Fetishization occurs with several races such as the fiery Latina as well. You can also easily recognize that most of the qualities picked out are for sexualization or objectification. Reinstating the idea that men use exotic women simply as a sexualized vacation from the traditional white beauty. This defines other races as exactly that, others.
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