These texts and videos did seem to
have gender roles portrayed as the main theme, but that is not what I found
interesting. What interests me is how we are able to analyze our societies view
on gender roles and how they were viewed thousands of years ago, when Chaucer
wrote “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” While analyzing these texts and videos, I
realized that there are more issues than gender differences. Chivalry and
feminism are also evident, but usually fall under the umbrella of gender roles.
Chivalry,
which I could not have defined before this assignment, was seen through the
video of “Footloose” and the lyrics of the song “Holding Out for a Hero.” Not
only was the song played within the video of “Footloose,” the video seemed to show
two young males that were in a sense, “fighting for the woman.” The men were showing off their masculinity and
playing chicken, seeing which one would wimp out first. The men being displayed
as masculine in this video promotes the woman’s role of a beautiful blonde-haired
woman that looks good in a cowboy hat. Related to this clip, “Holding Out for a
Hero” has a chorus that involves a woman seeking a man. The second part of the
chorus is written “He's gotta be strong and he's gotta be fast, And he's gotta be fresh from the fight.” Reading over
people’s blogs, this was not overlooked. We all seemed to notice that a woman
was seeking a man, but did we all notice that Bonnie Tyler described the man as
the hero?
Next
I noticed that there may be a connection between the song “Royals” and the text
“A Titan’s How-To on Breaking the Glass Ceiling.” Within the song by Lorde, it
seemed that she was trying to convey the message that royals were being trapped
within the successes that they had accomplished. Although she sang, “we’ll
never be royals,” she also resumed the song by later singing that she will be
Queen and talks about ruling. That puzzled me. However, what I did conclude was
that it addressed the stereotype between men and woman and that woman can only
be living out of fantasies. Within the text written by Jodi Kantor, I noticed
that she summarized feminism in a situation in which woman shared experiences
and decided to stand up for themselves in the workplace. Feminism was the theme
within this text because the author shared a personal experience in which a
woman had to work harder and face struggles within the professional realm.
To
sum this all up, I am unable to blog about every single text or video, but I am
able to share that the last few do all relate to one another. “The Wife
of Bath’s Tale,” the Chevy commercial, “The Genderbread Person,” and the
“Genderless Baby” all include or hint at gender inequality or gender roles.
What interested me the most out of these was the insight that Chaucer included
in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” His literature dates back and still includes the
roles of women. During this time, (and occasionally still now) women were
treated as material objects. In other words, they would often times do the
dirty work for the men. Related to this, the Chevy commercial showed one of
five men singing in a “manly” truck with the others looking uncomfortable and
feeling awkward. Considering he is singing a song that is considered feminine,
the others do not want to be associated with him. What makes this ironic was
the fact that my roommates at home began singing this song in a sarcastic way
when I played it; and did not believe me when I told them it was for a class.
To wrap
this up, I just found it interesting that it’s not just our society that
undermines women, this dates all the way back to Chaucer’s poems, and most
likely earlier than that. All of these texts are perfect examples of gender
roles and how often times chivalry and feminism fall within it. Although we
notice gender roles as the main concern or theme within our texts and videos,
we also need to notice that it is not our only problem.
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