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Diversity: Gender Prejudice

Jeffery Andreason
Sue Briggs
Reading contemporary culture
4/20/2014
Diversity: Gender Prejudice
I would like to believe that gender roles in the United States have been an issue since
colonization took place in the 1600s. Specifically, the roles of women in the nation have been
historically predetermined by husbands, fathers, and grandfathers. At this moment more than
ever, citizens are joining together to take a stand against this issue. In the last century alone we
have realized that the better half of society (Im talking about women here) deserves an equal
opportunity to work, play sports, and live their life. Several of the readings throughout the
semester in Contemporary Culture have addressed the issue of gender prejudice, and although
they had many similarities, each reading brought upon new information regarding the subject.
Gender prejudice is a diversity issue in the world and course work in Reading Culture addresses
and expands upon this issue.
The first uproar of gender roles came with the imagination of some comic book authors.
At these men began to draw up new ideas for new characters, women began to take on
extraordinary roles. Women such as Wonder Woman and Cat Woman began to emerge from the
ink to show individuals all over the world that they could be independent. This is the stand that
Delilah Montoya takes when she writes about women boxers. Professional boxing is an
established combat sport, at least for men, and provides women the rare opportunity to be
professional athletes (Montoya) Montoya makes a strong reference on page 211 stating Title
IX of the Civil Rights Act and the feminist movement gave women the right, and they willingly
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have taken it This one quote dives deeply into the entire movement for equal rights. Women
have fought for the opportunity to become equal, and boxing is, in my opinion, a giant leap into
this equality. This opened my eyes to a new suffering in the world; that of a woman trying to
make it in a mans world. The way in which the story was told gave me a sense of relation to
the boxers in the article. The words, the relationships, and the goals are all things I personally
share with these women. The images at the end of the article helped to solidify a relationship
with the non-fictional characters that Montoya describes throughout her writings. To see the
faces of the women that I imagine while I read builds a true sense of actually knowing these
women and gives me the ability to more deeply connect to them.
In the year 1980, Marjane Satrapi was a young girl at the age of ten. She had lived a
normal life up until this year, because, in this year, new order came to the Iran. This year
brought many changes to her life. The school system had been remodeled to accompany the
beliefs of the leaders, and the women were forced to wear veils which covered their head.
Religion was deeply rooted in those of power. The women of the country revolted against the
veils, and the children hated the veil for their lack of practicality. Although there was a well-
known hate towards the new outfits, women were scared to revolt for fear of what may happen to
them if they do. Marjanes own mother was photographed in a demonstration against the veils,
and the result was detrimental to her personal life. (Satrapi) The way women were treated during
this time, in that they were told what to do and how to do it, reduces the progress the world has
established for equal rights. This story was almost completely in a comic book style of writing,
and, in my opinion, this style helps to grasp exactly who the story is about a ten year old girl.
The story is, in all essence, written for a young audience. The art, the references, even the issues
faced are simplified to be more enjoyable to the reader. Although this approach was simple, to
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say the least, it was also direct. I finished and felt I had a very thorough understanding of the
topic and story. The ability to portrait a revolution with such clarity shows the effectiveness of
the writing. The clarity of an otherwise unknown situation is present in many of the writings,
and subsequently the comments associated with the writings, from this week. Christie Zoucha
shows her understanding after commenting on Hannah Writes post (Week 6) She writes of the
faces in the art, and how they portrait the emotions involved. While Melanie Grant comments on
James Owens post and writes about how surprised she was that the veils had only been around a
few decades, and how the imagery used made her more-so realize how much they questioned the
movement with regard to their freedom.
To continue with government-established dress codes, we dive into the writing on page
544: Banning Burqas and Headscarves in France. This article covers the dress code France
enforced in April, 2011. A law was passed banning women from wearing burqas in public. This
is part of an ongoing pursuit to completely separate church and state in France. The countrys
efforts thus far have banned head scarves or any religious symbols, including yarmulkes or Stars
of David by Jewish students starting in 2004 (page 544). This article laid the foundation towards
a roundtable discussion, or in other words, this article took no stand for or against the issue.
Although this is not gender based oppression, I do believe that the rules and regulations set forth
are easily connected to Marjanes The Veil, listed above. This particular article showed me
the ways to critically examine my beliefs related to each diversity issue we read about.
We continued our journey by examining gender roles in advertising (Gaze). In this
article, we learn the differentiating roles between men and women, as well as how those roles are
portrayed to the reader/viewer. The article shows several ad campaigns and asks the reader to
read into the advertisements. In this assignment, we looked into the message that was being
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portrayed, as opposed to the actual product. The results, to me, were as follows; all of the ad
campaigns and advertisements were designed and redesigned to portrait an idea to the viewer.
Not necessarily a product, per-say, but a concept of what the product can do for you. If you are
wearing this perfume, you are supposed to be desired. If you drink milk, you will have a strong
body. The women in these ads are given to us almost as an object that we should possess, a sexy
addition to our lives. Although this style of advertisement generally works well in the United
States, it greatly dismisses what some women have fought so hard to establish an idea that
women are not objects, they are independent humans. We should not attempt to lure a woman in
for our pleasure; we should respect her and allow her to be strong with her choices.
Finally, we examine the Public Health Messages (Messages). In these advertisement
campaigns, sex is the subject. More-so, the subject is the outcome of sex. Three of the four ads
portrait a woman as evil, and the result is an almost immediate animosity towards women. A
sense of they are out to get you is established, and men are warned to stay away from them.
One of the advertisements even goes as far as to say that women are worse than Adolf Hitler.
Although these images were from the World War II era, the message set women far behind in
their journey towards equal rights. The images are very descriptive in their message, which was
absolutely the idea behind them. Had the authors/artists of the ads chosen a different medium -
abstract art, for example- the message would not have been as clear and the entire movement the
ads were intended to create would have been lost.
All of the articles and messages I have examined throughout this book show many sides
of the same coin, and all of the sides pointed towards one common idea; that Gender Prejudice is
a diversity issue in the world and course work in Reading Culture addresses and expands upon
this issue. I have learned to not just read an article, but to deeply understand the meaning (or at
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least what I preserve to be the meaning) behind the article. In this world, specific groups hold
power over other groups, and the effects of this control can be, at times, enough to stand and
fight for what we believe in.
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Works Cited
Gaze, Reading the. "Reading a Gaze: Gender Roles in Advertising." Trimbur, Diana George and
John. Reading Cuture. 2012. 207-210.
Messages, Public Health. "Public Health Messages." Trimbur, Diana George and John. Reading
Culture. 2012. 219 - 221.
Montoya, Delilah. "Women Boxers: The New Warriors." Trimbur, Diana George and John.
Reading Culture. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-publication Data, 2006. 211-214.
Satrapi, Marjane. "The Veil." Trumbur, Diana George and Hogn. Reading Culture. 2000. 361 -
370.