Gender Stereotypes in the Media:
This video is a satire from BBC’s comedy series called “That Mitchell and Webb Look.” As funny as it is, it exemplifies the way women are told on a daily basis that there is something wrong with them. They’re hairy, saggy, overweight, bloated, leaky, wrinkled, and imperfect PMSing entities that need to spend money on countless chemicals, (there is a product for every single one of our “ailments”), with which to perfect themselves until they are tolerable and acceptable by men and society; men, on the other hand, only need to shave and drink beer — they are perfect embodiments of masculinity — acceptable as they are. And when the female character in the clip says, “Now I’m free to live my own life – my way,” the irony of that statement is that women are not free to live as they are — their way. Movies, sitcoms, commercials, starlets, models, and celebrity magazines tell us that we are imperfect in our looks, in our mothering, in our sexuality, and in our womanhood. We have to exhaust every possible avenue available to us and not available to us to achieve perfection or else we are less than acceptable, our children will hate us, our husbands will tire of us, and our lovers will leave us for younger and more refined versions of femininity. And men — well, they can be as hairy, fat, sloppy, and imperfect as possible — their masculinity intact, they can do as they will. They are perfect just as they are.
Copyright© 2010 by Marina DelVecchio. All Rights Reserved.
It is sad, but so true that women have it much harder in today’s society. You know, years ago, in the prarie days, women didn’t shave, put on makeup, worry about wrinkles or sagging. Their men loved them for what they looked like and who they were, not what society said they had to be. It is amazing how in such a short time, we have changed our society to so drastically.
Yes, they have something in the market for everything, but cannot innovate something that may truly help a woman. I’m talking about menopause. It angers me that medicine has advanced so much that they can help a 70 year old man have a 4 hour erection, but women have to face menopause with little to no advance in innovation.