Week 2

This week we continue looking at the representation of women in the media. We first watch a documentary called Miss Representation which is about women in American media. While watching the documentary, I have taken notes on things that I have learned and noticed.

• Women's appearance can be caused by peer pressure and the media
• Media's portrayal of women influence greatly on young children especially young girls 
• Men's portrayal are more dominant and powerful such as driving a car
• If media sends a message of value of beauty, it disempower women
• television influence people
• Most women in films are portrayed as sex appeal or even if they have a role in action movies, they still wear revealing clothing 
• In reality television, women are represented as "bitchy, gold diggers, backstabbing, stupid, vindictive and even against women
• When Katie Couric first appear in the news as an anchor,  instead on focusing on context, they look at the appearance first 
• Many in the media, especially the men, insults women politicians with sexist comments 
• If the media covers politics, they refer men as "they said" while women is "they complained" 
• Behind the scene of some broadcasting companies, there are less women working in those companies 
• After WWII, about 80 000 women were fired from the aircraft industries to go back doing houseworks even though some women like working in the industry
• As time continues, the news shows less actual news but instead more on celebrities which is cheap for them and gets more views 
• Some notes that we live under a democratic media is a myth 
• Women are portrayed as objects

Afterwards, we then done an activity which is answering questions on the original Grimm Fairytale, Sow White.

Snow-White And Seven Dwarfs activity 

1. After reading the story, make a list of all the qualities that the story is suggesting are important in women. When making your list, think about physical qualities and the personality qualities that appear to be important. 

Beautiful, able to do housework, kind, youth, flawless/perfect physicality (fair Snow White skin, red cheek and ivory or black hair), being obedient, innocence, dainty freight, childish, naive, gullible, clueless, delicate, pretty, adored by the other gender and by everyone generally, never question the authority, unexposed/sheltered, even at young age must have a corset (hourglass figure)

2. Next, make a second list that identifies traits/qualities in women that appear to be undesirable in the story. When making this list, you can think about what the opposite qualities would be to the ones you listed in question one and you can also consider the wicked Queen. Like your first list, consider physical characteristics and personality. 

Other type of skins or darker skin, old, proud, envy, arrogant, selfish, childish, naive, control freak, vain, old hags, ugly clothes, being a peasant or poor, old woman, a peddler, gullible and naive, cruel and mean, competitive, cunning, devious, malicious, not getting hands dirty, crazy

3. Now, see if you can make a third list that identifies traits/characteristics (both physical and personality based) that appear to be important in the male characters of the story. 

Manly, charming, saviour, heroic, strong, goes to work, respectful, dominant, doing the dirty work, powerful, efficient, effective, kind, handsome, smart, controlling, nice when admiring her

4. After looking over the three lists, are there any conclusions that you can make about what the story is trying to teach its audience about the roles of men and women? Explain in as much detail as you can. 

It seems the story is trying to teach its audience that women are more a damsel in distress that need to be saved. Also it is important for a woman to be beautiful as it'll make her life easier such as gaining respect from man and they'll save you without getting to know her at first. The woman are there to be only admired and desirable. On the contrary, the men are more portrayed as the "saviour" who will come to every girl to become the Prince Charming.  

5. How would you describe Snow White's relationships with: 

*The wicked Queen

The relationship between the Queen and Snow definitely is not motherly and more enemies. Although, it is noted in the story, the audience sees the relationship from the Queen's perspective. The Queen seems to deeply hate Snow White because of her jealousy over Snow's appearance, to the point wanting of killing the child.

*The dwarfs

It seems that the relationship between them is more the having The Dwarfs being controlling towards Snow. They told her she can stay as long she does the housework while they are gone and not letting anyone else in. The Dwarfs goes to work while Snow is cleaning.  

*The Prince 

The relationship between them is a strange one. The prince appears in the last half of the story and wants to kiss Snow. When she wakes up, he wants to marry her. This is definitely for the happy ending and plays into the stereotype of a prince saving Snow White. It is also controlling and creepy. 

6. Considering this story is still most often read to little boys and girls, do you think it provides a realistic view of men and women? Why/why not? 

The story definitely not provides a realistic view of men and women especially nowadays. The story involves a lot of stereotypes of men and women that it affects those children at a young age of how they view the world. Although, there are morals into the story. The moral is that jealousy (not about beauty, just general) will lead you nowhere. However, it mostly shows the image of a perfect ideal of both genders.