Gendered/Sexist Ads. Ugh.

I don't think I need to explain the following ads. A friend of mine on Facebook posted the link & they're quite awful.

http://shortietheatrekid.tumblr.com/post/51838554110/perpetualvelocity

And if you want to look at more, look at the "pointlessly gendered products" section on pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/socimages/pointlessly-gendered-products/


I think it's time we change this and just have "toys." Right?

It recently ocurred to me that one topic we never talked about was the Men's Rights Movement (MRM). I'd love to hear people's thoughts -- I honestly still don't know how to make sense of it all -- but until then, I thought I'd leave you all with this website. I don't even know where to begin as I'm having trouble getting past their "Mission Statement" on this website.

http://www.avoiceformen.com/policies/mission-statement/

MISSION STATEMENT

It is the mission of A Voice for Men to:

• Promote the dissemination of information that will expose misandry and gender-centrism on all levels in our culture;

• Oppose any form of gender-centrism. We propose to foster the equal valuing of men and women socially, regardless of sexual orientation and identity, as well as their equal treatment under the law;

• Recognize the institution of marriage and the family unit as the foundation of civilized society. However, we support the trend away from that institution until the current legal zeitgeist making it unsafe for men and children is corrected. We support an end to “no fault” divorce and support default shared custody in the event of divorce. We seek to promote awareness of information designed to protect men and fathers who are already married;

• Promote a rejection of sex based chivalry in any form or fashion.

• Promote the legal and nonviolent antagonism of all agents of misandry and gender-centrism, from members of academe, to holders of public office, to law enforcement and other state functionaries, to popular bloggers and to corporate agents who promote misandry and gender-centism for profit;

• Support peaceful acts of civil disobedience when necessary;

• Educate men, women, girls and boys about the threats they face in feminist governance and to promote an end to that governance;

• Debunk sex based lies and distortions wherever they occur;

• Offer a more reasoned, cogent and intellectually honest view of sexual politics;

• Address the variety of problems faced by men and boys under feminist governance and attempt to ameliorate those problems;

• Push for an end to rape hysteria, DV hysteria and false allegations;

• Promote a culture that values equal treatment under the law for all human beings;

• Facilitate a new social contract between men and women, leading to mutual respect, accountability and expectation.

Thoughts?

Using conceptual tools - The Obituary of Alvin Basse

What might an obituary about a third-generation farmer in suburban Milwaukee tell us about masculinity? An entire web of lives, shaped both by common events are particular experiences, is captured in one man's story. Without the need for either hagiography or brutal expose, the newspaper obituary treads a moderate course outlining a very particular, "acceptable" portrait of a well-lived life.

That being the case, it bears attention to notice the attitudes toward gender that are (and are not) expressed in the obituary of Alvin Basse. Is he esteemed as a traditional patriarch or something else? 

We're told that, 

Alvin Basse was prom king and president of his class at Waukesha High School, but he was also the guy who picked up and carried his friend, Tom Uthovien, between classes."And when I say he carried him around, that's exactly what he did," his son said. "He would race to Tom's class, pick him up off his chair, dash up the stairs with him in his arms and still make it to his own class later," his son said. They remained lifelong friends.

We get a sense that yes, this was a man among men. Gentle, compassionate, but dashing and very "manly."

Yet, to finish the obituary, his widow says,

"We could always work side by side, do field work, milk cows, make hay. Whatever needed to be done." 

Rather than being superlative, he is now an equal partner with his wife, Carolyn, who, along with so many others, helped keeping their big production rolling along. There is something about agricultural life in terms of production relations that seems inherently equalizing. This isn't to say that hegemonic masculinity is necessarily less dominant in rural / agricultural areas. Far from it. It is just to say that perhaps the ideology of masculinity has to do different work in those areas, to cover up the fact that women are co-equals. We can actually see some evidence of this ideology in a picture of the couple:

Notice that here name is absent on the barn in back. It is the "Alvin Basse Family" farm. Merely following convention on Mr. Basse's part meant erasing the name of his adult life and business partner. 

This was, is, a long-standing practice in our culture. Whether in research, art, or business - heterosocial (and sometimes sexual, but it need not be) pairs (or larger groups) are often credited through the sole name of a singular male patriarch. My great aunt is an example. She was not able to keep her maiden name as part of her full formal name when the business she co-owned with her husband was about to grow exponentially.  

Anyways, seems like Mr. Basse was quite an accomplished person, whose masculinity may best be measured by the calm and centered widow he leaves at his wake.

May he rest in peace. 

Queering Gatsby

So if you didn't already know, I love films. All kinds. I'm also taking a film theory course and one of the topics we've talked about recently is that of queer films or queering films. A key tenant is the idea that there are no more "straight" readings of a film as there are "queer" readings. Has anybody seen the new The Great Gatsby film? I haven't, but I really want to. Here's an interesting article about a queer reading of the film.

The author states: "Specifically, I will argue that the novel's treatment of sexual transgression and its proliferation of gay and lesbian signs work together to create a homoerotic sub-text that disrupts and de-stabilizes the heterosexual narrative, creating, in the process, a sexually ambiguous novel. And we shall see, this homoerotic sub-text fiends its most complete embodiment in the characterization of narrator Nick Carraway, who is, I believe, unaware of his gay orientation."

What does it mean to be "unaware of one's orientation," and for those of you who have read the book and/or seen the film, do you buy her argument?

http://www.mychandlerschools.org/cms/lib6/AZ01001175/Centricity/Domain/953/Lesbian-Gay-Queer%20Crit%20-%20Gatsby.pdf

On war, widow's weeds, memorials and "The Americanization of Emily"

There aren't many rarer examples of American masculinity than the one expressed here by James Garner in "The Americanization of Emily."

Pink and Blue

An artist was transfixed by how much her child was transfixed with color. She set out to research the ubiquity of the pink / blue binary. It's totalitarian, I'm afraid.

The Pink and Blue Project.

Is this true?

So, what do we all think about this? It's been going around on Facebook for a while now and most men who comment on the phone say it's true. Comments?