Thickburger Commercial-- Extra Credit

In a commercial for a Thickburger, there is a beautiful woman who sits down and eats a Thickburger. She is dressed in a skimpy outfit and takes a huge bite out of the burger. She licks her fingers and pulls her dress up a bit.

It is obvious this commercial is directed toward men. The commercial is saying that men love both women and food and it mixes two of these things so it will be appealing to men and they will pay attention and want to go buy a Thickburger. If it was a man in the commercial doing the same thing, men would probably be disgusted. Since it is a woman, and a beautiful one at that, men are very likely to remember the commercial.

Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzwxmy1TWNM

Ross Plays Rugby

In yet another episode of Friends, Ross plays the rough sport of rugby to impress his British girlfriend, Emily. He has no idea that the sport is so rough when he agrees to play it with some of her guy friends. When Ross is playing rugby, he gets up pretty bad because he has no idea what he is doing. When Emily is watching him, he acts tough and like he is having a blast. As soon as she walks away, he falls into Joey's arms because he is in so much pain. He does not wants Emily to know that he is in pain because that would make him look like a wimp and he wants Emily to think he is macho. This is sending the message that men are supposed to be tough and have a high threshold for pain. By not showing Emily that he was in pain and what he thought was close to death, Ross thinks he is being more manly and more attractive in Emily's eyes.

Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-AOnzernoM

Woman Bonding

In a recent episode of Private Practice, Cooper finds Violet and Charlotte (who hate each other) painting each other's nails and telling secrets about him. They have come together and gotten close because he asked them to since Violet is his best friend and Charlotte is his girlfriend. He says, "My girlfriend life and my best friend life are colliding in a womanly woman fest of nail polish and bonding. You know what, I'm gonna go drink with guys." He rushes out of the room saying "one woman at a time".

Cooper does not want to be associated with hanging out with women and painting nails and decides to go out and drink with his buddies because that is a manly thing to do. He doesn't want to be around for "womanly bonding" because if he did it would take away some of his masculinity. By saying that he is going to go drink with his friends, he is saying that it is not manly for guys to hang out with girls painting nails. When he says "one woman at a time", he is saying that he can't handle both of them together because he is used to dealing with them separately.

On Samantha Who?, a similar thing happens. Samantha asks a guy why his friend keeps canceling dates on her friend. She asks him if he is afraid of commitment. The guy says, "Well I don't know, I'll ask him about his feelings next time we get our nails done". This sends the message that guys typically do not like to talk and get their feelings out and if they are do, they are considered feminine. 

Joey is turning into a woman

There are so many funny messages about gender on Friends. In one episode, Joey's new roommate decorates the apartment with little objects and flowers. Chandler sees this as Joey turning into a woman. When he tells Joey that all these things are turning him into a woman, Joey is offended. He tries to get rid of all the "feminine" things so that his masculinity will not be threatened. At the same time, Chandler makes poutpouri with Monica and Ross is putting on make-up to try and distract from his bright white teeth, which are so bright because he left the whitening on too long. Chandler says, "Where are all the men??"

This sends the message that men are not supposed to be interested in things like putting cute things around the house and making flower arrangements. When Chandler tells Joey that he is turning into a woman, Joey is offended because that takes away all of his masculinity. Joey tells his roommate that all of the stuff has to go because he his a man and that kind of stuff should not be out in a man's apartment. Deep down, Joey likes all the "girly" things around the house but doesn't want to say so because that would make him less of a man. He ends up putting the stuff in his room so it won't be out in the open and no one will see that he has all this stuff.

Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Rd4cJdjjlQ&feature=related

30 Rock

On the latest 30 Rock episode, Elisa wants to talk to Jack about "where their relationship is going". Jack goes to Liz and tells her that Elisa wants to have "woman talk". Liz replys, "Women really suck, don't they?"

This is saying that it is stereotypical for women to want to know exactly where the relationship is going while men would rather not talk about it and let things go on as they are. Women need to know where things stand and where they are going. This also happened in a Friends episode where Ross's girlfriend wants to know where the relationship is going. He sticks a piece of salt water taffy in his mouth in order to buy time to try to think of something to say. Men hate this conversation because they like to live in the moment and not define something.

In the same 30 Rock episode, Elisa bursts into the room where Jack and his business colleauges are trying to sort out a business emergency. One man says, "Who is this woman? Why isn't anyone shutting her up?"

This is sending the messgae that men have more power over women and that they are allowed to say disrespectful comments like that. If a woman had said that about a man, there would be an uproar. When the man says this it is showing that society accepts that men are in control over women and they can get away with making sexist comments like that.

Ross and his shirt again

I was watching another Friends episode where Ross his looking for one of his missing shirts. He asks the other friends if they have seen his "salmon-colored shirt" and they say, "you mean the pink one?". Ross corrects them and says that it is salmon colored.

Ross doesn't want to admit that the shirt is pink because it will make him less macho if it is. Although the shirt is very close to the color pink, he refuses to call it that because guys usually do not wear wear pink shirts. If they do, they are considered less manly. He doesn't want to be joked by his friends for wearing pink so he labels the color himself and sets the record straight. By calling it a salmon colored shirt, it makes it less girl for him to wear it.

This raises the question again- Why does society say that men are not supposed to wear pink colored shirts? It is because the color pink is associated with the female sex and not the male sex.

Ross loves this shirt so much and when he realizes that he left it at his ex-girlfriend's apartment, he breaks in to get it back. When she catches him and asks if she can keep it to remember him by, he says no and snatches it away from her. This brings him back into male dominance by having authority and getting what he wants- which is the shirt.

Woman in locker room

On Ugly Betty last night, Betty was shadowing a guy who worked for a sports magazine and he took her into the men's locker room where all male atheletes were showering and walking around in towels. Betty asked the guy if he was sure it was ok that she in there. He said it was ok with all the guys if it was ok with her.

Betty felt uncomfortable in the locker room because she was the only female in the room and she felt like she shouldn't be in there seeing the men half naked. The fact that she is uncomfortable and the guys, who should be the ones who are uncomfortable, are fine with it shows that women are more modest than men. If it were the other way around and there was a male in the women's locker room while the women were dressing, the women would be screaming at him to get out!

Hockey Players

I saw a commercial and it had a dad who was a hockey player on the phone with his daughter and when he said "I love You", all his hockey teammates laughed at him. This was because the men think it is not very macho for a man, especially a tough hockey player to get sappy like that. It was funny because you think of hockey players as being tough and macho and to see him say that to his daughter was nice. I think his teammates also thought it was nice but were too macho to admit that they thought so, so they covered it up by laughing at him. Personally, I think it was nice of the dad to say that to his daughter in front of all them men, risking getting made fun of.

Kelly Ripa Electrolux Commercial

I was watching TV and saw the Electrolux Washer and Dryer commercial with Kelly Ripa in it. In the commercial, she is able to wash and dry laundary, put it away, feed the dog and bake cookies for her children, all in a superwoman kind of way.

This commercial is basically saying that it is the woman's duty to take care of these household chores. I don't think it would have been the same if there had have been a man in Kelly's place in the commercial. People would have been wondering why a man was doing all these tasks and not the wife. Although the goal of the commercial is to try and sell a product, it sends the message that in our society, it is normal for the woman to take care of the laundary and other household tasks.

Video URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM-yQLZbatc

Pink Shirt

The discussion we were having last class about what males and females are supposed to wear made me think of a funny Friends episode. Ross is supposed to go on a date and wants something cool to wear. Rachel and Phoebe decide to help him out by taking him shopping with them so they can pick out some clothes for him. Ross buys some clothes for himself and the girls buy some clothes. When Rachel and Phoebe get home, they realize their bags got mixed up and that they accidentally took Ross's bag home and that Ross took theirs. Ross wears one of Rachel's shirts, which is hot pink with a sort of swirly design. We see exactly what happens in the video (URL at bottom).

This episode was so funny because it was shocking that a male would wear a pink "girly" shirt like this. Our society has said what is right for a male to wear and what it right for a female to wear. This pink shirt obviously is not right for a guy to wear. It is kind of funny when you think about it that we have these "rules". It's just that we are so used to the two genders dressing certain ways that it can sometimes make us uncomfortable when the line is crossed.

Ross says that all eyes were on him when he was wearing the shirt in the coffee house. He thinks it's because he looked so good, but it was really because people were so shocked that a man was wearing that shirt. The whole thing is so funny because he doesn't get it until he sees his date wearing the same shirt and he finally realizes that the shirt wasn't meant for him to wear.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8aWWYZTO58

Women and Men- Shoes and Beers

There is a hilarious commercial my uncle forwarded to me about how men and women differ as far as what types of things they get excited about. In the commercial, it appears this couple is having a get-together and the wife brings all her girlfriends to her room and shows them her giant walk-in closet full of shoes. The girls all scream with excitement, but stop because they hear a noise coming from another part of the house. The camera cuts to a bunch of men and the noise is them screaming and going crazy because the husband has just shown all his friends his walk in refrigerator full of Heineken beer. This commercial shows one of the differences between men and women. The men could not care less about all the shoes and the women don't care about the beer. This shows that what may be exciting and great to a woman may not be interesting to a man. I thought this commercial was so funny because both the men and women are truly excited and the way they react to what they are seeing is a bit exaggerated. The expressions on their faces are my favorite part. This commercial is a great representation of how men and women's interests may differ.

Video URL- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0UE2TbLjHU