Pop Culture and Gender

I am a huge fan of reality television. From action-filled to love shows, I am interested in pretty much all of them. Since I watch all of these shows I am often bombarded with advertisements and portrayals of men and women in both positive and negative lights. As I'm writing this blog, I'm watching VH1's "Tough Love" which features women with different personal flaws, looking for love with the help of a brutally honest matchmaker. Each of the women possesses the worst qualities that a lot of women have when it comes to the opposite sex, but it doesn't at all portray any of these women in a positive manner. What disturbs me the most about this show (even though I can't stop watching it) is that they don't have a tough love for men. They have a show called "Tool Academy" but most people view those qualities as funny or entertaining, while the negative aspects of women are not entertaining and make the entire gender look bad. I don't allow any of these shows to influence how I view life, because I know that it is mostly fake. It also hasn't affected my understanding of race and class, because everyone seems to be on the same level when they enter these situations. More often then not, I don't discuss the sexist nature of these shows at all, because they don't really affect my life personally. But I definitely do realize the sexist nature of the shows. Some of the commercials that come with these shows are GGW-esque and definitely are one-sided advertised towards males. When I think of the word "feminist" I used to think of negative connotations of women who hated men completely. After taking this class, I definitely think of feminists as really strong women who just don't take any crap when it comes to inequality. I honestly believe that I am feminist in some aspects of my life and I strive to be strong enough to stand up for what I believe in when it is important to me. I really enjoyed the readings this week by the way. They are exactly the type of readings that I enjoy, because they are straightforward and don't hold back on the truth just because it might hurt someone's delicate sensibilities.