Question #1 What type of sexist roles do you see in this clip? Are you surprised by these roles? Would this ever be considered a movie if it was a man (I don’t know how HE does it)? Does this media example embody what bell hooks is trying to prevent? What are other media examples that still hold on to sexist ideas? (hint, hint: This would be a good place to incorporate media into your blog post!)

I don't know if I would say that there is blatant sexism in the trailer so much as gender/sex stereotyping. The first clue was the very beginning of the trailer, when she narrates "A recent study showed that women with small children don't sleep through the night..." Such a statement (whether the study was a true study or simply one made up for the movie) implies that only women are affected by having small children and that men do not suffer the same fate. It also generalizes women into a single category.
The second thing that was gender stereotypical was the excuse she gave for being late. She couldn't say that her car broke down, because that's something that only men would say. She goes with the excuse of a mammogram because that's an acceptable female excuse. Because only men deal with cars. I'm not surprised by these roles, because I think that's largely how society still views women and men today. Men are considered to be the breadwinners, and women are supposed to take care of the kids. However, I do think that a movie titled "how does HE do it?" would probably still draw attention. Perhaps "Mr. Mom" could have been titled that, actually.
Thinking of gender stereotypes made me think of the recent Grammy awards. I'm always a fan of looking at the "best and worst dressed" of the awards, and I think there's a lot to be said about how women are portrayed there. I found this article about the recent "Glamour awards" that claim that Chelsea Handler dressed "Like a man." It's a pretty interesting article to read. Talk about stereotyping!

http://thestir.cafemom.com/beauty_style/128525/chelsea_handler_dressed_like_a




Question #2 What were your initial reactions to the commercial? Why is it not okay that her daughter is not in pink? Do you think they would ever make a similar commercial with a boy in more feminine clothing? Why?

I think there was a lot of humor in the commercial, and I probably wouldn't have thought about the gender stereotyping had I not enrolled in this class. However, considering what I know now and what we're read and talked about, it's obvious that there's some stereotyping going on here.
There's obviously a stereotype that little girls should wear pink and play with girl toys, but this commercial challenged that norm. It was clear that the mom in the commercial was very "feminine" and believed that her daughter should behave in an identical way, or one that she considered to be "feminine" as well. I think that the commercial is partly making fun of these stereotypes because of how dorky they made the mom looks.
I don't think they would have made a commercial with a little boy in feminine clothing, because it's much less socially acceptable for a boy to dress as a girl. I doubt that many people watched the video and assumed that the little girl was a lesbian, but if a boy had been in the same commercial, people probably would have assumed that he was going to be gay. A boy in the same situation probably would have made national headlines and caused a media uproar.


Question #3 Name a children’s book that embodies the sexist notions that bell books discusses in this chapter. Why do you think the book has these sexist ideas? What future consequences do you think that these books have?

When I was a kid I used to read these books about a girl named Betsy. I don't remember much about the books, but I do recall that Betsy was a very typical "girly girl" who played with dolls and hung around with other little girls her age. The boys in the stories were portrayed as much rougher and tougher than the girls, and they played with different toys and engaged in different activities, such as catching bugs and going fishing. Betsy always wore her hair in pigtails, too. Those were older books, so back in that time gender roles were more strictly enforced. I don't know if those books are very popular anymore, although I did notice that they did a reprinting of them and are selling them at Barnes and Noble. My guess is that most kids that read them will be amazed at how silly the stereotypes are.