Thank you for reading!

First, I just wanted to thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I hope that you are currently more informed on the issues gender roles and ideals bring to culture as well of how the media impacts our views. I specifically focused on Lee Marcle’s First Wives Club; Coast Salish Style; observing the struggles these aboriginal women faced but more of how they resisted them in order to survive and thrive!

These women resisted the ideals placed on them such as society, media, their husbands, etc. I hope through this blog you understood how the term ‘sexy’ can be considered very broad; what is considered sexy in western culture is not always the same in others as it is extremely influenced by ones culture. We as society need to be aware of other cultures and ideals, realizing our way is not always the right way. We need to be more inclusive instead of exclusive.  The Salish women felt secluded from the Western’s description of sexy and also that their forms of romance were less important, or not truly ‘romantic.’

I discussed the roles of these Salish women and how they compared to our westernized women; differences in roles, position within society, etc. Perhaps our westernized culture needs to take note of the equality between men and women within the Salish culture. Although we are striving for equality between men and women, men still dominate many areas of our society whereas women are more important in Salish culture.

These women resisted the ideals placed on them, displaying their determination. These women did not just survive through their struggles, but were successful through them! They surpassed the gender roles placed on them as well as the media’s influence of their physical and emotional status of ‘sexy’ and ‘romantic’ showing their own self confidence and knowledge of their self-worth.

Not only did these women defy the social norms, they succeeded in doing so; proving their strength and determination.

Resistance is Futile?: An Introduction

This blog takes a great look at how resistance to gender roles and ideas is now beginning in children’s toys! No longer is the ‘boy toys’ just for boys!

Necessary Resistance

I want to show you something.

You can probably guess, but that is a promotional image from the Nerf company’s new line of Girl-Focused toys, Rebelle. You can tell it’s for girls, because the name is feminized (in the French sense), and everything is slathered in pink. The line recently launched with it’s first product, this little beauty right here:

It’s called Heartbreaker.

One of the talented ladies at the media feminist blog ChezApocalypse has already discussed why it was given that name and why it’s a problem, so I won’t repeat their words when I can just link to them right here.

What I will say is this: this is a toy for children.

Children, I think, are at a particular disadvantage when it comes to gender interpellation, because they don’t have much control over what discourses they enter, or how they are socially hailed…

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Sight.

This post shows how ‘sight’ aka what we see influences us as society. An excellent incorporation of our class literature with media! It can be closely related to my blog concerning women’s appearance; looking at people a certain way based on what they wear (women wear dresses).

Performing Gender

Above all else, the first thing people judge is how you look. When a woman wears a dress, they are obviously female. It’s when you can’t discern someone gender by their attire is when things get messy. But appearances can be deceiving, as many films and literature show. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Viola dresses as a man, and a eunuch at that, in order to survive.  She is able to infiltrate both the male and female realms without trouble because she looks like a non-threatening male. She performs as a male and they believe her. When Viola, as Cesario, for encounters Olivia, the first thing she says is that Olivia is “most radiant, exquisite, and unmatchable beauty” (I.v.168). Viola immediately performs as a male, commenting on how beautiful Olivia is. Typically men start out by complimenting a woman and then proceed with the conversation. Viola is performing as any male would, pointing…

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Westernized Salish Women; Surviving and Thriving

Our culture with which we grew up shapes our identity as well as forms our knowledge of how to conduct one’s self within society. Being raised within one community and culture and then switching to another can be very challenging as the ideals with which you come to know are not always the exact same.

Looking at “The Laundry Basket” we see a woman who was raised in her Salish family to be strong and not controlled by men. When she marries a white man and is moved into a different community, the ways of life that she knows do not fully conform.

‘“My mother held a job and did the laundry, too.” The quality of his voice has changed. During his endless complaining about her unwillingness to work and work and work, his voice had been loud and arrogant. Now in its dreamy memory state it possess a mocking purr as though, from wherever in the world he was, he knew she was not keeping up with the holy duties of motherhood” (Marcle. 48).

Her husband’s dominance controlled her even when he wasn’t home; nagging in her head as if he were there. ‘“What am I doing? He’s gone but his voice still dictates my every mood. It hangs in the air, like the paper”’ (Marcle. 48). Her inner struggle of wanting to fulfill her desires competed with her husband’s demands creating an inner battle.

When we are controlled we often rebel. Mom and dad say DON’T go to the party that appears to us like a challenge otherwise known as rebellion. When her husband appreciated her and allowed her to run the household she was happy and more than willing to do her ‘duties’ but as soon as he demanded, she resisted. She began finding things that pleased her that he couldn’t touch such as her writing. She began to survive again! She stated “I’ll die if I don’t keep pecking and believing…” (Marcle. 50). She was determined to do what she wanted in life, despite his demands. “She saved time by not caring so much about housework. Wall-washing was sacrificed to writing. Deleting daily floor washing added to writing time” (Marcle. 51). Her writing became more important and gave her a purpose in life again.

The male dominance over her was something she was not used to and felt as if she had been repressed within her own home. “Maybe it was all too nightmarish for him, a white man, to see this Indian bride become one of the pampered literati of Canada. The sickening notion struck her that he had fallen in love with her because he wanted someone to whom he could feel superior” (Marcle. 53).  Of course this made her upset, but it also gave her a new reason to fight! She was no longer going to be an easy going house wife, but rather her own person with her own dreams and desires for her life.

Her determination was seen as she continued to write her stories, regardless of what he had to say. As she divorced her husband, she took control of her own life.  He did not fight her on this issue, and proved his disregard to her and their children. “Her husband had not contested to the divorce or application for custody. No complications except the tight feeling inside her wanted to say, “Excuse me, I just divorced your entire race, your honor, wouldn’t you like to comment on that/ I mean, I chucked out his entire lineage as a possible source of comfort in the hereafter, so wouldn’t you like to resent that for just a moment?”’ Although she is thriving by divorcing the one thing that made her very angry, she wanted some sort of satisfaction. When she purchased the washing machine however, and saw her son’s eagerness to help this was all of the satisfaction she needed; seeing that her boys had not turned out like their father. Although she was now a single mother, she had the freedom to take control of her life without that constant nagging in the back of her mind.

Coming into the western world and marrying a westernized man can not only be a culture shock, but an awakening to ideas and concepts that do not match other cultures; making it hard to fit in and conform.

Disney Even looks at Gender Roles

I was recently watching old Disney movies with my family, and I realized…. have you ever seen a male character in the role of maid or nanny? Look how many Disney has; Cinderella always cleaning, Snow White taking care of the Seven dwarfs (aka 7 men), Mary Poppins cleaning and taking care of the children, etc. Disney, like the rest of Western culture too believed women and men had certain roles they needed to perform. Even lately, the movie “Despicable Me” shows a man taking care of the children but he often has no idea what he is doing!

Note: the one female mouse tells the other male mice to “leave the sewing to the women.” Even the mice have gender roles established!

Gender roles are taught to us at a very young age through our family, society, as well as media playing a HUGE role.

This post gives excellent examples of the western male and female stereotypes concerning both their personality and their roles! Well done

Feminism Goes Digital

After watching this video for our class discussion post, I realized how closely related it was to my blog. The video focuses on the “fourth wave of feminism” considering the digital media. It really made me think… were Salish women feminists? Or did they simply always have power? I really thought about this and realized that within our western culture we came accustom to men being the leaders, and now are trying to take back this power.

Gender Relationships; Salish Women’s Roles

Throughout different cultures we can see that the gender role that we in Western culture assume for men and women is actually not a universal system. Often within Western culture, the male is the dominant leader of the household although this is changing as we integrate other ideals. However, when looking at the Salish women, we can see that the male dominance is not an issue for them as they are very independent and often dominate through their actions.

“In the western world, men are expected to court women. In the Salish world, the adoption of this courtship tradition is in its infancy. In the original Salish cultures, it was the women who chose the partners and our women Elders who negotiated the marriage- if there was even going to be one. If a woman desired a man and no marriage was in the offing for her, there was going to be an affair of the heart, because women were free to indulge in sexual activity if and when they pleased. Unlike some other First Nation cultures, sex and morality were not that tightly connected (again, pardon the pun)” (Marcle. 4).

In western culture, the man asks the woman out on a date as well as the man asking the woman to marry him… females RARELY perform these roles. This is not saying they never do, but when it does, it is rare. This gives males a more dominant role to play within the relationship; giving him the power in deciding when, where, and how these proposals will take place. However, when looking at the Salish women, they dominate the relationship with their ability to decide the logistics of a relationship.

This female dominance and independence carries on in other areas of the Salish women’s lives. Women felt that they were much more important than the men in society as they were the ones who bared children. “The heroes in most of our flood stories are women- sisters who saved Elders, other sisters, their children, or sacrificed themselves for expectant mothers and the like. The women did not generally rescue men. At least, if any woman did rescue a man, that story did not get handed down in my family. I am not sure if this is true but my mother and grandmother used to say that women did not try to save the men because they couldn’t save both men and women and while it takes all the women to repopulate a village, it only takes one man” (Marcle. 6-7).   Women were seen as a valuable source for their communities, and from my understanding they have been appreciated for many years. As the women pass on these stories to their children, they continue with the idea of female dominance and superiority over men.

The women supported each other more than the men supported them. “The loss of her sister meant the loss of her assistance and the winter became increasingly difficult and fraught with hardship” (Marcle 8). The women’s reliance on their fellow women around them is unlike the Western society; although we do rely on our friends and family for help, our husbands are often given the role of provider and protector. Women’s dominance is also shown throughout their intimate relationship; women used their “bumblebee dance” or “weasel medicine” to seduce the men into doing what the women wanted, therefore getting them pregnant. Through Marcle’s story the men are made to seem dumb and uninformed about the basics in the world around them; for example not knowing where babies come from.

However, the men did help in a way; of course not in our stereotypical western way, but in their own way. The women saw the men as a way to have a baby, and we saw this through the two women’s discussion. One had already been impregnated by him and convinced the other women to do the same. We discussed in class how it was not that the women saw the men as less equal to themselves; they just saw the importance and need within their society for women.

Cultures have different views, opinions, traditions, ideals, and acts that they believe and perform however it does not make them unequal to us (western society), and should be looked at from a broader view. Often we become closed minded to ideals, such as gender roles and therefore shut out new ideas.

Racial Differences of “Sexy”; White Women and Aboriginal Women

Race is a combination of one’s ethnic background, deriving from a family’s original place of origin. This form of categorization is often easily visible through appearance; black, white, Asian, Indian, etc. Unfortunately these categorizations also lead to many stereotypes based on their race. These stereotypes often emotionally hurt those involved, leaving hostility and resentment towards others.

Looking at the characters within Lee Marcle’s First Wives Club; Coast Salish Style we can see the hurt the aboriginal women feel being compared to the white’s. Women have a desire to be “sexy” or at least beautiful to men, however the character made a valid point; how often do you see an aboriginal women in a Victoria Secret commercial, or in a Cosmo magazine? Unfortunately I don’t think I ever have. She stated “First Nations people, particularly fifty-five plus women, are not billed as sexy anywhere by anyone; generally, coupling (pardon the pun) First Nations women with sex is done crudely, when it is done at all. There are no First Nations super models or sex icons out there, and procreative sex is spoken about without fanfare. There’s also a certain measure of disregard for the femininity and the beauty of the women being referenced” (Marcle. 2).  This character recognizes and feels the rejection from which the media puts out; representing specific race’s over others. Just out of curiosity I went onto the Victoria’s Secret Website; I found that most of the models were white females with blonde hair, with the exception of some with brown hair… but very few black girls and no other races were shown. A very large company which is to make women feel beautiful only promotes certain races; not declaring that only these women are ‘sexy’ but subconsciously portraying that message. I also looked at the La Senza website and they had only one model representing their product that was white female with blonde hair. The stereotypical view of beauty is media based, creating a very narrow focus for the public eye.

She went on to say “Don Brunswick is a comic; he looks funny, and he has funny looks, so when he says “I saw a beautiful Ojibway woman, once” and makes a face, people laugh. When he follows that with “It could happen”” (Marcle. 2).  These aboriginal women’s beauty is made out to be a joke, but do they really realize the impact their words could have on people? They are stereotyping a whole race’s beauty as “ugly” without considering the repercussions on the people. She stated “Underneath his joke is the disqualification of the sexiness of an entire nation of women” (Marcle. 2). These comments can emotionally hurt many people. What makes media portray white women as sexy and beautiful but no other races? Perhaps they are trying to provide for the masses instead of thinking about the bigger picture (which includes all women).

In the short segment “Laundry Basket” this aboriginal woman understands the stereotypical view of sexy. She writes stories and they are often rejected due to the content not being widespread enough. She writes “Romance among Indigenous people is so subtle that Canadians would not recognize a love story about us if they fell on it” (Marcle. 52). Like every culture, they have their own way of representing ‘sexy’ and romance however the media within the Western world is so dominant we forget how to accept other types. For a nation that is apparently so accepting of other cultures, we often act and think differently towards these other ideas.

What is Sexy?

What is Sexy?

Sexiness in women can be portrayed and looked at in so many different perspectives. What one person thinks as sexy, the other may not. Social media affects our culture so much considering the ways in which we think, act, and perceive the world around us. In Western culture the media is around us everywhere we go. Billboards, TV shows, commercials, music, social networking cites etc. and in each one often shows slim, tall white girls who are wearing little to no clothing.

However, the western worlds ‘perfect’ view of a women is not always attainable. How many women are sizes 6 or larger? In the world of modelling this is considered a ‘plus size.’ What the media portrays as ‘sexy’ influences society… which in result creates many self-esteem issues. The media often looks at Jennifer Lopez as ‘bigger’ but really she is much smaller than the average Canadian women. How are these views healthy? EXACTLY. They are not. These views infect the minds of young people, creating much pain and havoc in their lives, as well as giving men an unrealistic view of what a women is to look like.

While examining First Wives Club; Salish Style by Lee Marcle, I saw many ideals of ‘sexy’ but also how the characters were confronted with issues connected to this. In the first story she states “Today’s society is focussed on imaging sexiness only through youth, but many of our Elder’s don’t but into that and, of course, neither do I” (Marcle. 1). Like she said, the youth are given the ideal of ‘sexiness’ but not the adults? Weird right? So if I understand this correctly… they want young girls to look sexy, but act like ladies? Easier said than done in my opinion.

We want our teens to stay pure and keep their morals however continuously bombarding them with images of people their age are being “sexy.” This whole concept seems twisted to me. Every day we are smothered with the idea of sexuality and yet are asked to do something different with ourselves. She stated “Western society’s values have always confused me. On the one hand, sexiness in young women is desired. On the other hand, a women actually engaging in sex has been considered immoral for a long time” (Marcle. 2). We put our young people in a HARD position. Be sexy, but stay pure. Instead we should be teaching our youth to dress modestly and therefore it would make it easier to stay pure.

Women are constantly faced with challenges by the media, however that of self-image seems to be the most predominant. Sexy should be looked at as the way you feel; healthy, fit, and comfortable in your own skin. Media should not have the right to inflict their opinions on society, however regardless of right or wrong, they do. Many companies such as Nike and Dove have begun new initiatives to enforce healthy at all sizes as beautiful, creating a broader form of the term ‘sexy.’ As women continue to be themselves, and respect themselves the view will change. This resistance to social norms and ideals will create new ideals for the future.