Consuming Gender

The media has a large effent on gender roles across the world. Both men and women have certain expectations and standards they are expected to live up to -- many of which are unrealistic. Those that don't fit within the boundaries the media has boxed us into, are in many cases, socially disconnected because of the disapproval from others around them. Most people blame the media for this problem of social alientation, but the reality is, the media would be nothing without the support from its people. Stick skinny girls wouldn't be considered ideal if the people didn't support models. The media, of course, has helped bring up the hype and something needs to be done. Women have transformed into sex icons while men have transformed into buff body builders. The ideal girl has turned into a (insert actress here) and every other girl is expected to look like her. The focus no longer is on personality, it is more so the similarity between the tv and the person.

Spongebob Macaroni

I think we would all agree that the media has impacted us in drastic ways, especially because of the widespread and constant use of technology; however, with this, I believe we are able to avoid advertisements just as cleverly as they are there. For example, TiVo gives us the ability to skip through commercials and just watch the show/movie. Even in the video we saw in class, kids have practically grown immune to the advertisements on the side of the webpage, so companies have turned to making games for the kids so they can advertise to them via the games they play, but who is to say we haven't already grown immune to that as well? Also, in the video, there was such an extreme amount of complaining regarding companies targeting kids using their favorite cartoon characters. But was this video suggesting the kids no longer watch their favorite shows? It is only reasonable that a child would want some toy/backpack/food associated with their favorite show; this isn't something to complain about. In my opinion, what the true problem is, is how new technological advancements are being targeted toward children. It sickens me that I see kids in 3rd grade listening to iPods and they are bullied if they don't have one. Also, if a kid asks for a toy, this doesn't put such an economic burdon on the parents; however, if this same kid asks for a phone, then the parents are put in a very uncomfortable and unfair situation.
Overall, advertising tv characters isn't a huge deal, but advertising unnecessary things to children is a situation that needs to be observed with more scrutiny.