Spotlight: Tropes vs. Women [Update]

I’ve been a fan of Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency videos since her Toy Ads and Learning Gender video.  Now she has an  interesting and enlightening pair of videos that I hope will be part of a continued series. In “Tropes vs. Women” Sarkeesian covers tropes, which she defines as “a common pattern in a story or a recognizable attribute in a character that conveys information to the audience,” that are specifically applied to women.

I personally find her videos interesting because I am trying to write a story that I sometimes fear relies on too many tropes. Also, I think tropes have the ability to effect the real world in that they change how we look and label ourselves and other people. In a way, they change the narrative of life.

Check out both videos after the jump.

[Update: the series is set to contain six episodes, and they will all be posted here as they are released.]

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Spotlight: Adrienne Maree Brown

One of the most inspiring things to me is seeing someone who is able to step out from the molds that our society places on all of us and be who they really want to be. For example, I sometimes think I would love to make my living as a nonprofit martial arts teacher and a freelance philosophy writer and public commentator. This stems from martial arts and thinking about meaning and politics being things that I love doing and, according to my ego, things that I’m good at. Thus, seeing a woman who’s blog describes her as “an organizational healer, pleasure activist, facilitator, singer, and artist living in Detroit,” fills the optimistic part of me with hope. Read more »

Toying With Gender

The Mad World blog over at Bitch Magazine had a very interesting, yet equally disturbing, post about toy marketing and how gender roles are pushed on both boys and girls. I know if I have a daughter we will be building space ships with Legos and playing Metal Gear Solid. It makes me so mad to see these commercials limiting girls to taking care of urinating dolls and having epic shopping and makeup adventures.

The Enigma of Gender Roles in Japan and the Takarazuka Revue

In my opinion, despite all the media that it exports to America and the whole world, Japan’s cultural personality is very hidden and confusing to even the well educated. I guess it is hard to really apply our sociological imagination, or our ability to connect the dots between group and individual actions and motivations, to a different culture like Japan.

The greatest difference that always seems at the forefront in my thought is American individualism versus Japan’s sense of duty, collectivism, and strict norms on public behavior. Another is the competitiveness and inflexibility of their educational system. There is also the perception of widespread xenophobia and racism in Japan, which may annoy or infuriate a Japanophile and make the idea of relocating very troubling.

Though these differences are great, I believe that one of the greatest areas of misunderstanding deals with the personality traits of Japanese women in a country seemingly defined by strict patriarchy and media portrayals of women that seem incredibly shallow compared to even Hollywood standards.  The stereotypes, ranging from the hyper super cute anime character to the shy, “better seen not heard” student, worker, or wife,  contrast  greatly against the dynamic roles often played by and lived by men in movies, business, and politics.

One recent example I discovered, which both entertains and illustrates just how much I don’t know about this area, is the Takarazuka Revue. The Takarazuka Revue is a theater company composed of an all female cast which was started in 1913 as a sort of response to there being no women in Kabuki (traditional Japanese all-male theater). Since its inception, the Takarazuka Revue has become a huge hit and draws millions of fans. Read more »

A Desperate Housewife’s Guide to Gaming

I stumbled across a blog post on the “Real Women’s Guide to Technology” that pretty much embodies the stereotypical soccer mom turned DS owner. You know what I’m talking about. You’ve seen the commercial with Lisa Kudrow making kung pow chicken with her daughter and a handful of other ads with [insert famous woman here] giggling while poking at the touch screen.

In the case of blogger Lee Doyle, who does not yet have a DS (though it is on her wish list), she discovered games were not “a dumb waste of time” when she secretly started playing her husband’s Xbox 360. Congratulations Captain Obvious. Games are extremely varied, and for the most part, quite intellectually stimulating.

Am I against casual, female, or mommy gamers? Of course not! I’m female, and I’ve been gaming since before I stepped foot in kindergarten. Read more »