True Women and Real Men: Myths of Gender - Essay Example

?XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXX 19 November True Women and Real Men: Myths of Gender The two articles, "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt" and “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" tackle the same issue of violence against women but with a different perspective. Even the perspectives don’t differ as much as their narration style does. This comparative essay analysis investigates into the style and tone of both the authors about issues relating to ‘sexualization’ of women, women’s attitude towards other women and mental state of young men in the society. Other similarities or differences are also sought for and highlighted in the upcoming passages. The author of "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, Jean Kilbourne, writes the whole article in a very concerned but detached manner. She seems to be having a helicopter view of the whole advertising industry and how it promotes violence against women. "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” begins on a slightly theatrical note when writer talks about advertising being more about ‘violence than violins’ and ‘power than passion’. This is not carried forward in rest of the writing which is much more academic relying on studies and statistical evidences. “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" is written by Joan Morgan and it differs from "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” on various levels. First of all Joan writes in a very engaging and personal manner. She seems to be dealing the problem of her society while being inside it throughout the narration. The words used in “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" are at times very informal. There is frequent usage of colloquial such as ‘Gangsta’, ‘Sista’,‘Nigga’ and ‘Bitches’. While Jean uses statistical evidence to prove her arguments, Joan has provided more of personal stories and anecdotes than statistics. "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt" describes women as the victims of advertising. It gives many example where although man have also been ‘objectified’, mostly women find themselves at the receiving end of violence. Advertising dehumanizes women and ‘fetishizes’ the products. In order to describe the plight of women, Jean uses words such as ‘cruel’, sado-masochistic’, ‘rape’, ‘domestic violence’ and ‘subliminal terror’. It seems as if all these words have been picked up from book on criminology. On the other hand, “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" holds women partially responsible for the violent lyrics in the hip-pop against women. Joan writes that girls should have integrity and self-esteem and not run after ‘material comforts’. She asks them to love black men for ‘what they are’ and not ‘what they want them to be’. There has to be acknowledgement of the pain of black men if their frustration against their women has to be stopped. While Jean writes that advertisements have sexualized women, Joan says that women have sexualized and objectified themselves. There is a point on which both Jean and Joan agree. And that is the attitude of women towards other women. She cites the example of a criminal case where a woman accused a man of raping her. But her Victoria Secret’s panties were used against her as an indication of her immorality. The jury comprising of predominantly female members gave decision against her. Jean writes that this showed ‘women are cruel judge of other women’s behavior’. Same sentiments are expressed by Joan when she writes that girls always indulge in ‘bitching’ each other. She pleads to her ‘sistas’ to have self esteem and integrity. Black women need to do introspection and try to listen to their partners. Both "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” and “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" deal with topic of young men in a strangely similar manner. Jean writes that advertisement is targeted towards making young men violent and insensitive. The men who are caring and committed are portrayed as fools. She writes ‘It is married man in the cartoon and ads who are jerks. “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" tells that young black men have pain in their heart and that the violent lyrics against women are their ‘depression masquerading as machismo’. Many hip-pop lyrics talk about the man dying young without ‘having to face the problems’ before them. The tone of "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” is quite didactic at many times. The arguments of Jean seem to be centered on the notion that although people know about rampant pornography, ‘most of us know all this by now and some consider it kinky good fun’, people aren’t actually aware about the real after effects of such advertising. It may be because advertisements and sexual violence is an area that has been explored by previous studies. The writer may have felt the need for repeating her point so that the reader comes out of the frame of mind that he knows what she is talking about. “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" is written on a very emotional note. The writer talks about ‘us sistas’ to understand black ‘brothers’. At certain point into the article she asks questions to hip-pop rappers such as Snoop Dog, B.I.G. and Dr. Dre such as ‘why they are so angry at me?’ and ‘why is disrespecting me one of the few things that make them feel like men?’’. She wants to know about the reason of bitterness against black women. "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” makes many observations about advertisements. It sees their explicit message as well as implicit signals. It tries to read between the lines. No line or tagline is missed by the writer in order to explain the extent to which advertisements use women to sell their products. No advertisement openly gives such messages but the writer has extracted many interesting observations. For example, some ads seem to prescribe to young men that the ‘way to get beautiful women is to ignore them’. She writes that ‘advertizing often encourages women to be attracted to hostile and indifferent men while encouraging boys to become these men’. Jean also reads the fine detail when it comes to advertisements. In one example, she shows how a woman’s ‘NO’ is trivialized by ads as something that can be overcome easily. She then highlights towards the less boldly written words ‘sweat’ which should have been the main words since the product was a deodorant. Most of the times, the observation is very accurate. "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” is a bigger article than “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos". Hence, it covers a lot of areas which are untouched by Joan. "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” covers many topics from a different angle. The article firsts start with a social problem of violence against women and then it turns in the direction of Criminal analysis. As highlighted earlier the words used by the writer lie in the domain of Criminology. Then the arguments explain the reasons of pornographic advertising on terms of pure economics. She explains how Calvin Klein manipulated media and created negative advertising for his products. He used children in a controversial advertisement and then the discarded the advertisement, after creating enough publicity for his brand. In "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”, these themes have been subthemes to the main theme of Psychological manipulation by advertisements. The writer supports her arguments by providing recent studies in schools. She points out that sexual crime against girls is on increase and that much of this is promoted by advertising. The purpose of all these argument seems to be the linkage of psychological hurt to the addictions which girls develop in later stage of their lives. There lies one more similarity between “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" and "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt”. The similarity isn’t very significant but it provides a unique common point between the two articles. Jean writes in "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” that advertisements tend to show African American women as aggressive and full of anger. She gives the ‘Roadkill’ example to support her opinion. In “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" writes that black women are full of anger and that they don’t treat black men with tenderness. This seems to be a weird point at which the two articles meet. The topics covered by “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" aren’t as comprehensive as "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” but they don’t fail to leave their mark on the readers mind. The usage of words such as ‘sista’ and brother creates the perfect atmosphere where a reader is able to grasp the magnitude of lack of love and advent of hostility in the black community. These words also appeal to the readers emotionally as the writer highlights that young men and women cause pain to each other. Both “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" and Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” are differently written articles about the same issue. On important thing they both highlight is the fact that women are being ‘dehumanized’ and ‘objectified’. The major issue they differ on is about whether the advertisements and men do it or whether women do it themselves to gain material benefits from the men. Works cited Kilbourne, J. "Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt” Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen. 2010. 575-601 Morgan, J. “From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos" Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for Critical Thinking and Writing. Ed. Gary Colombo, Robert Cullen. 2010. 601-608  Read More