Oxy Clean Commericial

While I was watching TV with my little cousins last weekend I saw this commercial come on the the Disney channel. In the opening scenes of the commercial, there is an overhead camera shot of a large group of people. The promoter says "see why all people trust oxy clean." When i was watching this with my little cousins one of them turned to me and said "wow Cristina look they are all girls!" She is 7 and she caught onto the little/ yet very important detail. This commercial really made me think. We sat down at the table and had a conversation about this commercial. There was one 12 year old boy and one 7 year old girl sitting with me at the table. The boy said to me " I think that there are all women because the moms are the ones who do the laundry."

This was very shocking to me because my cousin has very good manners and is very polite and yet he still said that women are the ones who do the laundry. I think by playing this commercial on the Disney channel was aimed at moms and there children watching TV together at night. My younger cousin brought up a very good point though, she said," what happens if you don't have a mom?" I didn't know how to answer her question so i just told her that if you don't have a mom your dad would pick up the extra slack.The boy laughed at her and said " I would never do laundry, i would make a girl do it, its what they are supposed to do." The stereotypes for women are portrayed very heavily on television and i think when children watch tv, they catch on to theses stereotypes and enforce them in their every day lives.

Blue Bloods

On Friday night I was sitting home with my mom and we where watching one of her favorite shows, Blue Bloods. This show is about a Irish catholic family who is heavily involved in the New York Police Department. Tom Selleck, is the son of the previous police commissioner and his children are all defectives and or police officers. He is thinking about retiring and they are at a family dinner talking about who he wants to succeed him. He has two sons and a daughter that would like to take over the position of the police commissioner. His oldest son who is played by Donny Wahlberg says that he wants to take over and he thinks that he is the most qualified. His daughter follows up that statement by saying what about me, then her brothers both say you cant be the police commissioner because you are a girl.

This was very interesting to me because I kind of understood where her brothers where coming from. Whenever someone thinks of a police officer they think of a strong man , not a woman. People think that the women aren't as strong and they wouldn't be able to handle being the commissioner.  If the daughter does eventually become the police commissioner she would be taken advantage of and people would think about the position differently. It would break a social norm and if they do make the woman the commissioner and i think it might motivate more women to  break more social norms that they would be less likely to do. The television we watch has a huge influence in our society. If they do take this step and make the woman the commissioner, we might see some changes in our society regarding the police department. Also, if people watch this show with their families, children will have a different outlook on what they can do with there life when they get older. Girls might be more likely to think about getting a job in something that was previously just a job for boys.

(if my hyperlink does not work this is a link to the entire episode, the scene is toward the end)
Men in Black

My Baby Cousin

My cousin anthony just had a baby boy AJ in november. My cousin and his wife are very protective over the baby. On wednesday night, I went to go visit the baby and it was the first time I ever saw him. My mom and I where sitting there feeding the baby when something very interesting happened. I had on a pink scarf, AJ kept pulling on my scarf. My cousin took my scarf away from him and handed him a very similar scarf but something was different, the scarf was blue. My cousin said "no pink, AJ take the blue." My cousin then continued to talk about how when he gets older he wants him to play hockey and football. Basically planning out the rest of his life according to what the gender stereotype is of boys today.

I thought this was very puzzling because i couldn't believe my cousin was so protective about the baby just holding my pink scarf. It is an article of clothing and if he keeps telling him that he can't touch anything that girls touch he is going to create a massive problem. I think AJ should be able to touch and play with whatever he wants to. If he doesn't open himself up to letting AJ play with all types of toys he will not be open to trying other things when he gets older.

Gender Development on the Internet

My second post will be about the development of children that I found on a website. One of the most popular toy stores in the world, Toys R Us. When you go onto the website there are categories you can choose from such as " Girls Gifts" "Boys Gifts" and "Categories." When you click on the boys gifts section the first subcategory is Action Figures, and for girls the first subcategory is Arts & Crafts. I feel as though the toys for girls are always in light colors such as pink and purple and the boy toys are darker colors such as blue green and red. The boys section consists of action figures and building sets while the girls side consists of arts and crafts and dolls. The boys toys are always very so strong and some times scary and the girls toys are very delicate and gentle, the way both of these genders are perceived to be. 

I think the gender stereotype is a major issue in the world today. One of the most common toys for a boy are Lego's and now the creators of this product are starting to create their idea of a Lego collection for girls that they are calling "Friends" In this Lego collection you have the ability to build shopping malls and houses instead of train tracks and large buildings. I feel as though this is a step in the right direction for trying to make the options equal for girls and boys no matter what their interests are. This might be far off, but there is a possibility there are more  women in the fashion industry and more men in the construction industry because those are the types of toys they played with when they were growing up. 

Toys r us
Lego Friends