http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&vid=0f93aff4-130c-4631-87f2-177adc8a5ff4&playlist=videoByTag:tag:green%20guide:ns:Gallery:mk:us:vs:1&from=MSNHP&tab=m1207609493831>1=42003
So I don't know why but this video was offensive to me. I guess I have never been one of those girls that uses bitch as a friendly pet name for my friends. If I am called that I am offended, it just sounds so harsh. I was amazed as I watched this video because it had a million gendered discussions intertwined in it. First, who says that only women need a diet plan. Why is it that when they make women's diet plans they emphasize their chocolate and fatty desserts. Why don't they do that for men? My boyfriend likes sweets more than I do, in fact I have caught him relentlessly splurging in the middle of the night. Why do people always assume that female hormones means we crave cake and pie and ice cream. I think we crave fatty foods because we are Americans. We live in a society that is filled with food that could clog our arteries in a heart beat (pun intended :) ). Why do people assume women have such horrible dieting problems?
Another issue I had with this was the title " skinny bitch". It seems so degrading. It is almost as if you are trying to be better than everyone else by developing this diet. I don't know. Everything seems so wrong about this.
The gender stereotypes have gone too far! However, it seems as though women are targeted more often than men in dieting cases. If they are so serious about this stereo type why don't they develop a male diet that emphasizes their ability to still drink beer??? Come on.
7 comments:
Women are targeted more than men because society places a strong emphasis on being thin for women, thus generating more dollars worth of sales. Although there have had increasing cases of eating disorders in men, they still haven't felt the same pressure as women to stay thin.
I find it interesting, that as society we try to redefine culture and gender expectations (Tough Guise and Living with your Genes) with regards to outward appearance that these women still reinforce the negative image of a woman by referring to her as a bitch (I believe they are money driven). I think as a society we should move towards a focus of overall health. There are plenty of "skinny" people who arn't
I think women are targeted more often than men because it is easier for men to loose weight. I have seen a ton of advertisements targeted towards women that talk about the ability of the male body to drop pounds more easily when compared to women. If they both stop drinking soda, the man will drop 10 pounds, while she only looses 1 or 2. I agree with the first comment about the title of the diet using the word bitch. It is probably just a way to draw more attention and make more money. It is also true that women, more often than men have higher expectations relating to being skinny. That is the way we have been socialized, it has taken us a long time to get to where we are today, and it will take a long time for us to turn it around.
I agree with both the previous blogs. I think that it, unfortunatly, is valued in our society for women to look a certain way and are continuously pressured to do so. But playing the devils advocate, aren't men pressured to make enough money to support their family and be the breadwinner. I agree that women's physical qualities are more harshly examined by society and crituqued, however I think that men endure pressures from our culture as well.
Secondly, the name "Skinny Bitches" is unnecessary yes, but I don't find it offensive because I strictly see it as a marketing tool. The more edgy the better, in the eyes of the advertisers. Maybe this is just a sign that I have already been desensitized to degredation of women in everyday life...
I am sure that when they were writing this diet book, that obviously they had women in mind, and as a catch they used the phrase "bitch". They use it as a marketing ploy; they think it's funny because they refer to it several times in the video, laughing while they say it, because they must think they are very clever. I too believe that women are the target of this cookbook and the diet book because society places so much more emphasis on how a woman looks and how much women weigh. When you look at the magazines on the newsstand, nearly all of the time a teaser on the cover talks about weight loss along with make up and clothes all to make women look "better" and be successful and "in". While I am sure that many more women than men go to weight watchers, their books aren't gender specific, they don't seem to pander to a specific demographic like this book does.
I also do not like the phrase "bitch", don't use it and tend to think less of those who do, especially on a regular basis.
I think that diets tend to focus their attention on women is because historically women have been more concerned with their body image than men. I think that this will change as more men become self conscious about their bodies with all of the images showing men with six-pack abs and heavily muscled bodies. The men will slowly begin to try and achieve the barbie body equivalent for men which is basically an unattainable image (or only by a few). This is evident in many of the magazine articles for men that advertise how to get lean or fit quick.
I don't think it's that women have problems with dieting, I think that society exploits the female thin ideal and makes billions of dollars a year off of it.
I wonder if girls using the term "bitch" to refer to one another is much like other culture groups reclaiming the negative epithets for their groups by calling one another by these names. In other words are women saying we are no longer offended by the term bitch, in fact we will use it as a pet name for one another to show affection?
And, I think a typical gender stereotype fr women is that they like chocolate therefore I think that's why it is highlighted in diet commercials.
I think that soon we will see more dieting commericals and print ads aimed toward men as they too are continually being communicated to by society that thin and muscular is the ideal body type.
I know...why does everyone think that women just want to sit around all day and eat bon bons or whatever kind of chocolate we can get our hands on? I personally don't crave chocolate either and I know plenty of men that do and that would have a harder time sticking to a diet plan than a woman does.
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