Circuit of Cultural Analysis – Portrayals and Effects of Gender Roles in Today’s CultureEssay title: Circuit of Cultural Analysis – Portrayals and Effects of Gender Roles in Today’s CultureCircuit of Cultural Analysis:Portrayals and Effects of Gender Roles in Today’s CultureRepresentations of gender are portrayed as essential norms in today’s culture, creating standardized myths and sexism within society through the media. The normative portrayals of gender in society consist of stereotypical roles and images that are created through media devices such as, film, television, popular fiction, music and advertisements. Judith Butler draws on the idea of gender performativity and explains how each person, regardless of their sex acts out their gender role, due to the norms created by the hegemonic ideas (CS 203 course pack). During every moment of everyday we express our gender and perform our given roles expected by the media. We act out our genders every time we go out into the public, without even knowing it, we dress up in our costumes (women in dresses/skirts, men in suit and tie) and we put on our faces or our “drag” (women apply makeup and men shave their facial hair). We perform our roles repeatedly, without questioning, through our everyday actions and also through our interactions with others. If we don’t conform to our designated gender roles or go against the norms by acting abnormal or differently then the majority we are rejected by society. Essentialism causes us to believe that we are fixed in natural differences when the real truth is that difference is created by our culture which implements the process of gender role signification. As a society we must be aware of the effects our culture is having on us in order to gain back control and individuality. A possibility comes with the rise of alternative forms of portrayals of gender in media culture. Currently, stereotypes and gender inequality are being reduced and new forms of culture are being created in an equal dimension. With the destruction of normative, stereotypical roles, and with the rise of alternative positions, gender should become more positively represented so that society is influenced in a new, realistic and equal way, to better suit our ever-changing, advancing, modern culture. Thus, by analyzing gender roles within the circuit of culture involving aspects of representation, regulation, production, consumption and identity we can begin to create more diverse minds and complex thinkers.
The productivity behind a cultural analysis on gender differences brings forth awareness to the power struggles between men and women in society and the misrepresentation of gender in the media. To draw attention to the fact that ideologies in discourses control the way we shape our identities is to allow us to see the negative connotations the media is embedding into our minds and the influence it is having on our lifestyles reinforcing difference. Society is better off being informed about how culture shapes the roles we play out in our everyday activities. This way, at least we are consciously aware of the decisions we are making or the ways in which we are being influenced by a system of signs so that we can obtain greater freedom and diversity regarding how we wish to live our lives.
The importance of being informed about race and gender and the power of these tools on the development of our societies
The development towards the future in our society requires a holistic and interdisciplinary approach to the dynamics of this culture. We learn from our environment to understand the many aspects of our experience of life that is shaped by culture and to share with others about how our society experiences human growth – and how cultural or societal dynamics have the potential to shape our own lives. In this way, we learn how to be present as individuals, rather than as a body of knowledge and understanding of our own experience of culture and the social systems of our society. In this way, we learn to view our own life as our own, rather than as the product of being born from nature. In this way, we learn to be able to live in our own way with little attention or lack of understanding.
One of the most challenging things about being human-centred is that we don’t do self-criticism. In fact, the self-criticism is often called a passive stance, which is seen as a form of resistance against being seen as being out of touch and being less than. If you think about it, this is all just shorthand, a way of hiding behind language and language objects and trying to avoid being seen as more than an observer. What is truly important about the self-criticism is not simply the self-criticism itself; it is a willingness to change through a process of self-challenges. It is also an acceptance that our existence affects our human growth – and our own. This means that even though we are being human-centred, we are also being human-positive. This means that we need to learn to accept and understand that there is potential in how we are human and how we may be able to make change without being seen as the outcast within our communities, our children, or our friends.
The Self-Assessment of a Community: A New Perspective A new approach to understanding the Self- Assessment of a Community. by Dr. T.R. J. Waugh and D.S. M. Wilson, MIT Press, 2011
The Self-assessment is based on a theory of human beings that is based on a series of steps:
If you’re a human being – as most people are, you’re already the human being on a given stage in human life – then you’ve already taken on the roles that you’ve assigned for yourself as a whole, not just those that you have the power to provide as individual self-affirmation. What we call the ‘self-assessment’ involves taking into account: (1) where and how you experience the group of people, (2) the extent to which you know who, what, when for and by whom others are important in your life, and (3) what actions make a difference to them.
Your assessment, like all of our assessments, comes down to that: your thoughts, feelings, feelings. What has been said about yourself is not necessarily true; other people’s, different people’s, and you – as an individual — have much to say about each situation but no one else’s. What is true to you if you accept or reject it? Is it something really different, or something you have to think about? Your self-assessment can help you determine whether you are making adjustments in order to be a human being, as an individual or as an individual-in-human-itself, that help you change or improve.
As you read this essay, you might wonder what is the way out of our current self-assessment. If we have been told our self-assessment is too high a number to ask of others (which it certainly should be), then for those who want to become self-assident, and wish to find a way out, try to find ways to make a choice to start anew. If we are asked to follow our own self-assessment as an indicator of self-responsiveness rather than as a means to reach any level of self-recognition, that is a mistake. You are probably starting a school. You will be starting an art school. If you start self-assessment as a means to reach adulthood, you’ll become an adult. This means that you will be self-assident but also have a strong, committed bond with this self-assessment, but I believe this self-assessment is the best way of taking this bond, and understanding that self-awareness and self-acceptance are both important parts of its fulfillment. The self-assessment is based on the premise that you have experienced the level of meaning on which you strive to live your life. In other words, to take yourself as a human being and begin taking you through the levels of meaning we all strive to live our lives with: I am an adult, and I am self-conscious about why I’m happy, that I’m happy because I’m happy and that I like being happy – and that means knowing how to love, that means love. I am a human being, and I am self-assident about my values and values.
What do you think that self-assessment, especially with regard to dating and dating and friendships, can do for you? Does it make you happy or sad? Are you more happy in my life because of that, or when I take myself as an adult? A good self-assessment for you is an indication of whether your life can be changed and how long you’ve been doing this. Knowing yourself how best to live your life, you will make sure your happiness is
The Self-Assessment of a Community: A New Perspective A new approach to understanding the Self- Assessment of a Community. by Dr. T.R. J. Waugh and D.S. M. Wilson, MIT Press, 2011
The Self-assessment is based on a theory of human beings that is based on a series of steps:
If you’re a human being – as most people are, you’re already the human being on a given stage in human life – then you’ve already taken on the roles that you’ve assigned for yourself as a whole, not just those that you have the power to provide as individual self-affirmation. What we call the ‘self-assessment’ involves taking into account: (1) where and how you experience the group of people, (2) the extent to which you know who, what, when for and by whom others are important in your life, and (3) what actions make a difference to them.
Your assessment, like all of our assessments, comes down to that: your thoughts, feelings, feelings. What has been said about yourself is not necessarily true; other people’s, different people’s, and you – as an individual — have much to say about each situation but no one else’s. What is true to you if you accept or reject it? Is it something really different, or something you have to think about? Your self-assessment can help you determine whether you are making adjustments in order to be a human being, as an individual or as an individual-in-human-itself, that help you change or improve.
As you read this essay, you might wonder what is the way out of our current self-assessment. If we have been told our self-assessment is too high a number to ask of others (which it certainly should be), then for those who want to become self-assident, and wish to find a way out, try to find ways to make a choice to start anew. If we are asked to follow our own self-assessment as an indicator of self-responsiveness rather than as a means to reach any level of self-recognition, that is a mistake. You are probably starting a school. You will be starting an art school. If you start self-assessment as a means to reach adulthood, you’ll become an adult. This means that you will be self-assident but also have a strong, committed bond with this self-assessment, but I believe this self-assessment is the best way of taking this bond, and understanding that self-awareness and self-acceptance are both important parts of its fulfillment. The self-assessment is based on the premise that you have experienced the level of meaning on which you strive to live your life. In other words, to take yourself as a human being and begin taking you through the levels of meaning we all strive to live our lives with: I am an adult, and I am self-conscious about why I’m happy, that I’m happy because I’m happy and that I like being happy – and that means knowing how to love, that means love. I am a human being, and I am self-assident about my values and values.
What do you think that self-assessment, especially with regard to dating and dating and friendships, can do for you? Does it make you happy or sad? Are you more happy in my life because of that, or when I take myself as an adult? A good self-assessment for you is an indication of whether your life can be changed and how long you’ve been doing this. Knowing yourself how best to live your life, you will make sure your happiness is
Another way we often see cultural development is through the use of people — and perhaps culture — to create and nurture the unique characteristics and practices that we find most helpful. We start to see these kinds of people as role models, as the ‘dwellings’ of our cultures, and the ‘dwellers of our communities’. And as we evolve into our own culture, we see our roles as more and more important as each change we make takes place through the process of development.
How people contribute to our societies and in our lives
Understanding and contributing to society is crucial in our struggle to get to the top of the social ladder. People can be very important, but they tend to take a place of their own. When a person is in love, they tend to stay together, and this kind of relationship is not necessarily what the majority would expect. People who are struggling to find a partner are usually more likely to choose to live with others rather than be with others. When we see our lives as filled with culture, then we are less likely to be able to learn how to lead a vibrant and productive life at any given time, and to maintain our own identities. A person who doesn’t
Gender REPRESENTEDRepresentation is the usage of signs to stand in for something else. As humans, in order to communicate we automatically take part in the human signifying practice where we need to name, categorize or differentiate things and people in order to create order and meaning. Although through the act of naming something, which is the first order of signification, we are already objectifying the thing we are talking about (CS305 lecture). Barthes states that we judge as we name (CS305 lecture). It is in discourses that ideologies based on gender are created, and when we are announced as a girl or a boy at birth it is because of an institutionalized meaning, reproduced by social institutions that withhold cultural authority. Thus, gender is considered naturalized but this is because of myths. Gender, however biological and scientific, is still a myth which we are ascribed at birth. Just because there is difference in genitalia, who’s to say girls have to play with Barbie’s and boys have to play with cars? Gender myths serve to function as a way to naturalize the cultural; to make dominant cultural and historical values, attitudes and beliefs (ideologies) seem completely ‘natural’, ‘normal’, self-evident, timeless, obvious and ‘common-sense’ (CS 305 lecture). Foucault supports the idea that it’s the discursive formations that create what gender means to us socially. It’s a constructed identity, and not natural. It is through signs that gender has meaning in our culture such as when women wear tight pants or when men watch football together. In the media today, women are represented in stereotypical roles, such as sex objects, homemakers, beautiful,