That's gay?

I was watching Family Guy last night and one of the brand new episodes was playing. In it, Peter gets an injection at the doctor's office that turns him gay, dubbed the "gay gene." After said injection, Peter starts baking muffins, wearing tight clothing, dancing out at dance clubs late at night and so forth. Eventually, he leaves his wife for another man. While I was watching this episode, I began to wonder. Why does baking muffins make Peter gay? Why does it make him gay to wear a lime green shirt? Or to dance out at a club late at night? Many of the traits Peter expresses in the episode after turning gay are traditionally feminine traits. This led to another question for me. Why are gay people represented this way? Why is it that in any typical movie that features a gay male or female are the traditional gender traits transposed? Lois suspects that Peter is gay when she sees him baking muffins, a typically feminine thing to do. This is not the first of television shows or movies that make gay men extremely feminine and gay women extremely butch. Does this reflect real life? Not totally. Take a look at Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. Ellen is more of a masculine figure in the relationship with her short hair and her white pantsuit at their wedding. Portia, on the other hand, wore a beautiful white gown, she wears high heels often, has long bonde hair, and is a pretty feminine woman. Or my sister, for example. She is a lesbian but she is not overly manly at all. She has long hair, loves to wear pink, and just acts like herself or any other person. These are just a few of many real life examples in which gay couples' gender traits are not being transposed. So why then, if this is true, do television shows and movies make gay men seem really girly and gay women seem really manly?

"It feels good to be a woman..."

Recently, Wal Mart aired a new commercial about the makeup that they sell at their store at low prices. The commercial features close up shots of various women applying foundation, mascara, blush, etc. The song playing in the background is a soft melody about how it feels good to be a woman. I found this commercial very interesting because it really captures the idea of what makes a woman very feminine. Every woman in the commercial was applying her make up or fixing her hair or just doing general primping. Women, according to Wal Mart's commercial, are feminine through the use of makeup and through raising their physical appearance to a very high standard. Wal Mart prides itself on being able to supply a variety of tools to this end for women at low prices. This representation is extremely generalized and shows what the overall idea about women in today's world contains. It implies, subtly, that if a woman is not obsessed over primping or does not wear makeup that she is not feminine and she is missing out on how "it feels good to be a woman," as stated in the background song. Personally, I know several women who do not wear makeup or dresses or really even care much about physical appearance at all. Based on that, I think the commercial, while accurate to a degree, is far too generalized to reflect what is actually happening with women in today's society. Because, quite honestly, most of the women I know who do obsess over makeup and the like are not buying it at Wal Mart. I think the commercial is too new to be on YouTube yet. I tried.

3 Men and 3 Little Ladies

One of my all time favorite television shows from childhood is Full House. I have most of the seasons on DVD and I watch reruns of it every afternoon. Simply put, I am obsessed. Well, after reading the article about mismatched couples from class, it got me to thinking about sitcoms from the '90s and how they represented gender roles. I immediately thought about Full House. For anyone who isn't familiar with the show, it's about a widower and his brother in law and best friend living in a house together raising the widower's 3 daughters. Scattered among these main characters are supporting characters including the neighbor child, one guy's girlfriend, and various other family friends that come to visit the house. I find the portrayal of gender on this TV show to be quite interesting for a few reasons. First of all, this television show places 3 men in a role typically played by a woman. I feel that this sends a subtle message that it takes 3 men to do a job that a woman often does all by herself and that men are incapable of being single parents. I don't really have a problem with this, but I think it is funny that even though there are 3 men in the same house raising 3 girls, the oldest of the daughters often has to step in and help when "girl" issues arise with her younger sisters. The fact that these 3 men are raising 3 girls adds to comedic effect in the show as well. When two of the young guys attempts to change a diaper by using a half roll of paper towels, a pot, and a plastic bag, hilarity ensues. This points out that changing diapers and raising babies is not a male's job, especially when the middle daughter points out a bag of diapers nearby and they realize how ridiculous they were. Later on in the show, however, permanent female characters are introduced such as Danny's love interest, Vicki, and Jesse's wife, Rebecca. These female characters are permanently introduced to the show late in the series, possibly as a way to keep the show believable. One may argue that these 2 female characters were brought onto the show because it just isn't practical to think that 3 men could raise 3 little girls entirely on their own. I find this interesting to think about in relation to popular sitcoms in the new millenium in that this storyline, while funny in the '90s, is no longer original or comical in this day and age and gender messages are instead represented through couples on the show rather than the lack thereof as they were only a decade ago.