Wednesday, January 4, 2012

“Privilege, Power, and Difference”- Johnson (Hyperlink)


In the article, “Privilege, Power, and Difference”, Johnson is talking about ideology. He is bringing to our attention the idea that anyone who is different than the white straight American male is not worthy of power. This ideology is reflected in the media all of the time. We see it in commercials, on the news, everywhere. Although many of us do not agree with it when it is a topic of conversation we can’t help but to laugh when we see something on T.V. or on another form of media. The media projects this idea of a patriarchal society, an idea that men are the bread winners and woman stay at home and take care of the house. Johnson talks a lot about all power and privilege for everyone but for the purpose of our discussion about Feminism today I figured I would share this video in relation to Johnson’s article. 



The video shows snippets of moments in the media where we seem to fall into this patriarchal ideology. I would just like to take some time to go over a part of the video.

The first snippet that really caught my eye was the video that starts at 2:04. This is a commercial for a play house for young girls. In the commercial they show how the little girl can clean, and cook, for all her little dolls. The voice over says “It’s her place where her dreams have room to grow.” This quote really speaks to the patriarchal ideology that women are to grow up to do nothing but take care of the house. They have to do the chores and stay home with the kids. Already at such a young age we are telling children that boys do this and girls do that. Johnson would argue that we all have the power to make our own decisions and it should not be up to our society to control what we want to do. That’s why these acts like Feminism really help us to realize the wrong in our society. 
 
Tomorrow in class I would hope to talk about how we can get people to really think more about how we are not all that different. That we are letting these ideologies control us without us even being conscience or aware of it.

3 comments:

  1. I loved the video you posted. These are comercials and shows we have seen and just never noticed how patriarchal they really are. I especially loved the second to last one with Julia Roberts. The man was so shocked that she could accomplish something that he couldn't, and he even tried discouraging her from trying. Great choice (:

    ReplyDelete
  2. great first post!

    i love how you embeded the video, and it added to the conversation greatly.

    you seem to have two different things to tlak about in class. which is awesome! talk them out a bit on your blog so we undertsand what you are really asking.

    ReplyDelete
  3. this is an amazing post and it help me understand the reading thank you!!

    ReplyDelete