Lecture 6: Gender and Popular Culture

1. Eric C. Thompson
Semester 2, 2011/2012

2. Wiki Contributions
 Please make your wiki contributions for the first half
of the course by TODAY (Feb 16, 5pm).
 Please BACK-UP YOUR WORK!
 If you experience system failure or crash, you can email
the contribution to your tutorial instructor… But
please attempt to post it to the Wiki first.

3. Midterm Feedback
 Please complete the IVLE “midterm feedback” survey.
 You can find in listed as SURVEY under SC2220.
 Your responses are anonymous.
 Your feedback is very helpful to me in making
adjustments and improving the lectures and tutorials
for the second half of the term!
 Thanks! 

4. “The Hijab Challenge”
 16 February 2012 (Today)
 Sponsored by the NUS Muslim Society
 Our committee will be stationed at a booth outside the
Central Library for the whole of Thursday (16/2), and staff
and students of NUS will be invited to try on hijabs* for
however long they would like, to have a feel of wearing the
hijab as they learn the different ways of styling it, as well as
learn the reasons behind the covering of the head for
women. (*Free hijab provided!)
 For more information:
http://www.wix.com/nusmsiaw/iaw2012#!hjiab-challenge

5. Where We Have Been…
 History of Gender Studies
 Sex/Gender Distinction
 Becoming Male or Female
 Gender socialization;
paths to learning gender.
 Gender Systems
 Masculinity/Femininity
 Gender as systems of
beliefs and behaviors

6. Where We Are Going…
 Gender in Popular Culture
 Gender in Advertising
 Popular Culture (TODAY)
 Gender in Social Relations
 Gender and Power
 Gender and Work
 Gender, Here and Now
 Gender in Singapore

7. Where We Have Been…
 History of Gender Studies
Foundations of Gender Studies
 Sex/Gender Distinction
 Becoming Male or Female How we become gendered.
What gender is…
 Gender Systems 1. Systems of Belief and Behavior.
2. What we do, not what we are.

8. Where We Are Going…
Gender in
 Gender in Popular Culture
art, literature, language, pop
ular culture.
Ideas, beliefs about gender.
Representations of gender.
Social structure, Economics,
 Gender in Social Relations Politics, Power. Gender in
Practice.
Applying Gender Studies to…
 Gender, Here and Now Singapore
Your own life

9. So Much to Cover!
 “The scope is pretty large, perhaps a tighter scope would
be better?” (IVLE Feedback comment)
 SC2220 is a Survey Class… an overview of an entire field.
 Other, more narrowly focused courses include:
 JS2228: Gender and Sexuality in Japan
 SN2234: Gender and Society in South Asia
 EN3244: Gender and Literature
 GE3206: Gender, Place and Space
 PH3217: Women in Philosophy
 PS3237: Women in Politics
 SW3206: Gender Issues in Social Work Practice
 And many more…

10. How do I apply this knowledge?
Immediate Application Lifelong Application
 How do I write an essay  How does gender affect
for the final exam?! my life?
 To be discussed more in  Drawing connections,
the latter part of the lecture-to-lecture.
course.  Questions and “food for
thought”.

11. Today’s Lecture…
 Masculinity and
Femininity in Traditional
and Popular Cultures
 Fathering (Chopra)
 Change over Time
 Race and Gender
 Sexuality and Power
 Male Gaze
 Female Tease?

12. “Retrieving the Father” (Chopra)
 Revising Feminist views of
Masculinity
 “Absent” Fathers
 Father as provider and
authority; not caregiver
 Kopo’i – Father Love
 Traditional Cultures
 Fathering in film.
 Popular Cultures
 Chopra is arguing:
 For diverse fathering
 Father love is masculine and
distinct from “mothering”

13. Transitions Through Time and Space
 Masculinity and Femininity are constructed differently in
different times and places.
 Two Examples: Traditional Cultures; Popular Culture
 Traditional Cultures:
 “Where Have all the Trans-Gender Ritual Specialist Gone?”
(Peletz 2006, Current Anthropology) – See Lecture 4
 Popular Culture:
 Hollywood Images of Masculinity in the Late 20th Century –
Today’s Lecture…

14. Hollywood Images of Masculinity
 1970s: Clint Eastwood: Independent, Solitary Figure
(High Plains Drifter 1973, Dirty Harry 1971)
 1977: Luke Skywalker: The New-Age Spiritual Male
 1993: Falling Down: Hegemonic Middle-Class, White,
American Masculinity Hegemony in Crisis
 Struggling to come to terms in a changing world.
 Vigilante (“Dirty Harry”) is now the Bad Guy.
 1999: “Fight Club”: Reclaiming Masculinity

15. Falling Down: Notes and Reflections
 Crisis of Hegemonic Masculinity: White, Middle-
Class, English-speaking, Middle-Age, American
Family-Man
 “I’m the bad guy?”: The world turned upside-down.
 Intersection of Gender, Race, Class, Age
 Falling Down in Singapore?
 Chinese, Hokkien-Speaking, Middle-Class, Middle-
Age, Singaporean Family-Man?
 Is there a “crisis of masculinity”?
 If so, how does it play out?

16. Fight Club: Notes and Reflections
 Fight-Therapy (Masculine) vs. Talk-Therapy (Feminine)
 Lack of male role models (divorce culture, absentee
fathers, “Our fathers were our models for God. If our
fathers bailed, what does that tell us about God?)
 Problematic relationships with women (single mothers;
dysfunctional heterosexuality)
 Struggling with symbolic status competition and identity
(“you’re not your f***in’ khakis”)

17. Gender, Race and Masculinity
 The Green Hornet
 1966-1967 TV series, with
Bruce Lee as Kato
 2011 Movie, Jay Chou (pop
star) as Kato and Seth Rogan
(comedian) as Green Hornet
 Who is the leader?
 Who is the sidekick?
 Who “gets the girl”?
 Does Hollywood produce
“Asian” masculinity?

18. “Stupid Girls”

19. Second & Third Wave Feminism
 Pink “Stupid Girls”
 “Second Wave” Feminism
 Rejection of “Emphasized” Femininity
 Gain Power through Competing with Men (“What
happened to the dream of a girl President…”)
 Spice Girls “Wannabe”
 “Third Wave” Feminism
 Assume Equality/Status as a Given
 Gain Power through leveraging Femininity and Sexuality
(“If you want to be my lover, you have got to give…” i.e. you
get sex if you do what I want you to do.)

20. Imagery, Representations & Power
 The “Male Gaze” versus the “Female Tease”
 How are women represented in popular culture?
 What sort of power (and vulnerability) do pop culture
representations create?

21. The Male Gaze
 Women are subject to “the
male gaze” through
advertising and in public
spaces.
 Gender/feminist theorist
argue that the male gaze
operates as a form of
harassment, discipline and
control.
 Women subjected to the
male gaze must learn to
control their own bodies in
public.

22. The Female Tease?
 Third Wave feminist
argue that women should
assert themselves sexually
as a form of power.
 Does the “female tease”
reverses or contests the
power of the “male gaze”?
 Example: Pussy Cat Dolls

23. Traditional Themes of Feminism
and Gender Studies:
• Double Standard for Women:
– The “Madonna/whore” complex
– Patriarchal culture expects women to be both chaste
(Madonna – the ‘virgin Mary’) and sexually
available/promiscuous (whore); creating a difficult
double standard for women to follow.
• Objectification of Women as Sex Objects.
– The “male gaze” as agent of objectification.
• Oppression of women by patriarchal culture.

24. “Third Wave” Feminism
• From 1990s
• Reaction to “Second Wave” Feminism
– Largely assumes that women do have or should have
equal status.
– Rejects the de-feminized and de-sexualized image of
“bra-burning feminists”
• Represented in Popular Culture by the Spice Girls as a
“Girl Power” Pop Group.
– For example “Wanna Be” (“If you wannabe my lover, you
gotta get with my friends…”; Priority of girlfriends over
boyfriends.)

25. Pussycat Dolls
• “Girl Power” Group, very much in the mold of Spice
Girls (but taken to a greater extreme?).
• About the PCD (according to Wikipedia):
• Formed as a Burlesque Troupe, 1995-2003.
• Gained notoriety after 1999 Playboy pictorial.
• Re-cast as Musical Group, 2003-Present.
• Debut Album (PCD): 2005.
• Second Album (Doll Domination): 2008.

28. “Don’t Cha”
(PCD’s First Hit Single)
• “I know you like me. I know you do. That’s why
whenever I come around, she’s all over you… And I know
you want it. It’s easy to see. And in the back of your
mind, I know you should be **** me.” (**** = “home
with me”; “holdin’ me”; “f***in’ me”; different versions)
• “Don’t cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me… a freak
like me… fun like me”
• “Fight the feeling. Leave it alone. ‘Cause if it ain’t love, it
just ain’t enough to leave a happy home…”

29. “StickWitU”
(Second Hit Single)
• Chorus: “Nobody gonna love me better. I must stick with
you forever. Nobody gonna take me higher. I must stick
with you.”
• The lyrics suggest a sexually intimate (heterosexual?)
couple. (“We’ll be making love endlessly. I’m with you.
Baby, I’m with you.”)
• The video portrays an intimate (but not sexual) friendship
among the women in the group – especially overcoming
struggles and having a long history together.

30. “Beep”
(with will.i.am)
• will.i.am: “It’s funny how a man only thinks about the
(beep). You got a real big heart, but I’m lookin’ at your
(beep). You got a real big brain, but I’m lookin’ at your
(beep)…”
• PCD: “I don’t give a (beep). Keep lookin’ at my (beep)…
Every boy’s the same, since I been in the seventh
grade. They’ve been trying to get to me. Trying to
hahaha, hahaha…. I keep turning them down… You’re
too aggressive.”

31. “Buttons”
(with Snoop Dog)
• “I’m telling you loosen up my buttons baby. But you
keep fronting. Say what you going to do to me. But I
see nothing…”
• “Typical. Hardly the type I fall for.”
• “You say you’re a big boy but I can’t agree. ‘Cause the
love you said you had ain’t been put on me.”
• “I can see that just like most guys your game don’t
please.”

32. “I Don’t Need A Man”
(Self-explanatory)
• “I see you looking at me. Like I got something for you. And
the way that you stare. Don’t you dare. ‘Cause I’m not
about to, just give it on up to you.”
• “I don’t need a man to make it happen. I get off being free.
I don’t need a man to make me feel good. I get off doing
my thing. I don’t need a ring around my finger to make me
feel complete. So let me break it down. I can get off when
you ain’t around.”

33. “Wait A Minute”
(with Timbaland)
• Timbaland: “Girl, why you do me like that? You take all
my money, can’t even call a player back?”
• PCD: “Boy, why you trippin’ like that? You think cause
you’re tricking you get it just like that? . . . Baby please,
I’m fine, I’m not one of these hoes. Chasing dreams
not diamond rings. So don’t call me no more . . .”
• End of song… PCD: “See I don’t want your money. . .
Wait a minute. Uh, yeah, you can give me that back.”
(Keeps the keys to the Cadillac.)

34. PCD Themes
• Masculinity; Men are…
– Useless
– Interested only in sex
– Too aggressive AND Not aggressive enough
– Expected to please and provide for women
• Sexuality
– Women can get what they want through sex/desirability.
– Men should please women sexually (but women need not
please men).
– Positive portrayals of aggressive female sexuality.
– Negative portrayals of aggressive male sexuality.
– Overcoming the “male gaze” (that objectifies women).
– Asserting the “female tease” (as a form of power)?

35. PCD Themes (Cont.)
• “Girl Power” Bonding (most notably in the odd disconnect
between the lyrics and video for “StickWitU”)
• Female-Female Competition
– “Hoes” give men sexual satisfaction in exchange for material
things; PCDs just take without “giving it up” (?)
– Simultaneously deriding and empathizing with the “not hot”
girlfriend (“Don’t Cha”)
• “Gynearchal” Double Standards for Men?
– “Aggressor/Loser” Complex? (vs. “Madonna/Whore”)
– Men as sexual subjects (agents; seeking what they desire) are
rejected as aggressors/predators (e.g. “Beep”); men who are
not aggressive enough when a woman desires it are losers (e.g.
“Buttons”).

36. What to make of the PCDs?
• So what, it’s just a pop group? (True; just like
“Advertising doesn’t effect me!”)
• Is the “Double Standard” a big deal?
– Some think so…
– Warren Farrell (The Myth of Male Power) has argued
since the 1980s that men, not women are “oppressed”.
– Less extreme, Susan Faludi (Stiffed: The Betrayal of the
American Man) argues that post-feminist America sends
confused, conflicting messages to men and provides no
positive models of masculinity for them to follow.

37. What to make of the PCDs?
 Is the Double Standard a big deal?
 On the other hand…
 Place PCD in a broader context of R&B/Rap/Pop and
broader American/Western pop culture.
 Rap is dominated by masculine sexuality (having
enough “bling” to get sex from “hoes”).
 PCD’s assertive sexuality can be seen as one way to deal
with the excessive power of the “male gaze” (by
leveraging the “female tease”).

38. Problem of Sexuality and Power
 “Dancing on the Mobius Strip” Bernadette Barton, Gender
and Society, 2002
 Barton studied the experience of women who worked in
strip clubs. She examined whether women felt empowered
or disempowered through the experience.
 For most women: initially they felt empowered.
However, the longer they continued working the more
disempowered they felt; both because of age and because
of long-term objectificaiton.
 Only a few women were able to maintain feelings of
empowerment over the long-term (these were the at the
high-end of the profession and able to make it a career they
controled).
 Recall: “Killing Us Softly” – advertising presents young
women with a questionable sense of “empowerment”.

39. Gender, Power and Imagery
 What are the
implications for gender
and power relationships?

40. Gender, Power and Imagery
 What are the
implications for gender
and power relationships?

41. Gender, Power and Imagery
 What are the
implications for gender
and power relationships?

42. Gender, Power and Imagery
 What are the
implications for gender
and power relationships?

43. Final Questions to Ponder
 What are your favorite movies, television
programs, or music?
 What do they “teach” you about how to act
as a man or a woman?
 What do they teach you to expect from the
opposite sex?
 What do they teach you about what is ok or
not ok in gendered behavior?