We watched this video in a business class I am taking this
semester about leadership and as soon as I saw it I thought of our class. I
think its weird that they are attempting to sell shampoo with it but I like the
overall message so whatever.
This video, with just a few different scenes and some nice
background music, brings up a very big issue. Some people call it the glass ceiling;
some just call it unfair but it is one of the big issues that women face
everyday: labels. No matter what we do, we are almost always face descriptors
that hold negative connotation. If I am enthusiastic about something I am pushy
and if I am dressing up for party I am either a prude or a slut, there really isn’t
an in-between. Men (white men) on the other hand fear no evil. Their actions
are almost always described with positive connotations. They are powerful and confident
and handsome.
While this video doesn’t give a real course of action or
solution to the problem, it brings up the issue itself, which is possibly the
most important step. If no one is made to realize that there is a problem, we
cant being to attempt fixing it. Then the question is how do we fix it but
that’s a pretty big question.
I think it is all in the verbiage. If nothing else, this
video shows that certain words hold certain connotations and those words are
usually assigned to one group rather than another. But the tricky thing is that
connotations aren’t all on the surface; the subtext of those words doesn’t jump
off the page in all situations.
Another video I saw recently also brings up this issue of
how people speak to women. Although I haven’t made it to the age of every woman
in the video I can honestly say that they are all true. And it is also true
that a man would never hear.
The problem with this also is that it isn’t just one single
persons fault. Our whole culture is responsible for it, even the women! Every
single person in this country who does not speak out against it when it happens
to him or her perpetuates it. Similarly to being anti-racists and non-racist,
silence does no good; it does not improve the situation. It only allows it to
continue.
As I think about both videos together, it all just made me
think back to “Killing Us Softly 4” when she read the hair product
advertisement that says: “Your breast may be too big, too saggy, too pert, too
flat, too full, too far apart, too close together, too a cup, too lopsided, too
jiggly, too pale, too padded, too pointy, too pendulous, or just two mosquito
bites. But with dep styling products, at least you can have your hair the way
you want it.”
I am still baffled by this advertisement but what Jean
Kilbourn says still holds true. This content could never and would never be
used to sell something to a man because that is just how the world is right
now. The words that we deem appropriate for women aren’t good enough for men
because our society lacks that equality and as soon as we edit how we talk to
each other and about each other we might be able to achieve some progress.
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