...Research Essay Proposal Topic: Spice Girls and the normalizing spread of girl power Using Spice Girls as a point of study, I intend to research the spread in American popular culture of the ‘girl power’ phenomenon. It would discuss the nature of the idea (that female appearance and sensuality, and equality need not be mutually exclusive), how the concept relates to perceptions of gender roles and power through the lens of girl culture (for mainly the tween and teen groups) and the ways in which Spice Girls – as a major cultural phenomenon of the 1990s – promoted and normalized the idea. Depending on available information and depending on what the word count will allow, the essay will also look into the origins of the idea within pop (eg. Riot Grrrl, statements by Madonna, etc) and touch upon critiques of the supposed feminist aspects of the girl power movement, linking it to materialistic and consumerist norms of American and western culture. Sources: Primary Spiers, B., Fruchtmann, U., Thompson, B., Fuller, K., and Curtis, J. Spice World: The Spice Girls Movie. Culver City, Calif: Columbia TriStar Home Video, 1998. Lyrics from selected songs from the albums Spice (1996), Spiceworld (1997) and Forever (2000). Assorted interviews will also be identified, quoted and analysed. Secondary Whiteley, S. Women and Popular Music: Sexuality, Identity, and Subjectivity. London: Routledge, 2000. Print. Inness, S. A., Millennium Girls: Today's Girls Around the World. Lanham, Md: Rowman...
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...Common Wealth Essay: Girl power or Boy power ! The way I figured it out, everyone has the same point of view about girls. Like, how we jump into conclusion too quickly when we see our boyfriend talk to another girl, that we gaze at ourselves in the mirror at every opportunity we get, that it takes us an eternity to decide between the soup or salad or that we don’t understand why the quarter back is running one way when we are watching hockey. I have to admit that most of it is true but not all girls are like that. My point being that people can surprise you, well girls can. This isn’t another story about a regular girl trying to prove a point by joining the boy’s soccer team; this is a story about my life. I always had a deep passion for hockey. When I was younger I remember sitting next to my father and watching the sweat drip off his face as he jumped off the couch yelling at the TV. I would just stare and follow at the little black dot on the screen launch itself into the net and smile at the hockey players celebrating their victory head bumping each other. Whenever hockey was on TV, whether the Habs lost or won there was always a bond between the people watching. It was something people did together. Ever since then I wanted to play hockey and make people feel the way I felt when I was younger. That I would be creating a union between people. But I never had the courage or the guts to join a team because I was always told that girls are no good at sports...
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...The Power and Meaning of “Girl Watching" The concept of “Girl Watching” caught my eye right away. Most men do this even though they might not admit it. It has become a part of our culture that is easy to subject ourselves to and act upon without thinking. Most women would call this sexual harassment, but there are some women who think it’s just the way guys are. Technically they are right. Guys are this way, but they don’t have to be. We are all sinners, so we won’t always do the right thing. The problem is that too many people either accept “girl watching” or believe that it is something that is going to always happen and will never change. This mindset is developed through gender role socialization. Our culture has made “girl watching” a hobby that “manly” men do. If a guy decides to go against that cultural norm and resist the urge to ogle at a girl, they will be seen as less of a man. I see this every day. When a beautiful girl walks by it is almost unheard of to ignore her presence. Guys will make their inappropriate comments either out loud or quietly to the group and if I were to ignore the comments or tell them to behave, they would begin making fun of me. Why is this so acceptable? As Christians we should hold ourselves to a higher standard and try to protect and respect our sisters in Christ. Just like many other aspects of Christianity, doing the right thing will always be more difficult and require more work, but that shouldn’t stop us. ...
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...The slogan "girl power" has become synonymous with the empowerment of women, a modern-day term stemming from "feminism" Girls in the global North are depicted as subjects of capacity– ‘can do girls’ (Harris, A, Anita, 2004) Original citation: Koffman, Ofra, Orgad, Shani and Gill, Rosalind (2015) Girl power and ‘selfie humanitarianism’. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, 29 (2). pp. 157-168. Page4 During the 20th & 21st century in mostly westernised countries, there has been significant shift towards women being in control of their decision making, education, and financial independence. When Simone de Beauvoir claims, "one is not born, but, rather, becomes a woman," Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex (New York: Vintage Books, 1973), 301. The author suggests that sex and gender are two separate identities. “The distinction between sex and gender has been crucial to the long-standing...
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...The cause of the issue girls’ education being ignored is because of the fact that girls’ in impoverished nations support the family, of family honor, of inadequate facilities, and lack of female teachers. For example, the events that happened to Malala Yousafzai and other girls like her. Raising awareness to this issue is significant for all people are equal, and this doesn’t seem equal. A group of people may disagree with me on this issue, but I hope to change their minds with what I need to say. That group might say that men are superior and girls are inferior and that is how it is, however I disagree. I disagree since there are several advantages of educating girls’. The key point is that “Grown up educated girls can play an essential role...
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...It's A Girl This documentary caught my attention from the very beginning, when I heard of a woman in India killing eight of her baby girls just because she did not want a daughter, but a son. She would keep getting pregnant in hopes of having a boy. I was in disbelief to see the facial reaction she had as she told her story, without guilt or regret, just no emotion at all. She believes women have the power to give life and the power to take it away. I disagree with that statement because each and every person has a right to live life and existence no matter what gender they are. Sadly, many baby girls are either aborted before birth, killed right after birth, or abandoned. If they live past puberty they become victims of neglect and abuse. I believe this is so unjust, especially me being a mother to a healthy beautiful little girl. I could never neglect or abuse her just because she is a girl, nor would I ever allow anyone else to. But in India, it's very different, the men are in control of the woman, considered property, and forced to have a male child. If a woman did not produce boys or dowry then they would be considered useless and either abused or killed. I understand that men from India have power over their women in this way, but without women or girls how will more boys be produced? In India they believe boys bring strength, blessing, and wealth, while girls bring dowry and burden. They believe families with sons gain wealth and daughters, while families with daughters...
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...Pink for girls; Blue for boys? Nowadays if we walk into a department store we can be sure that we will find pink and some blue clothes, toys and little other objects for children such as books, bikes, lunchboxes, board games, toy cookers, cash registers, even games consoles. If we look at these objects there is no wonder everybody knows that pink is specified for girls and blue for boys. But how did this become a common thought? Since when do we use colors to make a difference between genders? And why exactly did we choose pink and blue to fulfill this role? In the 1800s most infants were dressed in white and both boys and girls wore dresses or short skirts until the age of five or six. Although, there was a few small difference between boy and girl clothing. For example girls wore dresses which were buttoned up in the back while boys’ dresses were buttoned up in the front. So gender difference wasn’t highlighted just in a little scale. Why wasn’t this important in that age of time? One theory is that distinguishing boys from girls was less important than distinguishing kids from adults. Childhood was a time of innocence while adulthood typically meant working hard. By the 1850s other colors than white had started to appear in baby clothing, but gender-based distinctions were slow to emerge. For example a Times fashion report from 1880 says that boys and girls were dressed alike in shades of blue, pink, white or violet; another report from 1892 says young girls were wearing...
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...Danielle Turnbull English 265 Section 1 Schapiro November 24, 2014 Self acceptance “The Ultrasound” Arranged Marriage and “The Girl Deficit’ grows in India” In a mirror lies a reflection. A lie it is in that the reflection is partially determined by the person who stands in front of the mirror. In a patriarchal world, if that person is a woman, the reflection is often affected by the society of male dominance and unequal rights. How can self-image be perceived in a positive way for women? Self-Acceptance, much like self-esteem, at our deepest levels is either complete or not at all. Self-acceptance is something that is only achieved by those who can accept who they really are, “an acceptance of one’s self despite deficiencies” (Wikipedia.com). In some cultures, much like those of India in Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni stories in Arranged Marriage self-acceptance seems to be an impossible achievement. Many woman in India, in addition to many woman across culture, enter a life from birth till “chosen” by a husband that is pre-defined. Given that, how does a woman find self-acceptance? A true sense of self and love? In “The Ultrasound” Divakaruni and in a supporting article by the Boston Globe called “The Girl Deficit”, Woman are shown as people who are manipulated and forced to make choices against their will. “The Ultrasound” tells us a story of two woman and their pregnancy and how when the gender is revealed, for one of the woman their life made a turn for...
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...Equal Have ever consider a world so huge and immeasurable can be so unjust. I mean Problems of the past still affect the future. Women have always been the scape goat in term of blame or in adequate of men. This shape power that if women were to have a good or great idea it would be dismissive In the following are some topics that regard gender and some refers from "killing us softly 4"from Jean Kilbourne. She talks about adverting ads that sexually women and make or trying to turn them in to object rather than a human being. I saw an old navy commercial about woman in pants by presence them in different size and made look appeal to the male audience. One can say that we live in a male dominate socially. I'm not trying to sound sexist but it is true. From history has told from the begin regard of era that woman were in to be homemaker and servants. In the world women working side by side with can make a difference but inequity such as wages, treatment, and having a say. Today people are define by sociality by gender and how they are act towards one another. First ads affect people perceptive on how to live and want to do. A quote from Kilbourne “saying that don't look like there prefect but are made from four different woman's parts”. In most to all advertisement woman look at these ads and fell insecure and try to imitate that way they look. To them an out ward appearance is a primary feature that is important to maintain “prefect” image they are going for. One of the...
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...after the manger speaks disparagingly to three teenage girls about the way they were dress. In this story the contrast is clearly shown been the conformist and non-conformists in the store. The setting takes place in a A&P grocery store in a small conservative but conventional New England town, where three teenage girls enters and disrupt the status quote, by being free spirited, individualists and go against the grain expected in the store. As pointed out by the narrator Sammy they walked up the isle in the opposite direction of traffic, not that we had one way in the store. When the girl’s entered the store, Sammy immediately notices them and focuses all his attention on them. He begins to fantasize about them, both sexually and about their lives and status in society. Not only does Sammy notices these girls but other staff members and shoppers, Sammy refers to these as “sheep’s”, everyone was disturbed by these girls. The older clerk started patting his mouth and sizing up the girls. There was an undertone of sexuality all about. The sheep’s reacted in amazement in regard the girl’s state of dress. As the tension develops, the manager, Mr. Langel, finally notices the girls state of dress and approaches them at the checkout counter. He addresses them by saying” this is not the beach” he scolds them implying there was a certain dress code and they had violated it. Sammy who feels protective and possessive of the girls forces a crisis and objects to the way the manger addresses...
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... 3 Introduction 3 Global Trend 3 Indian Trend 4 State-wise analysis 4 Sex-ratio indicators 6 Child sex ratio 6 Sex ratio at birth 7 Son preference 7 Mortality differentials 8 Social Implications 8 Brought women 9 Polyandry/abduction 9 Social fabric 10 Crime rates 10 Economic Implications 10 Labor force 11 Unorganized sector 12 Consumer Power 13 Economic status 13 Policy Constraints 14 Recommendations 15 Immediate strategy 16 Short term strategy 19 Long term strategy 20 Role of NGO’s 22 What needs to be done 24 The future 25 References 25 Abstract The rise of boy child population in India for the past twenty years parallels the experience of other Asian Countries such as China and South Korea. There were 945 girls per 1000 boys in 1991, 927 in 2001 and only 914 in 2011. India’s increasing number of rich class seems to have increased the practice of sex selection in the new technology promoted by private health sector. The new technology has aggravated the social problem of bias against girl child and continues to have caused the drastic reduction in the proportion of female children. This article focuses on appeal to government and civil society for immediate action to eliminate sex selection. The article accounts a lesson sharing experience for effective public policy responses to crisis similarly faced in the country. Introduction When a boy is born in India, friends and relatives...
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...about it. In the Monday class, some classmates motioned the discrimination between men and women in China. This is the fact that in the past days China has the serious discrimination of gender because the social background and ideology. I have to say that such discrimination still exists, not only in rural but also in big city. In the rural, some people always have the old ideology that boys can do more thing than the girls. Boys should study and work and girls only need to do the housework and get married. I'm very surprise when I talk such discrimination to my friend. Her father is from a small village where most people never go outside the village. After the family members knew my friend's mom gave birth to a daughter, they were very angry and no one likes my friend because she is a girl. The reason is that they believe that when one mom give birth to the first baby is a girl, she will not only give birth to the second baby is a girl, but also influence other members in this family--make other "moms" have a girl. Girls cannot support the family. Girls are weak in all aspects than boys. Such “son preference" let her father's family members...
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...The current emphasis on excessive thinness for women is one of the clearest examples of advertisings power to influence us. Both culturally and individually. Now I’m certainly not saying that advertising is solely to be blamed for all of these. These stereotypes exist in every aspects of our lifes but there’s no aspect more pervasive or more persuasive than advertising. Research indicates that self esteem of girls in America plummets when they reach adolescence. This doesn’t happen to boys but it does to girls. Girls tend to feel fine about themselves when they are 8, 9, 10yo. But they reach adolescence and they hit a wall. And at least part of that wall seems to be this relentless emphasis on physical perfection that starts so early for girls. You cannot diet yourself to achieve the “acceptable” body type. Ladies Home Journal Issue: What are being sold here are the readers of the ladies Home Journal who are made to feel anxious about their weight and they are being sold to the diet industry. Obsession with thinness is used not only to sell diet products but also cigarettes. Educating that they should smoke instead of eat -> a way to avoid gain weight. Business of getting children addicted to nicotine to replace thousands of people who died. Images in advertising affect the reality of our lives. There is a tremendous amount of contempt for women who don’t measure up to the advertisers’ ideal of beauty. This is particularly true for women who are overweight. Media images...
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...The reinvention of the new “Orient Woman” According to Said, “Oritentalism”, the colonial stereotype is a complex and contradictory process. It arises due to the fear of miscegenation, yet the “other” is prefigured as being simultaneously an object of fear and desire. The “other”, on one hand, a subject of suppressed, disgust and discrimination, the other, it is a dream, fantasy, obsessions and desire. Therefore, it is fair to infer that the Orient is not a property of bodies or something originally existent in human beings; rather it is the social construct. Specifically, it is the product of the society’s dominant class – the Whites, the master- narrative. Racial differences have been used as a basis for racial stereotypes, for instance the White “norm” versus Non-white people. It is clear that racial identity is marked on skin. It is undeniable that some stereotypes do/might have a basis of truth, however such stereotypes do not take into the account of differences among the Orient. It is out of fear and apprehensiveness that lead to the birth of such unjust stereotypes, the film “Memoirs of a Geisha” directed by Rob Marshall highlights the irony of the stereotypes resulting in fragmentations of identity. “Memoirs of a Geisha” (Marshall, 2005) offers an interesting twist to our typical story-telling, the women are no longer silenced, and the story is told through the voice of a woman (though written by a male...
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...Sinful Salacity We’ve all experienced it. A craving so deep that it devours our every thought throughout the day, and keeps us awake at night. Whether it is for that oh, so elusive Pumpkin Spice Latte in the off-season, or for a long, passionate kiss from that foxy quarterback, this yearning tugs at the edge of our mind until it takes over behind the wheel, and fuels our actions. It can cloud our judgment and reduce us to a state of primal licentiousness. This insatiable desire for material and corporeal consumption is known as lust. The Oxford English Dictionary itself takes several stances on the meaning of the word. The first definition is simple: “Pleasure, delight” (OED 1). This definition doesn’t accentuate the sinful connotation of the word. It describes something charming, attractive, and friendly. The next definition that the OED gives is “desire, appetite, relish, or inclination for something” (OED 2). With this definition, we are able to detect more of a connotation of a strong ache for something that, when attained, brings about a sort of ecstasy only caused by that object of lust. A more recent definition, “Sexual appetite or desire. Chiefly and now exclusively implying intense moral reprobation: Libidinous desire, degrading animal passion” (OED 4), finally associates lust with reprehensibility. It denotes specifically the sinful nature of such passion associated with the flesh, and indicates how lending ourselves to such desires debases our humanity. While a...
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