Vintage Sexism

This cartoon comes from a book called "Im Glad Im a Boy! Im Glad Im a Girl!" It was published in the 1950's. It was a children's book that many parents bought for their children to model the gender roles that they wanted their kids to follow. This is an example of the obvious stereotypical gender roles of the early 19th century. First of all this cartoon is a good explanation of gender role stereotypes that are still around today. Women still are expected to cook and men still are expected to eat. This is a stereotype that has been around since "the housewife" became a role that many women felt that they had to live up to. The fact that this was shown to kids for kids to model after is ridiculous. I thought that this cartoon was important because it shows an example of what started this kind of thinking in the first place. When they showed this to little kids it became a belief of theirs and then passed this belief onto their children, which created the role of women in society as housewife and unselfish caretaker. This is a key factor to the way that women are portrayed today. The one positive thing that i can say about this cartoon is it does also show how much progress women have made in gaining respect from other people. The part of the cartoon about how boys invent, and girls use is not related to our society today. Many women are now known for inventing and creating many important things that are used in our everyday lives. Altogether I wanted to show people this cartoon to show the origin of where many of these beliefs came from, and how they have changed in a positive way. Also just to share how completely shocked I was by it.

Eminem's Racist Lyrics

These lyrics are pretty self explainatory:


Well foolish pride has alot of things to say
You got foolish pride, you got tooth decay
But tooth decay is another
let's take this old foolish pride and solve it
Now, when I talk about foolish prideI mean blacks & whites taking different sides
When blacks and whites take different sides
Unity never happens, and we will subside
We will subside and hatred will release
And everything will just crush that peace
Well, when we crush that peace, we start hatin' each other
But remember, you are my brother, and you are my sister
Just like I'm a mister
I seen a black girlfriend and I kissed her
I kissed her ; I placed it on her cheek
And she didn't come back til next week


Now it was next week and she was back again
Wanting to kiss a white kid
So she was my girlfriend, we started going out
But that's okay because we were Black and white
Blacks and whites they sometimes mix
But Black girls only want your money cause they're dumb chicks
So I'ma say like this
Don't date a Black girl, take it as a diss
If you want, but if you don't
I'ma tell you like this, I surely won't
Never date a Black girl because Blacks only want your money
And that shit aint funny

So I'ma say look honey
Why do you do this?
You know, you step up to me like you a Brutus
Then you try to grab my spinach
Because its green and that's cash
So get outta here, 'cause I don't need your ass
I said that before, but that's okay because like I said you're a whoreBlack girls and white girls just don't mix
Because Black girls are dumb and white girls are good chicks
White girls are good ;
I like white girlsI like white girls all over the world
White girls are fine and they blow my mind
And that's why I'm here now telling you this rhyme'
Cause Black girls, I really don't like
We don't mix, it's like riding a bike
When you're peddling hard, uphill both ways
You know it's kinda hard and that's why I say to you
I'm giving you a little advice
Don't date a Black girl, if you do it once you won't do it twice
You won't ever do it again because they'll take your money
And that aint funny
So I'ma say look honeyI thought I said that before
But like I said again you're nothing but a big whore
So when mike catch on the bass line
That's okay ‘cause we will not just waste time


I'll get straight to the point
Black girls are bitches, that's why I'ma tell ya you better pull up your britches
‘Cause all that cash is making your ass drag
From the boyfriend ya ganked and that's pretty bad
I mean that's pretty sad when ya dating a Black guy
And then you turn around and fuck another big, Black guy
Now that's pretty wrong, but you're just ganking
But that's okay because you need a goddamn spanking
From me, the funky Eminem
I'm busting rhymes and I'm swallowing phlegm
I'm busting a freestyle just like this
I say swallowing phlegm and Howard gets pissed
But when Howard gets pissed that's okay
Because he leaves and he doesn't show up for two more days
So I'll just worry about that problem when I come to itI cross that bridge when I come to it

Because, I forgot the chorus
But that's okay 'cause y'all saying bust a rhyme for us
So I'ma bust another rhyme about this Black girl
She turned out to be a fuckin' wack girl
A wack girl, because Black girls ain't funny
All they want is your godamn money
They take you for everything you got
And then you stand with a bunch of snot in your hand
So I'ma kick it to you just like this
How does the chorus go, I forgot
But that's okay, 'cause I'ma tell you in stride
I'ma say oh foolish pride.



This is a song that was recorded by Eminem in 1993. This has many obvious examples of racism against black women in it. This really shows how racism in music and media has changed in the past sixteen years. First and foremost this song was just completely inappropriate in the racist comments it had on black women. It was completely offensive and shouldve never been recorded. A song like this unfourtantely may still be recorded these days, but would never be popular and most definitely have a lawsuit against the artist that produced it. There was a lawsuit filed against Eminem for this song but it was eventually dropped. This would not be accepted in 2009, which shows the strides in censoring (which sometimes is positive) against racist music, and ridiculous racist beliefs. It also shows the amount of racist beliefs in media dwindling. I personally believe that these songs should never be created in the first place, but realistically they are so its nice to see where America has improved with it. I think the ultimate question that songs like these bring up is where is the line drawn for censoring? When is it appropriate to tell someone what they can and cannot say in a song? I believe this song was definitely something that needed to be censored, and taken off the air if it ever was there.

Testing American's Tolerance

ABC News tested America's openmindness on the show "What Would You Do?". The concept of this episode was to stage a gay couple in a sports bar and see how others in the bar reacted. They also staged a straight couple that acted the same exact way as the gay couple did at the opposite end of the bar. Finally they added a staged observer who acted as though he was extremely disturbed by the gay couple, to see if others in the bar agreed with him or went against him. In the first experiment the couple is not very affectionate at all, and when the actor stands up and protests against them being there, he literally gets told to leave the bar by others sitting at the bar and no one agrees with the harsh comments hes saying. Next they have the actor use comedy as a way to protest against the gay couple and still, no one agrees with him and pretty much tells him to shut up. They then told the gay couple to be more affectionate and see if that changed people's reaction. They also told the straight couple to act as though they were disturbed by the gay couple to see if people went along with it. When the couple got more affectionate, one man seemed to go along with the straight couple and make comments about how disgusting that was, but when the actor got up and actually said something loudly enough for others to hear about it the man did not speak up with him. Also when the cameras came back and interviewed the man he said that he had no problem with it, completey contradicting the comments that he made previously about how disgusting it was. I think the fact that this aired on ABC is a great step for tolerance of gay and lesbian relationships in society. This show proved a couple different things about the way that society works. First of all it proved that many people voice their homophobic opinons in private, but will not express them to everyone because being seeing as homophobic in America today is a negative characteristic. The one man that voiced his supposed homophobia to the entire bar got told to shut up and leave the bar. The other man who obvioulsy had homophobic beliefs said nothing about them when the cameras were on. This leads to a deeper point that this show proved, which is the shift in how homophobia is viewed. Thirty years ago it was the obvious choice to be homophobic, and these relationships were never accepted. Now its a negative thing to have homophobic beliefs, or at least to offend other people by them. This shows the great improvement in the way that society accepts other people, wether they agree with their ways or not. Those people that sat in the bar and argued with the actor who made harsh comments may not have believed being gay was the right thing to do, but they did believe that they should be able to do what they want as long as they didnt get too affectionate. Thats a fine line that seems to be created for gay and lesbian couples but a line thats dwindling every day. I think this show is also positive because it shows people with homophobic beliefs, that although they may not agree with it they can still let people do what they chose to do as long as their not hurting anyone. Altogether homophobia will always be an issue, mostly because of religion but I think this episode showed much improvement in the acceptance of gay couples in society.

Observe and Report-Offensive Trailer

When I was at the movies a couple weeks ago I saw a trailer for the new movie Observe and Report that actually just came out on Friday. This trailer honestly just pissed me off. I think whoever looks at this trailer and laughs, is not really paying attention to what their watching. The concept is that their was a flasher running around the parking lot of the mall and the "dumb blonde girl" got extremely offended by it and reported it to mall security. Seth Rogen is the head security guard and is supposedly on a mission to find out who was running around flashing people. The first thing I noticed while watching this trailer was the stereotype of the "dumb blonde". The blonde character is over the top ditzy and doesnt seem to be able to complete one single intelligent sentence in the trailer. The idea of the man being the hero and saving the dumb girl, is also the main point of the movie. I understand that the character is supposed to make people laugh and be funny, but at this point it's old and I dont think anyone should be laughing anymore. Movies like this are the reason why the stereotype of a "dumb blonde" came about anyways. Its making women look stupid at the expense of entertainment and making money. Women are not benefiting from this though, besides the woman actor in the movie who is making money off of it. This just puts the idea in people's heads about women being stupid, and needing to be saved by a man, wether its supposed to be a comedy or not. The most offensive part about this trailer was the end scene where the character played by Anna Farris named Brandi was obviously heavily intoxicated and went home with the character played by Seth Rogen named Ronnie. The scene is basically Ronnie having sex with what looks to be an unconcious Brandi. She looks as though she was either sleeping or passed out. Pretty much the scene looked like the scene of a date rape, which is just obvioulsy offensive to anyone who has had an experience with sexual assualt or any woman in general. As though to make the situation seem less offensive, they have Brandi wake up and ask why he stopped. She was grumbling this, obviously not in the mind state to make any responsible decisions about what she was doing. The average statistic is one out of every six women have been a victim of attempted or completed rape in their lifetime, so this commercial would most likely be offensive to at least one out of every six women. The fact that this was not considered when the trailer was made is ridiculous, and shows that media would rather exploit women in order to make money rather than consider the way these women might actually feel about it. I feel like because an incident like this was put into a comedy, people might then think its okay or maybe even funny. I think thats a problem because its not funny, and is a real problem in our society. I could get over the idea of the dumb blonde stereotype being funny, date rape being funny? Not so much.

Baby got back used to advertise kids meals?

The way that the media advertises towards children is bound to be offensive in one way or another these days, but when I saw this commercial I was in shock. The concept of the commercial is based off of the cartoon character spongebob squarepants and the fact that you get a spongebob squarepants toy with your kids meal. This is supposed to attract children's attention. This aspect of the commercial makes sense. Its an obvious choice to use cartoon characters as an advertisement tool towards children. The song choice however was completely wrong. Six year old children do not need to be walking around singing "I like square butts and I cannot lie." That song is completely inappropriate for children to be associating with, or associating their favorite cartoon character with. The major aspect of this commercial that was particularly offensive to me was the fact that the main attraction was women shaking their butts. I understand the concept of the square butts with spongebob squarepants, but why did the commercial have to make this connection using women shaking their butts? First of all women are already degraded enough, and noticed particularly for their bodies and now this is carried over to children's commercials as well. Rather than having the women wear square pants, they have them in booty shorts dancing around. This is bound to create certain unfourtanate ideas about women in children's heads. Women are the one that are being used in this commercial to attract people to this 99 cents kids meal, but they are not the ones that benefit from it. Ultimately the beneficiary of this commercial would be Burger King's business. This commercial will attract children because of the spongebob squarepants concept and adults because of the women dancing. I think its unfourtanate that this concept was even considered let alone used as a children's kids meal commercial.

Racist Cartoon?

I first saw this cartoon on a news report a few weeks ago. I was obviously shocked by what I saw. It was posted in the New York Post newspaper February 18, 2009. The fact that something so obviously racist was posted in an American newspaper is completely rediculous, and unbelievable. Historically, African Americans have been referred to as monkeys as a racial attack or slur. It seems that this cartoon is comparing the newly elected president Barack Obama to a monkey. This is proven by the quote above the cartoon "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bil." This obviously is referring to the president since he would be the person that is writing the new stimulus bill. The cartoon is especially offensive since Barack Obama is of African American ethnicity. The fact that this cartoon was allowed to be published and distributed to the american people shows that racist ideas are not completely banned out of society. Although where we live these ideas seem completely rediculous, there are still some people with those racist ideas out there. The New York Post has defended this cartoon and said that the cartoon was a parody of a current news event, referring to the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. Most people are not buying this explaination though. The New York Post should have known that any cartoon that leaves room for interpretation about violence and race is bound to be critcized. Personally I think this cartoon is insulting, racist and flat out wrong.

Banned New Yorker Commercial

I came across this video on YouTube. It's a commercial for a clothing company called New Yorker that was banned from television, for a good reason. The first thing that I noticed about this commercial was the stereotype that many women get as "gold diggers". It shows the woman in the commercial marrying a man that is obviously much older than her. The end of the commercial also shows that her point of marrying him was for him to die, and then her recieve the benefits. This shows that women are greedy, and use their good looks and bodies to get married for the wrong reasons. Another thing that I noticed about the commercial was the scene where she's in the bathroom and the old man is watching her dance around in a bra and underwear. He stares at her for long enough and gets "knocked out" by the way shes dancing and what shes wearing. This shows the woman using her sexuality to get what she wants, which in this case is for the old man to die and for her to get his assests. This commercial was banned because of these sexist stereotypes.