I thought of this poster during our class discussion today. I first saw it at my friend's house (it's on her bathroom wall). I wanted to reference it in class, but I didn't have enough of it memorized to do a good job, so I'm glad we have this blog.
I find reading this poster really moving, even cathartic. I think it does a good job of illustrating Woolf's argument about androgyny in contemporary terms. The E-Z-Bake Oven line evokes de Beauvoir's allusion to achieving fulfillment from homemaking-- for boys and for girls, just not for all of them.
I found the poster on CrimethInc., an anarchist website/collective. You can buy a print there, too.
Great reference, truly exhibiting Woolf's concept of androgany, asyou stated. Yes, woman throughout history have held less power than men, but I think it is important to remember that men also suffer the restrictions of gender roles.
ReplyDeleteI think this poster is really reminiscent of what Woolf spoke of in "A Room of One's Own." A lot of the time, when people think of feminism and feminist notions, they speak only of society's limiting views of women (e.g. the doting housewife, etc.). However, I believe this focus on restructuring views of women neglects the limiting roles that men are faced with. Even today, when we spoke about how the women were being portrayed in the high fashion ads, we spoke of how an ad could portray women as the stronger counterpart by having her the focus of an ad with both a male and female model.
ReplyDeleteFeminism as a means to restructure limiting views of women in society is laudable, but I do not think it should be at the expense of men. Instead, I think that a partnership of gender is a hopeful aim, where, as this poster portrays, men don't have to feel emasculated expressing vulnerable sentiments and women do not have to feel wrong in their pursuits of seemingly masculine endeavors.
I'd also question the rigid categorical construction of the poster. Woolf talks about how the androgynous mind is "porous." This poster, however, seems to uphold rigid gender categories. Heck, men and women are even written about in different colors here. What are we to make of that in light of Woolf's insistence that the genius mind can shift seamlessly back and forth between male and female?
ReplyDeleteThe poster overall kind've scares me but I can definitely see what they're getting at and I think the perspective is really interesting. Way to many posters just focus on the female side of things and don't delve into an unbiased view of gender equality. This poster seems to look at the issue in a way that both men and women can understand and does channel Woolfs argument about Women being defined in relation to men.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting here is that the poster shows how not only does this hurt women but it also hurts men. Women can't be defined as fragile if men aren't defined as strong. Therefore, men must purvey themselves as strong in order to define women as society dictates. In the end, it seems like it just hurts everyone
This poster also reminds me of this book I read when I was younger about gender issues, and the labels "tomboy" and "mama's boy." "Mama's Boy," I think, has a much worse connotation. Reading the poster, I feel like when men sort of deviate from the expected norm of being strong, athletic, etc., there is a much worse stigma attached than if a girl were to throw out her E-Z Bake oven. To me it seems that, in modern social context, the idea of a male acting feminine is degrading, but for a girl to act masculine is not so bad.
ReplyDeleteProfessor Fisher: The sexes aren't written about in different colors, the sentences just alternate between pink and black. Make what you will out of the choice of colors, but both a girl and a boy are in every sentence, which to me implies that gendered colors are just as arbitrarily chosen as gender characteristics.
ReplyDeleteWhat I can't figure out in Woolf is whether or not she thinks masculinity and femininity are inherent, or if they're just made up.
Nick: Haha. I don't think the poster is supposed to be scary. In fact, you're supposed to find it liberating. So, why don't you? Are you not afraid to cry?
I think this poster simply reflects how men and women are seen as polar opposites, almost foils of each other, based on the way they are compared. It's almost as if what a man can/should do, a woman can't/shouldn't, based on some completely narrow-minded societal standards. However, it brings the whole "androgynous mind" into perspective well - how can one human be able to balance their male and female psyches while having to second-guess if their actions aren't masculine or feminine enough for those surrounding them?
ReplyDeleteHonestly, people should just do what they want to do regardless of what others are going to say. Without anyone standing out and bringing something new to the table by defying social norms, society would just turn into a big circle of the same boring mess. Be your own person and don't let society dehumanize your mind.
Mainly I just really like football and thought that all guys thought the same way haha
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of something that was a big issue in my high school years. When I was a sophomore in high school, I had made the varsity cheerleading team and a boy in my class, whom I know to this day to be completely heterosexual, wanted to join the team as well. Unfortunately, he did not make it past the first practice for tryouts because people in the school made such a big deal that a "boy" was trying out for cheerleading. He was actually an amazing cheerleader. He knew how to do a back tuck like no girl I knew - It is proved that its actually easier for guys to do tumbling(flips/gymnastics) than girls because of their weight concentration on the upper body rather than the lower. People, guys in particular, and even some girls, deemed this boy as homosexual because societal acceptance was that cheerleaders had to be girls and it was not normal for a "straight" guy to want to be a part of a sport meant for girls.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, things changed as I went on to college. Football players are now on cheerleading teams in order to train for their seasons because of the weight training they receive from lifting girls in the air. But it makes you think, can we limit genders to certain things? Such as football, if a woman wanted to try out for the NFL, why wouldn't that be acceptable... or would it?
While I think that this poster accurately states certain societal views on gender differences, I don't think that it relates to the androgyny that Woolf refers to. The androgynous mindset is not a state of being A and wishing for B, nor is it about possessing aspects of both A and B and feeling conflicted over it. It is about finding C, the complete and perfect fusion of A and B, and becoming an entirely separate intellectual being. It simply does not work to say that one must write/think/act/interact with the confidence of a man and the compassion of a woman. Instead, I think Woolf describes a mindset unrelated to gender altogether, one that places emphasis on the human and not the sex, and it can therefore be called androgynous, asexual, and other. If I could rename the term, I would call it Enlightened rather than Androgynous, but that's just me...
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