How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days
Media has a big influence in how gender is socially constructed. For example, in the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days Andie bets that she can lose a guy by acting needy while Benjamin bets that he can win any girl’s heart. This movie gives misleading messages to an audience of young adult women into believing that there has to be a certain way in how they should behave. By examining the presentation of gender in the scenes from the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, this essay will explore how the media impacts gender messages, which negatively affects the audience in the end.
To start, many women are controlled by gendered ideologies in the workforce. Andie Anderson, played by Kate Hudson, gets undervalued in the type of work that she does. Andie, a journalist for a women magazine called Composure, had to settle with writing how-to articles on girly things such as clothes and makeup. This is disappointing considering the fact that she went to grad school. She wanted to write about interesting things like politics, but the magazine did not want anything to do with it because it was not about what women are into. Having the capabilities of writing something powerful like politics, but settling for stereotypical writing suggests to the audience that women are still oppressed in gaining opportunities to be respected in the job industry. In the article, “Sex Segregation in the U.S. Labor Force” Christine Bose and Rachel Whaley pointed out that jobs are gendered where women are forced into lower skilled jobs where many women felt that these types of jobs “did not allow them to utilize all their skills and felt they were overeducated to receive these lower skilled jobs” (Bose and Whaley 200). This article as well as the scene in the movie gives the impression that women cannot speak up for what they believe in and would rather just give in when they are shut down from opportunities.
Next, this movie punishes those that do not abide to the gender norms. This can be
To start, many women are controlled by gendered ideologies in the workforce. Andie Anderson, played by Kate Hudson, gets undervalued in the type of work that she does. Andie, a journalist for a women magazine called Composure, had to settle with writing how-to articles on girly things such as clothes and makeup. This is disappointing considering the fact that she went to grad school. She wanted to write about interesting things like politics, but the magazine did not want anything to do with it because it was not about what women are into. Having the capabilities of writing something powerful like politics, but settling for stereotypical writing suggests to the audience that women are still oppressed in gaining opportunities to be respected in the job industry. In the article, “Sex Segregation in the U.S. Labor Force” Christine Bose and Rachel Whaley pointed out that jobs are gendered where women are forced into lower skilled jobs where many women felt that these types of jobs “did not allow them to utilize all their skills and felt they were overeducated to receive these lower skilled jobs” (Bose and Whaley 200). This article as well as the scene in the movie gives the impression that women cannot speak up for what they believe in and would rather just give in when they are shut down from opportunities.
Next, this movie punishes those that do not abide to the gender norms. This can be
Cited: Bose, Christine and Whaley, Rachel. “Sex Segregation in the U.S. Labor Force.” Feminist Frontiers, 9th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print. Connell, R.W. “Masculinities and Globalization.” Feminist Frontiers, 9th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print. Thompson, Becky. “A Way Outa No Way.” Feminist Frontiers, 9th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2011. Print.