Femininity

I chose all of these artifacts for various reasons: the innocence, fragility, neediness, and the roles women play in tasks and relationships. The readings for the week had been: “Can Women Have Sex Like a Man?”: Sexual Scripts in Sex and the City, Pixel Pinups: Images of women in Video Games, and Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Selling of Charlie’s Angels and Alias. The first artifact is a Calvin Klein advertisement for their Euphoria fragrance; the second artifact is the Vampire Diaries trailer; the third artifact is the video game promotion for Dreamfall: the Longest Journey; the fourth artifact is the Valentine’s Day trailer; and the last artifact is the Yesterday music video with Toni Braxton and Trey Songz.
When examining the first artifact, one can see that the model is white, thin, and beautiful. She appears to be wearing a bed sheet and is holding an orchid. The name of the orchid flower is derived from the Greek word orchis, meaning testicle. Euphoria means a feeling of happiness, confidence, or well-being sometimes exaggerated in pathological states as mania. The image in this advertisement illustrates the woman as one in a state of euphoria holding onto the purple bedsheet while holding a flower named after the male testicle. In the Sex and the City article, it states, “Women’s fashion magazines proffer specifically feminine roles with the implicit assumption that women need and want instruction on the skills necessary to successfully perform these roles. They offer an exclusionary construction of feminine identity: young, white, beautiful, thin, and heterosexual.” This is what people constantly see being portrayed of women. The Calvin Klein ad is a perfect example.
The trailers for Vampire Diaries and Valentine’s Day also promote this idea. The main female roles displayed in these trailers are all “young, white, beautiful, thin, and heterosexual.” In the Vampire Diaries trailer, it also shows women to be weak in that they “need to be saved or protected.” The women portrayed in this trailer are quiet, afraid, and only speak when they are calling out for help or out of fear. The only other times they were vocalized was in their thoughts and when they were being flirtatious. In Valentine’s Day, the trailer displays women as these needy, provocative creatures that need to have a male counterpart to feel complete. The expression on Jessica Alba’s face when she has to correct her statement of “Room for two.” to “Room for one and a dog.” encapsulates this idea that women need to have a man in their life and to be single on Valentine’s Day is essentially wrong. “Television provides a cultural forum through which viewers can learn about their social selves. It can also be influential in identity construction.” This movie trailer dictates a heterosexual life that women are supposed to lead as well as connoting this dependency women should have with men.
In the third artifact, the game shows a variety of female characters. Although, one of the heroes is a woman, the character that needs to be saved is also a woman. It, also, displays a woman embraced with a child and again with a man. These embraces signify “motherly” affection and heterosexual intimacy, respectfully. There is also a moment where affection with a crow is displayed to allude to this connection and empathy with nature and animals. Women were also displayed as maids and receptionists.
The last artifact similar to the Valentine’s Day trailer exhibits women as in need of male affection. In the music video infidelity arose and she is quickly shown with a new male companion. This alludes to the need for women to constantly be in a heterosexual relationship with the desire for dependency rather than finding independence and solace in being alone.