Music Excercise

So today in class when we did the music exercise (which I enjoyed), one of the songs was “California Gurls” by Katy Perry and originally I thought that she was making fun of California girls and their so called “fakeness” (fake boobs, hair – dyed blonde, fake tans, etc.) because in her music video they are first placed in a fake world – candy land where everything is fun and giggles, secondly they wear ridiculous outfits displaying various candies and treats, thirdly they use over large cupcakes, peppermints, gum drops to accentuate the boob area (almost making the point of well these are just as fake as yours, and fourthly the song is about how California girls have so much fun yet there is not one stereotypical Californian girl in the video. But now that I am thinking back what if she wasn’t making fun of the stereotypical Californian girls at all, what if she was trying to make the statement that it doesn’t matter who you are you can still have fun. I say this now because she wears different colored wigs throughout the video and even at one point you see her own hair color (which is actually brunette) making the point that you don’t have to be a blonde to have fun. Also her back round dancers are of various ethnicities not the typical skinny white girl with blonde hair and blue eyes. What if she was trying to make the point that it is ok to be different and it doesn’t matter what other people think because you can still do what you want and have fun doing it. I don’t know what you guys think about this or if you think I am looking to deep in to a pop song, but these are my thoughts and I am curious to know what yours are!

Overpriced Products

Even though women have came along way since the first days of women’s rights, we (women) still have a long way to go. Today women are extremely conscious of their appearances and this coconsciousness has not gone unnoticed. Marketers for personal products have purposely priced women’s items higher than men’s products. This is because they know that women will buy the product regardless of price, if it removes wrinkles they will buy it. Earlier this year CBS 11 News decided to put this to the test. They selected random products that are similar (such as deodorant). What they found was that women were paying more for identical products. When looking at the active ingredients list what they found was that the ingredients were identical and came in the same amounts. Companies make claims that the price increase is due to marketing women’s products cost more, the fragrance in women’s products cost more to make since it takes research, or they claim that there are a few ingredients that are included or excluded from the men’s or women’s products. To me these reasons are ridiculous, if they are the same product then how can they charge more? It is dumb that they can charge more because they know that women will buy the product regardless of price because of the claim the product makes. This is just another way women are oppressed.

The article where I found this is: http://cbs11tv.com/local/beauty.products.hygiene.2.1688202.html

Why does being different have to be so difficult?

One of the readings that I found interesting was Toward a New Vision by Patricia Hill Collins (pg 74-83). I talks about how there are different ways people are oppressed than just by sex. She constantly points out how someone’s color or race can by an oppressor. One of my favorite quotes she has from her grandmother is the one (page 79) where she is talking about how the black woman is like a mule, they do all the work and get beat no matter if they did a good job or not; but the white woman is like a dog, they get a “pat” on the head and sleep in the white man’s home. Then she ends the quote by saying that no matter how the two women are treated he doesn’t view them as a human being. He sees both women in superior to himself. I find it interesting that the black women made this observation because supposedly black women in that time period were considered incompetent to both white men and women. However, white women did not see the world this way and I wonder if it is because they were considered to be superior to black women and men. Does this superiority blind them from what is really going on? I feel like it did because there were not a lot of women’s movements in the early 1900’s and I feel like they didn’t start until black men received more rights. It was not until the point that they started to loss their superiority that they started to petition for more rights. And even after they received several rights I still feel that privileged white women feel superior to black women. For example, my grandmother grew up during the time period when women started to fight back for more rights as a citizen, but she is still extremely racist and believes that she is above any African American. When I was in grade school and one of my best friends was black and when I told my grandmother that she was completely appalled by it. I realize that we grew up in different times and things have changed a lot since then but it is interesting how people still carry prejudices with them. I wonder if there are a lot of black women and men who resent the white population just as much as my grandmother and others resent the black population. Where does this resentment even come from: is it a misinterpretation of different cultures or is it simply due to the fact that black people look different than white or is it simply that we constantly need to feel higher than the person to our right so we try to oppress them any way possible? I believe that it is the third statement that best describes why oppression even occurs. It is a lot easier to pick on someone who looks different or acts different that are in a minority. It is kind of like bullies in grade school, one kid is the bully and then he/she has his/her followers who only pick on the different kids because they don’t want to be picked on.