All right guys, I am sure we all watched the Beyonce Bowl this past Sunday. Football game? Psshaw, who cares about the Ravens or the 49ers? I think that we can all agree, Beyonce was the true winner of the Super Bowl. In this day and age, having a post about Beyonce less than a week after the Super Bowl is still too late to really be a part of the cultural zeitgeist, but whatever. Let's be real, Beyonce is never culturally irrelevant.
To start with, I am an RA in an all women's residence hall. So after the Super Bowl I asked like all of my residents about how they felt about Beyonce's performance (I was still on a super Beyonce high at that point), and obviously they all loved it (which is a good thing because I love all my residents dearly and it would be heartbreaking to have to disown one for not loving Beyonce). But what was interesting was that during our conversation they were struggling to find the word "power" and instead repeatedly came up with "masculine." They knew that "masculine" wasn't the word they were looking for, but at the same time power wasn't something that immediately came to mind.
Both Prudence Carter and C. J. Pascoe discuss masculinity in their writings. About how masculinity is associated with dominance and power. And how for males, the idea of not being masculine is almost a sign of weakness. For females it is a different case. Showing typical traits associated with masculinity don't make a female weak, and Carter even mentions that females aren't supposed to seem to "soft" (that is, feminine) either.
So why is femininity such a sign of weakness? Why is power and dominance attached to masculinity while weakness and submissiveness attached to femininity? And why is it that those sometimes less desirable traits are the traits that are traditionally forced upon the women of society?
That's what I like about Beyonce though. She is somebody who is very classically beautiful, hot, and feminine but at the same time she exudes power and dominance. She has obvious sex appeal but at the same time, it seems that her appeal is less for pleasing men and provocation, than it is a conscious display of power over her own image.
I feel like I got a little lost with some of my last statements, but I think it mostly makes sense. Whatever, chalk it up to writing at 2:00AM. Not sure what I am going to write about next, but I am guessing it is going to be some women in pop culture. But there is a possibility that something in Pascoe's book will inspire me to do something this week. I will leave you with this:
Articles Referenced:
Carter, P. "Between a 'Soft' and a 'Hard' Place: Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture in the School and at Home"
Pascoe, C.J. Dude, You're a Fag
Both Prudence Carter and C. J. Pascoe discuss masculinity in their writings. About how masculinity is associated with dominance and power. And how for males, the idea of not being masculine is almost a sign of weakness. For females it is a different case. Showing typical traits associated with masculinity don't make a female weak, and Carter even mentions that females aren't supposed to seem to "soft" (that is, feminine) either.
So why is femininity such a sign of weakness? Why is power and dominance attached to masculinity while weakness and submissiveness attached to femininity? And why is it that those sometimes less desirable traits are the traits that are traditionally forced upon the women of society?
That's what I like about Beyonce though. She is somebody who is very classically beautiful, hot, and feminine but at the same time she exudes power and dominance. She has obvious sex appeal but at the same time, it seems that her appeal is less for pleasing men and provocation, than it is a conscious display of power over her own image.
I feel like I got a little lost with some of my last statements, but I think it mostly makes sense. Whatever, chalk it up to writing at 2:00AM. Not sure what I am going to write about next, but I am guessing it is going to be some women in pop culture. But there is a possibility that something in Pascoe's book will inspire me to do something this week. I will leave you with this:
Articles Referenced:
Carter, P. "Between a 'Soft' and a 'Hard' Place: Gender, Ethnicity, and Culture in the School and at Home"
Pascoe, C.J. Dude, You're a Fag
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