Friday, September 14, 2007
What can MSN tell us about relationships?
We've been talking in class about the social construction of gender. I have argued that a lot of what we think are real differences between men and women are just socially prescribed behaviors. This does not mean, however, that these constructions don't have consequences. Read The Happy Feminist's post on MSN's dating advice and then read Punkass Blog's post. They are both angry about MSN's advice. In class I argued that social constructions exist because they benefit someone. They are attached to power, giving some people more power than others. How could we critically read MSN's dating advice. What's going on beneath the surface here. How can dating advice be connected to power?
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3 comments:
I believe that these types of articles on " How to be the perfect mate" do hold a tremendous amount of power. Generally, men don't point to much time into reading them, but women do. If a woman was to read that she would need to x, y and z to get a man, there are women so desperate for affection or commitment that they would put their self worth at stake to secure "the perfect boyfriend". Quite frankly, I don't put a bit of worth in articles such as these and the feminist article links give me great faith that women are starting to realize what hogwash dating columns are.
Dating “rules” come from an egocentric person. So, yes that’s connected to power. The trouble with that kind of power is that it’s arrogant entitlement. I call that personal power, only one-side benefits. Women crave power also, but women often believe that power is found in a man. To me that’s a distorted sense of significance, that’s were we lose self-control and fall for that crap (those dating “rules”).
I think that reading articles like this are just stupid personally. If finding someone was as easy asy a b and c, more people in the world be a lot happier. The truth is, people are very different in every way. I can understand a list of things for the rules of dating. But a list o find the perfect mate, ridiculous. The main point people forget is that by reading magazines like this, they are trying to become something else entirely. What i have learned is that being yourself is generally the most important, if you cant find someone who cares about you are fo, then most cases would point to no, its not going to work out.
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