Friday, March 30, 2012

Gender Code


Gender Code is a documentary film that explores the way the body is presented in the media through advertising. It looks beyond the “norms” about masculinity and femininity that is communicated to society. The film covers the importance of gender, power, and how it is reproduced and reinforced by the culture.  This film takes modern advertisement mainly focusing on the poses of models.

Males and females are governed by codes and rules that have been submerged into our culture for many years, the way we walk, our body postures, our emotions, and our sense of normal. The film enforces that the culture has entirely constructed, assigned, and taught these gender roles. Because these codes are reinforced it brings up the films arguments of, “There is nothing natural about gender identity” (Goffman).

The film covers how society photography is controlled. Men are placed in more powerful positions and women are placed in more subjected positions. Using familiar model’s stances like the bent-knee or contorted torso, to an array of different physical cues, and neck-bends. Also, the film placed men in female poses which I found interesting because they looked silly like it was a joke. 

This film relates to the course work in many ways. It challenges society’s social norms and show us a new path. It helps broaden the spectrum in which masculinity and femininity is formed. My friend found that the men in the more feminine poses weren’t weird to him. He asked if he should be concerned about this as if he it made him question his masculinity. He said that seeing these females and males in the same poses isn’t weird because it’s art/ just a photo. I found that interesting but I have always felt female models poses are weird and when seeing a male in these poses it really through me off. This film really broadened my views of advertisement within our culture. 

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