(no subject)
Emotional Basket-Cases Unleashed
Rachael Knight
April 3, 2004
Essay #2
I recently viewed an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” The plot line for this episode was based around the mother-in-law, Marie, sending a vacuum cleaner saleswoman to the home of her son and daughter-in-law, Ray and Deborah. Deborah told Ray they didn’t need a new vacuum, but the salesperson turned up at their doorstep as a beautiful, young woman who was flirting with Ray. Of course he ended up buying the vacuum, and when Deborah came home she was at first upset, but then awed by the amount of dirt he had cleaned from their home. She then found out Marie had sent the saleslady and went to confront her about always making her feel inadequate. An argument ensued and ended with Deborah trying to find dirt in Maries home, and couldn’t.
The first thing I noticed was that sexuality and women’s sexual prowess came into play when the saleslady was flirting with Ray. He knew his wife had said no to the vacuum cleaner, but he was completely disillusioned by this beautiful woman. The next thing you know he has bought a vacuum and is vacuuming the drapes. This scene is very odd to most of society and is portrayed as odd, because, after all, what man do you know that vacuums drapes- or anything for that matter? We are socialized through school, television, and literature to just know that cleaning is a woman’s job, and if the man is single, he usually has some form of cleaning lady (maybe his mother.)
The saleswoman who has some kind of magical affect on him, according to Simone de Beauvior (quoted by Judith Lorber) “is not born, but rather becomes, a woman…; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature… which is described as feminine.” This saleswoman is somewhat of a societal oxymoron. She takes on the business role of a man but quickly makes it acceptable by selling a cleaning item with much femininity and flirting. Personally I have always thought it weird that anyone would let some stranger into their home to sell them a cleaning device.
In Barbara Risman’s Ideology, Experience, Identity she talks of a little boy named Cody who “wants to be like his sister, plays housekeeping at daycare, and enjoys playing dress-up in his sister’s clothes.” The other children around him saw this as wrong or androgynous. She talks of how children describe their own very segregated gender roles: boys do one thing and girls do another. Anything outside those parameters is deemed as silly or confusing.
The storyline also portrays Deborah as a woman who will never live up to the perfection of her mother-in-law. Ray tries not to take sides but is found sitting on his mother’s plastic covered sofa and home free of any dust taking up for his mother. A bit of an Oedipus complex could possibly subconsciously be happening. His wife will never live up to his mother, especially in her own eyes. Deborah convinces Marie to remove the plastic slip covers. A bowl of chips is spilled and all hell breaks loose. Marie is suddenly sent into emotional fits. She is shown as the typical emotional woman.
In Hormonal Hurricanes, Anne Fausto-Sterling muses “Rather than releasing women from their monthly emotional slavery to the sex hormones, menopause involves them in new horrors.” Years ago women were seen as emotional basket cases weighed down by their raging hormones. Although new evidence in the past 20 years makes women out to be lees crazy and more human, it is a stereotype that is still a favorite of the entertainment industry. They love to make us all seem like we belong in the circus for the crazy things we say or do. They portray us as slaves to our hormones and poor, poor creatures who should be pitied for our affliction of a uterus.
The commercials show during this show catered to both men and women, but were mostly of domestic items, such as a man’s razor and the obligatory tampon commercial. It seemed most of the commercials were targeted to younger parents, and I’m guessing that is the main audience for this show. Although I watched it in a syndicated version around three in the afternoon, so I’m not sure if the commercials would be the same during the prime time airing during the week.
In this sitcom women and men play their normal socialized roles. Deborah stays at home and cares for the children. Ray is the breadwinner and an incompetent babysitter. When they venture outside of their socialized gender roles they are condemned by his parents, who are very strictly bound to their gender roles. In truth I think some of this show offers an accurate depiction of American women and their everyday roles. Deborah struggles to be the perfect housewife and live up to Marie’s example, but usually falls short. She sometimes has a job and it usually conflicts with her other gender roles: Mother, Wife, and Daughter-in-law. She shows that it is possible to live out of your prescribed role- but not without conflict or condemnation, as many women today experience.
Sources
Risman, Barbara. Ideology, Experience, Identity: The Complex Worlds of Children in Fair Families.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior.
Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender
Rachael Knight
April 3, 2004
Essay #2
I recently viewed an episode of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” The plot line for this episode was based around the mother-in-law, Marie, sending a vacuum cleaner saleswoman to the home of her son and daughter-in-law, Ray and Deborah. Deborah told Ray they didn’t need a new vacuum, but the salesperson turned up at their doorstep as a beautiful, young woman who was flirting with Ray. Of course he ended up buying the vacuum, and when Deborah came home she was at first upset, but then awed by the amount of dirt he had cleaned from their home. She then found out Marie had sent the saleslady and went to confront her about always making her feel inadequate. An argument ensued and ended with Deborah trying to find dirt in Maries home, and couldn’t.
The first thing I noticed was that sexuality and women’s sexual prowess came into play when the saleslady was flirting with Ray. He knew his wife had said no to the vacuum cleaner, but he was completely disillusioned by this beautiful woman. The next thing you know he has bought a vacuum and is vacuuming the drapes. This scene is very odd to most of society and is portrayed as odd, because, after all, what man do you know that vacuums drapes- or anything for that matter? We are socialized through school, television, and literature to just know that cleaning is a woman’s job, and if the man is single, he usually has some form of cleaning lady (maybe his mother.)
The saleswoman who has some kind of magical affect on him, according to Simone de Beauvior (quoted by Judith Lorber) “is not born, but rather becomes, a woman…; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature… which is described as feminine.” This saleswoman is somewhat of a societal oxymoron. She takes on the business role of a man but quickly makes it acceptable by selling a cleaning item with much femininity and flirting. Personally I have always thought it weird that anyone would let some stranger into their home to sell them a cleaning device.
In Barbara Risman’s Ideology, Experience, Identity she talks of a little boy named Cody who “wants to be like his sister, plays housekeeping at daycare, and enjoys playing dress-up in his sister’s clothes.” The other children around him saw this as wrong or androgynous. She talks of how children describe their own very segregated gender roles: boys do one thing and girls do another. Anything outside those parameters is deemed as silly or confusing.
The storyline also portrays Deborah as a woman who will never live up to the perfection of her mother-in-law. Ray tries not to take sides but is found sitting on his mother’s plastic covered sofa and home free of any dust taking up for his mother. A bit of an Oedipus complex could possibly subconsciously be happening. His wife will never live up to his mother, especially in her own eyes. Deborah convinces Marie to remove the plastic slip covers. A bowl of chips is spilled and all hell breaks loose. Marie is suddenly sent into emotional fits. She is shown as the typical emotional woman.
In Hormonal Hurricanes, Anne Fausto-Sterling muses “Rather than releasing women from their monthly emotional slavery to the sex hormones, menopause involves them in new horrors.” Years ago women were seen as emotional basket cases weighed down by their raging hormones. Although new evidence in the past 20 years makes women out to be lees crazy and more human, it is a stereotype that is still a favorite of the entertainment industry. They love to make us all seem like we belong in the circus for the crazy things we say or do. They portray us as slaves to our hormones and poor, poor creatures who should be pitied for our affliction of a uterus.
The commercials show during this show catered to both men and women, but were mostly of domestic items, such as a man’s razor and the obligatory tampon commercial. It seemed most of the commercials were targeted to younger parents, and I’m guessing that is the main audience for this show. Although I watched it in a syndicated version around three in the afternoon, so I’m not sure if the commercials would be the same during the prime time airing during the week.
In this sitcom women and men play their normal socialized roles. Deborah stays at home and cares for the children. Ray is the breadwinner and an incompetent babysitter. When they venture outside of their socialized gender roles they are condemned by his parents, who are very strictly bound to their gender roles. In truth I think some of this show offers an accurate depiction of American women and their everyday roles. Deborah struggles to be the perfect housewife and live up to Marie’s example, but usually falls short. She sometimes has a job and it usually conflicts with her other gender roles: Mother, Wife, and Daughter-in-law. She shows that it is possible to live out of your prescribed role- but not without conflict or condemnation, as many women today experience.
Sources
Risman, Barbara. Ideology, Experience, Identity: The Complex Worlds of Children in Fair Families.
Fausto-Sterling, Anne. Hormonal Hurricanes: Menstruation, Menopause, and Female Behavior.
Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender