I Map

Writing Plan

Introduction (10% word count)
Talk about the bounty Advert.
Ask the question Are the characters prove that sexism today because men play them?

Main body (80% word count)
Discuss cross-dressing and the way men who do that are perceived.
Look at why men and women cross dress.
Explore the different gender roles, and expectations society has of men and women,
Find out if sexism is a big part of life today

Conclusion  (10% word count)
Determine whether there is enough evidence to show the character on Audrey and Brenda are played by men as a result of sexism

Study Diary

What did I learn?
I learnt a lot about doing research. Before this course I hadn’t done a great deal of written work, but I now know it’s important to back up your arguments with quotes. In hindsight I would have gone deeper

What did I enjoy? I enjoyed researching I especially enjoyed looking into sexism, out of everything I researched, that topic was less trivial

What was hard? I found many aspects hard about this blog I constantly hit brick walls by not knowing where to take my research. Knowing I had to do 3-4 blogs a week for 3 weeks made me want to slow down my research and not give it all way in the first few posts, but in hindsight, and with recently having the opportunity to look at other peoples blogs, I see that my research could have gone deeper. Also when I looked for books in the library the majority of the books I wanted were not there. So I found similar Internet research, but that doesn’t compare to real books.

What was boring? What I found boring was the constraints of doing a 3-4 blogs a week for 3 weeks, because it was something I had to do every other day or so, I wasn’t sure how often I should research and how much I should research.

Research Findings

I chose to research and analyse all aspects of the Bounty Advert: carry on cleaning.
Some interesting references I found within the Advert was the first most obviously being carry on film, where the advert takes place in a scene in the Carry on Loving. Which then both the film and the Advert simulate a similar scene from the Laurel and Hardy film The Battle of the Century. Also the two main characters Audrey and Brenda are two very obvious men wearing dresses, which draws comparisons to the ugly in Cinderella.
Something, which interested me, was the notion of there being a link between Audrey and Brenda being housewives cleaning up the mess and being played my men. I never entirely thought the Advert was sexist but I did think that past and present sexism played a part in the choosing of men to play the parts of the two housewives. From what I have looked at I conclude that if the two housewives were real women, it would be echoing the roles women had in the early twentieth century, which was a time when women had less choice. The decision to have men play the housewives was made not to appear sexist, which then proves the fact that sexism is present today or else to wouldn’t be a touchy subject.

References

http://www.rushes.co.uk/?#/148  09/11/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carry_On_(film_series)  09/11/09

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2151/2479991602_a4ebfc66cf.jpg  09/11/09

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-slapstick.html  09/11/09

http://www.newslite.tv/2008/08/01/the-worlds-oldest-fart-joke-an.html  09/11/09

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT2lsKHWd08  09/11/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing  09/11/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_hallhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_hall  09/11/09

http://www.womenofbrighton.co.uk/vestatilley.htm  09/11/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing  09/11/09

http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/article/node/1218  09/11/09

http://starsmedia.ign.com/stars/image/article/838/838351/denise-bryson-20071128001847791-000.jpg  09/11/09

http://www.dragqueen.org.uk/drag%20queen.jpg 09/11/09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime  09/11/09

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23427564-cinderella-fails-to-press-the-right-buttons.do  09/11/09

http://www.visit4info.com/advert/Brendas-Bounty-Changes-to-Plenty-Bounty-Kitchen-Paper/69968  09/11/09

The book is Good House Keeping’s Picture Cookery, published 1950, page 204

Media, gender and identity an introduction David Gauntlett, routledge, 2002, page 50

Media, gender and identity an introduction David Gauntlett, page 63-64

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/may/19/oven-pride-sexist-to-men  09/11/09

Sexism

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2009/may/19/oven-pride-sexist-to-men

Whilst exploring sexism and the media I discovered an advert for a cleaning product that seems to be very sexist towards men, I consider myself to hold feminist views, which mean supporting gender equality and not putting men down, so I personally don’t approve of this advert, but if in this advert the genders were reversed, I’d imagine Ofcom would have a record number of complaints ‘So easy a woman can do it’.
Is the fact that this is a man being put down, and not a woman, shows that women are still unequal, if the advert consisted of a man patronising a woman, I am confident in saying that the public would be outraged.
Does this mean that open sexism aimed at women is worse because women are more often victims of sexism and it’s a touchy subject to joke about? Where as man aren’t as often limited by the gender they were born, so sexism aimed at men is a novelty. If so that would suggest we still live in an equal society.
If two women had played Audrey and Brenda, the advert would take on a different perspective, it would feel like old ideals had come back to haunt us women.

women’s Roles today

I would like to find out more about what society expects of women today, in the home, and in the media. Around the time of the 1950s women where expected to become dutiful housewives. Today women have more choice but there still seems to be more available for men.
Media, gender and identity an introduction David Gauntlett, page 63-64
“In the UK, the BBC’s coverage of the 2001 general election was led from the studio by authoritative, middle – aged white men (Dimbleby, Paxman, Snow) who handled the serious politics and statistics, whilst the one main female (Fiona Bruce) had the job of talking to ‘ordinary people’. Even the comic take on current affairs in have I got news for you usually stars either one female face, or none at all, out of five. The same is typical in the other ‘comedy quiz’ shows, whether about sports, pop music or TV itself.”

Women’s Role in the 1940′s

I’d like to look more into the roles of Audrey and Brenda in the advert.
It seem as though they are a parody of the traditional house wife of the early twentieth century,
In the book Media, gender and identity an introduction David Gauntlett, routledge, 2002, page 50 I found this paragraph
“All the magazines were echoing Farnham and Lundberg’s Modern Woman: The Lost Sex, which came out in 1942, with its warning that careers and higher education were leading to the ‘masculinisation of women with enormously dangerous consequences to the home, the children dependent on it and the ability of the woman, as well as her husband, to obtain sexual gratification.”
This is a indication of the mind set of the general public views of women in 1942, women should be at home cooking, cleaning, and looking after the kids, and they should have their husband’s dinner ready on the table when they get back.

Audrey and Brenda are parodying early to mid twentieth century house wife’s by cleaning up the mess, but although the characters are played by men and not women, is the a sign that the way women are view in socially today has moved on?

House wives

This is an image I got from a cookery book I had at home.
The book is Good House Keeping’s Picture Cookery, published 1950, page 204
The book is old and it has a lot of adverts at the back, this advert is for a product that clears ovens, the advert it clearly aimed at women and in particular house wives, you wouldn’t catch a man on his hands and knees scrubbing the oven. From what I and see the fictional characters Audrey and Brenda are imitating the idea of what a house wife should be like in the early part of the 20th century

Gender Roles in Pantomime

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantomime

“The gender role reversal resembles the old festival of Twelfth Night, a combination of Epiphany and midwinter feast, when it was customary for the natural order of things to be reversed. This tradition can be traced back to pre-Christian European festivals such as Samhain and Saturnalia.”
Pantomime is a form for play usually performed around Christmas time in the UK. Audrey and Brenda remind me of the ugly sisters in the pantomime Cinderella, except this time they are cleaning the floor as Cinderella would.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/theatre/review-23427564-cinderella-fails-to-press-the-right-buttons.do

http://www.visit4info.com/advert/Brendas-Bounty-Changes-to-Plenty-Bounty-Kitchen-Paper/69968

The reason I think that Audrey and Brenda do not give the impression they are homosexual or in drag, is because they are still clearly masculine men, there is no illusion, what you see is what you get, men in dresses.