How Society Constructs the Images of Men and Women

What Men and Women Can and Cannot Do
Sociological Image: Colors, Sports, and Bikes
By: Elden Mabini

http://contexts.org/socimages/?s=The+Fractal+Nature+of+the+Gender+Binary%3A+Or+Blue+vs.+Turquoise

Blue vs. Turquoise

The article states that although the colors blue and turquoise seem identical, blue is masculine and turquoise is feminine. Colors are socially constructed to categories that best match as feminine or masculine. In the article, a picture of a deodorant is being advertised. The background is blue and a masculine-type woman that is doing a karate move is on the advertisement. The deodorant advertised is for women who participate in active and aggressive activity. Another advertisement shown is a lady in a dress, promoting a more elegant deodorant and has a lighter shade of blue as the background color. The 3rd image is a lady doing a work out and wearing under armour. The lady is being shown as sporty and the background is more of a darker shade of blue. In my opinion, this article shows discrimination in the sense that women who are more feminine are supposed to like only feminine type of colors, and women who are more active in sports or physical activity are portrayed in a masculine way and are supposed to like masculine colors. The advertisement also shows discrimination because it only targets those who participate in sports or those who do not. You see discrimination in colors when men wear feminine type of colors such as purple or yellow. Men who wear these type of colors are looked as feminine, but I have been noticing that a lot of men in our society today are wearing “feminine colors” and are indeed not feminine.

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/12/29/feminizing-womens-sports-teams/

Women in Sports

This article states that women who participate in sports are often looked as lesbian and masculine-type figures. A woman’s image is society is socially constructed to look graceful and elegant. In society, men are meant to play sports and girls are not.If a woman engages in masculine activities such as sports, society labels them as lesbians or “tom-boy”. Women who do participate in sports feel as if they are pushed to obtain a feminine social image or else looked frowned upon. There are pictures shown in the article that shows a women’s basketball team wearing a dress and makeup and holding up a basketball. This shows that a woman can be an athlete and still keep her feminine traits. This shows discrimination because if women participate in sports, they will be looked as more masculine, which is socially unacceptable. Women respond to the situation by being pushed to look more feminine. You also see this situation in MMA. MMA is an aggressive contact sport in which fighting in different styles of martial arts is used. Men are known to be more aggressive so a fighting sport will be socially tied to being a “man’s” sport. Now there are MMA leagues that are made for women. Society looks down at these women are label them as “tom-boy” or lesbians. I believe that sports or any type of recreational activity should have the opportunity to be obtained by men and women.

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/09/19/when-woman-means-short/

When “Woman” Means “Short”

This article shows an advertisement of a motorcycle and its additional features that can be added. One of the features is called a “lady seat”. This seat is made smaller and lower than the normal seat. In society, women are shorter and have a smaller frame than men. Because women are known to be smaller than men, the company of the motorcycle calls the smaller seat a lady seat. In experience, I have seen many women that are taller and have a larger frame than me. It is true than women are smaller than men, but it does not apply to all women. This shows discrimination in a way that men and women are socially constructed to have different physical characteristics. Since a smaller seat is being made, it is called a lady seat. To fix the discrimination in this situation, the smaller seat could be called a shortened seat or something in that area, instead of being called a lady seat. You also see this in society in shoe sizes. There are men’s shoe size and a women’s shoe size. At some point, the size of a men’s shoe will be the same as a women’s shoe. Ex: Men’s size 8 and Women’s size 10 may be the same size. Women are again portrayed a being smaller, so the size number also has to be smaller.