Select a media text and write an essay. Throw Like a Girl

Throw Like a Girl
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Throw Like a Girl
When people talk about feminism, often, they believe it is being anti-male. So, today, it is possible for women to say they are feminist based on their stance on certain issues that involve men. For example, when people talk about equality or salary gaps, often, it is based on issues of patriarchy and the position of men in the society. Some women believe they are feminists because they are trying to advocate for a better world for women. They see men as the enemy and will, therefore, fight and scream at the top of their voices in the hope of demonizing men. However, this is wrong and one of the things that makes the world as biased as it is along gender lines. Mack and Ott (2014) take note of this normalized understanding of feminism and note that “contrary to popular belief, contemporary feminism is not anti-male.” The definition of feminism they offer is stated as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” Each of these things can happen or happens to every gender sect which makes feminism a holistic term and not a women’s term. The focus of this article will be on an advertisement by Always. The 2014 advert known as Throw Like a Girl is one that helps to showcase the true meaning of feminism. The advert is crucial in this study because of the way it showcases the misrepresentation and stereotypes of girls and also debunks it. The statement or phrase ‘like a girl’ is one that is stated often and one that has already been normalized. The advert, however, appears to break it down and debunk it by using young girls who have not yet been inducted into the larger thinking of the society. What the advert shows is that as people grow older, they become increasingly receptive to the normalizations and stereotypes of the society.
From the advert, one of the things that becomes evident is the fact that everyone apart from young girls, know what the phrase ‘like a girl’ mean. When asked to run like a girl, a majority of the actors in the advert showcase what they believe and have come to believe to be how girls do things. Apparently, as every actor reveals, there is a belief on how girls need to do things or react to things. Mack and Ott (2014) refer to the aspect of matching certain actions with people’s genders as gendered quality. They explain that “trouble arises when societies such as ours confuse gendered qualities with sexual ones, understanding culturally constructed norms as innate biological traits.” Apparently, the idea of the society considering women as “naturally more emotional than men is as a result of this confusion.” As the advert showcases, these things slowly become part of the greater society and are assimilated and later normalized. Women are also made to believe that there are ways they do things, and as they grow up, they stop being themselves and become part of the society. Mack and Ott (2014) allude to this fact noting that “to complicate the matter even more, sometimes members of socially oppressed groups will believe the stereotypes they see in the media to be true and emulate them.” As a result of the stereotypes being no...