asssignment # 4 Response

While going to target and I later went to a wal-mart. I realized that they both go way out of their ways to please their customers. Neither store has unrealistic super skinny anything for girls or super duper machism for men. They do adhere to a relatively high standard but compared to an A&E or victoria secret not bad I suppose. The problem is holy stereotypes batman. I was looking in the toy section at target and there is a section that is devoted to more expensive family toys. There was a 14 in 1 air hockey thingy showing 2 boys and 2 girls of different ethcnicities playing. There was a basketball game with two young boys and a father playing, also there was a game with various things like bean bag toss with two young boys a young girl and a father figure. The more I looked the more the pictures depict the image of daddy needs to play with the kids buy this and fulfill your duty. On the other side there was this inflatable shade intended on sun protection that showed a mother caring for a child, I believe the company was sunsafe. Anyways This struck me as the most surprising only because like I said before holy stereotypes. You can tell that most of these were chosen carefully in regard to show of race, affluence, and lets say bmi. I guess I shouldn't and am not in the end upset by any of it just surprised that the very places I shop instigate the propagation of stereotypes. Perhaps these are harmless but subtly I believe these lead to the people who sit around differentiating between the "proper" duties of men and women. Why not just have pictures of the product and what it does. This should make sense marketing wise to I think. If someone is looking for your product then show them the product not... Well I guess halfway through a thought struck me I am completely wrong. This marketing does work it guilts, and encourages the thoughts in the back of their minds. It makes a father who goes with his child to a store believe that this is what he should be doing. Etc... I don't know it seems that the social pressures are preyed upon by the stores. Men are asked to be rugged, stoic, dependable, and callous. We are put under pressure to seem like we don't care and if we over care about anything then we become the weird ones. If you wear axe cause it has become necessary thanks to commercials to smell nice. A super smooth face with a 5 bladed razor. I bet that when it becomes possible to choose to eliminate facial hair that it will become favorable and indeed more attractive if you can grow that stubble in one day. I guess What I am now trying to say is that the stereotypes around us exist because of a very strong set of checks and balances we may not want to follow them but there are consequences you will pay that, save but a few of us, are not willing to pay. So if a guy calls a girl once in never and she is proud of herself when he finally opens up. Now that he probably always wanted to to everyone he just didn't want to be labeled. Also if a guy calls a girl everyday because she won't answer because "he's just creepy," well this is what happens when a guy decides to be too open. I have seen both with friends and in myself. Stereotypes make human interaction awkward, slow, and round about. With no stereotyping we would be free to live in our own skins be straightforward and honest without worrying about being judged. I would much rather find out someone is obsessive and jealous the first date than to attribute it to normal female behavior. I want to find a place where I can be me.