Reaction to "The Codes of Gender"

It struck me that although the movie focused on the mistreatment of women in advertising, (as is appropriate for a women in writing class, I suppose) the men seemed to be mistreated as well. The advertisements with images of men would appear to promote the idea that men should always be stoic and unfeeling, as well as having a fairly unrealistic expectation of body image. These stereotypes of women as submissive and emotional and men as domineering and unfeeling seem to feed on each other, and as they exert themselves on people in our society they become self-fulfilling prophecies of otherwise unnatural situations. In other words, the men who one of my classmates suggests she would like to castrate are just as much a product of this twisted system as the models they objectify. For whatever reason, the images they have been exposed to in life and the pressures they have undergone have made them into what they are, and in turn they are doing the same to many more men and women. This reaction of hate towards the men responsible for these ads seemed to me to be a fitting twin to the more submissive reaction of the models themselves. To use an example from my favorite TV show, Community, if you wear a jacket to set yourself apart from others, it's an action you undertake on others' behalf. If you take off that jacket to avoid the ridicule of others, that's still for them. Just do what makes you most comfortable, and try not to let the attitudes of others color that at all. If you go along with the images presented in the ads, you are doing that for the sake of those who made them. If you take the opposite route, and demonize these people, you are still doing it for the sake of those who make the ads, reacting to them, and strengthening their cause. I guess this has gotten a bit beyond women in writing, but the point has now become this: hate subjugates you every bit as much as love, so be careful who you give it to.

http://www.egodialogues.com/words-language/images/huxley-orwell.gif