#dmg339

In Beyonce’s music video for “If I Were a Boy”, what Beyonce is portraying here is the switching of gender roles between a couple as if she is actually taking on “being a boy”. The way she portrays this is by her playing the part of a female cop, where being a cop is usually seen as a “man” occupation due to the violence, action and guns (which she also shows in her video). In contrast, her boyfriend in the video works in an office with a bunch of other women, again to depict a more feminine career, since working in an office is considering quiet, relax and not as tough. 

Besides the contrast in their careers, other gender roles are at play such as how right in the beginning of the video, Beyonce comes downstairs to the kitchen where we see her boyfriend had made breakfast for the both of them, and she just grabs a bite to go and doesn’t even take the time to enjoy the meal he made for her, leaving him visibly upset. We see more instances like this such as when he calls her and we see her purposely check her phone and not pick up the phone call because she is with her fellow cops, and in the scene where she is visibly being flirtatious with her male coworker in front of her boyfriend. This is to depict how in most cases (but not all), men are usually the unfaithful and careless ones to their significant others’ feelings, and being that Beyonce is taking on the male role in this video, she portrays this. 

Even though Beyonce is playing the more masculine role in this video, I think it is important to note that she is still somewhat sexualized, like at 1:51, where she is taking off her uniform in the locker room to reveal her breast in a bra, and how at around 2:30, when she slams the criminal against the car door, the camera focuses on her butt and we see her male coworker gazing at it. Also, if you pause the video around 3:34, we see how her boyfriend is the one standing up while she is sitting when discussing their feelings, somewhat portraying him as the dominant one, as males usually are portrayed.

For today’s plenary, I thought it would’ve been a lecture about certain racial or gender issues going on today. And even though I would’ve been just fine with that, it was pretty refreshing to hear a lecture I was not expecting nor have I ever heard before. I thought Caitlin Kenny’s lecture was very interesting about how she got to travel all over the world and meet different people to do stories for her podcast. I have only heard a couple of podcasts maybe once or twice but not ones that spoke about current events. One thing that really stood out to me was when she said that she enjoyed podcasts over other types of mediums (such as TV) because she felt as though it was someone telling a story right in your ear, making for a better connection with the listener. After this lecture I also found that Podcasts are a good way to have the listener imagine stories on their own and to be able to imagine instances that has happened in the past. 

Another thing that stood out to me that Caitlin had said was that a certain major in college does not always lead to a specific future career. I have heard this before, but seeing a real life example, and how she had found success in it, really made me feel a lot better about my own concerns and worries about choosing a major and what path it might put me on in regards to my own future.

I thought the racial caucus was interesting in that it brought up many questions about my own race that I did not even consider; such as issues in my race and times where I felt racism towards me. I also found it interesting that even though my partner was from a different town than mine (my town being predominately latino, while hers was a mix), and similar yet different ethnic backgrounds (her being Brazilian+Dominican, me being Dominican+Puerto Rican), we found many similarities in how we felt about identifying as Latina while also noticing we had a couple of different experiences. I only wish we would have had more people in our caucus group to see what kind of other similarities and differences we could have compared to other Latin@s from other regions.

About two months ago, I was still working at Toys R Us as a cashier and had been working there for six months. Every night when it was time for closing, it was the cashiers’ job to gather up all the toys that have been left at the register and put them back. Figuring out what toys went where was simple enough (sometimes) considering the fact that each isle was organized into different categories such as sports, learning, games, toddlers, and the ever so obvious isles of the Boys and Girls.

The pictures above were not taken by me, (considering the fact that I NEVER want to walk into a Toys R Us ever again…or maybe until I have children of my own), but finding these pictures on the internet were not that hard since this is how EVERY Toys R Us is set up. At the Toys R Us I worked for specifically, the Girls isle was was right at the front of the store when each customer walked in, and with its extreme color coordinated pinkness, it really wasn’t hard to miss. Within the isle itself,  you can find such things as dress up (and dress up to be a princess, bride and cheerleader of course), barbies and other dolls, toy baby dolls (along with other accessories such as strollers, fake diapers and baby food), cooking and cleaning play sets, and makeup.

As much as I absolutely LOOOVE Beyonce, her music, and just her as a performer/celebrity in general, her most recent performances, such as her 2014 VMAs performance, may have given people the wrong idea about what Feminism really means and what it actually is. When watching, many people that did not know much about feminism assumed that feminism was just about women empowerment and women straight up taking over the world, not realizing that it meant EQUALITY FOR ALL SEXES (it’s okay Bey, I got where you were coming from).