One of my favorite classes at Simpson was Gender, Race and Class in Media and it was taught by one of the most controversial professors on campus, Susanne Gubanc. At the time I had no clue how much this class would impact me and I still carry the lessons I learned with me today. I grew up like most people in Iowa in a small, middle-class, primarily white community. I was always aware that not everyone was just like me and to treat everyone the same and that was that, I didn't think of gender, class or race much past that.
In this class we spent countless hours going over case study after case study analyzing differences and how people are treated due to these factors. A couple examples that stick out to me. Have you ever thought about Band-Aids? Those were definitely made for Caucasians' skin tones. Then there were the parents who decided to raise their baby boy as a girl to break the culture gender stereotypes that exist today and not until the child was in his teens did they break the news to him, that he was a boy not a girl. Eek, I do think that is crossing the line.
I've been thinking back to this class due to the controversy being stirred up by Jenna Lyons, Creative Director at J. Crew. She was featured in an advertisement with her son with a quote, "Lucky for me I ended up with a boy whose favorite color is pink."
I immediately thought "what would I do if I had a son and his favorite color was pink?" I'll be honest, I don't know if I would encourage it. Not because of the sexuality aspect, a color is a color but I would be afraid of the scrutiny he would receive at school. There is a lot of pressure on boys and their masculinity. Girls have it much easier when it comes to these stereotypes. It is much easier for girls to get away with being a "tomboy" than if the roles were reversed.
Just something to ponder...
