U.S Culture Messages About Gender

English

http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/

This website was highly informative, and the interactive aspect of the flash videos made it especially useful as an educational tool. The ability to see the actual physical structures and mechanisms in the body that are used to produce sound makes it much easier to understand what is required for each instance of sound production, and a little bit of critical thinking shows why certain combinations or sequences of sound might be especially difficult. It is not simply a matter of mental acuity, or even mostly a matter of mental acuity, but rather a matter of muscular control and knowledge that contributes to one's ability to make specific sounds. Assuming that this musculature is essentially the same in almost all individuals, this means that anyone can learn to produce sounds even in languages that are foreign to them simply by understanding the necessary movements and providing the muscles and the mind with the necessary practice of moving in certain patterns and sequences. Though I suppose I knew this in some very abstract sense before watching the various videos found on this website, the explanations and diagrams found here made this knowledge far more concrete and conscious, and thus far more useful as well.

The different names for the categories of sound were also very useful pieces of information provided on this website. Though the terms are unfamiliar and a little difficult to remember, they are also descriptive (for the most part) of how the sounds are produced; I am confident that learning these terms will help me be able to classify sounds and remember their means of production.

http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/gender.gif: by showing an extreme example of the gender differences stereotyped by traditional culture, this image actually challenges these traditional views of gender. The plight of the very maternal woman and the physique of the lifeguard represent extremes of traditional femininity and masculinity that ultimately ridicule the stereotypes that are their source.

http://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/femtheory.html: the single panel cartoon depicting a business woman giving dictation to a half-naked ideal of muscular male beauty is presented as a reversal of traditional gender roles, but in actuality the man depicted is still exceedingly "masculine" in the traditional sense, and the woman appears blonde, very thin, and attractive, reinforcing both traditional views.

http://undercoverpunk.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/dressup.jpg: the figure in this cartoon is most likely a boy, given the style of underwear depicted, but the point of this and the surrounding clothes is that gender is something that is put on -- definitely a progressive view of gender. The figure has its eyes cast downward as though peering at its genitalia, however, suggesting another more subtle interpretation of this cartoon as reinforcing biologically determined gender identity.