Stereotypes 2

So after reading Valenti's chapter called 'Pop Culture Gone Wild' i realized that she was essentially saying the same things that i was thinking about masculinity. She talked about the unrealistic standards that popculture creates for women and all the contradictory messages out there. For example girls are suppoesd to be sexy  but virgins-obviously makes no sense. This plays into the masculinity debate though also. The messages and stereotypes created for men are completely impossible-never cry, be aggressive and sure of yourself allll the time-although the messages themselves arent contradictory-they challenge biological realities. So this seems to leave us all in a mixed message state of complete confusion. Like Valenti says, "How do you act like yourself when you're constantly putting on a show?" I think this ultimately boils down to the fact that people are scared to act the way they want because they know that who they really are doesnt measure up and meet all the expectations. I think its extremely sad that popculture has the power to define what we 'should' be, but outside of personal role models there isn't really any other source with the power to dictate what is 'right' or 'cool'. i dont really have an answer for what should or can be done, but i think it starts with a shift away from popculture. The media and popculture have way too much power and when their only goal is profit, that puts us in a dangerously vulnerable situation. They deliberately make standards unattainably high because if the 'ideal girl' was easy to be, girls might stop buying make-up or magazines that tell them how to get one step closer to really being pretty. Consumerism in itself is a terrible thing not only because of it's impact on the environmnet and our global health, but it has also put our self-esteems and images in the hands of corporations. overall i dont know what can be done, but i think knowledge and recognizing the fact that we are being constantly manipulated helps to break down the validity of the messages sent by popculture. Since i know that all they want is money, its easy to step back and be more critical of the messages they spew.