Women's History Month Conference

Today I attended a panel discussing the messages conveyed in pop culture through gender, religion, and sexuality. It was actually quite interesting to learn about gender roles and how sexuality and religion play a part in gender stereotypes. The first presentation was by Jaime Mendoza, entitled Glee-ligion. Mendoza (obviously) focuses on the popular, and controversial tv show Glee, on FOX. Glee was the perfect specimen to be dissected and examined for a panel of this topic. The show has it all, homosexuality, underage drinking, teenage sex and pregnancy, and controversial stances on religion. Mendoza did a good job in analyzing the clips he showed, but did not come to a main point or even tie his points to the topic of gender. It seemed like he did not prepare his speech well enough and almost like he was improvising. Next came my favorite of the three, Jennifer Berlin's presentation of Smart Women and Stereotypes in Legally Blonde. Berlin's made an excellent point of showing the audience how the protagonist, Ms. Woods, is cast into the dumb, blonde, even comical stereotype, even though she is a smart woman who got accepted into Harvard law school and actually dresses pretty decently never showing a belly or anything above the knees. Finally came Tanya Flores' presentation of Androgyny and Musical identity: Glitz, Glamour, and Everything in Between. Flores started by introducing music and pop art from the sixties up until today and discussed their appearance and performance to their audience. She then made an excellent point of tying music and pop art to modern gender issues, using examples such as David Bowie, Lady Gaga as Jo Calderone, The Velvet Underground, and Andy Warhol. Although, I liked her presentation, I feel like Flores lacked some enthusiasm towards her topic, almost like she didn't really want to be there.