Yellow Fever

I took a gender and literature class at UCSD while I was an undergrad. It's amazing the subtle hints in magazines, newspapers, and pretty much any media that degrades women in ways that we don't even realize. We don't realize because we see it every day and we're used to it. We don't even find it offensive most of the time. When we see models in magazines, we (women) most likely don't think, "Wow, I totally am offended that that woman is holding an iron. I hate ironing. AM I LESS OF A WOMAN? WHAT AM I WORTH." We usually think "Wow, she's hot. How can I be hot like that."Not that that is any better, but it shows how we kind of ignore that small innuendo as to how women should be viewed.

This brings up another example that has been brought to my attention in the past. At UCSD there was a viral YouTube video that went around called, "Yellow Fever," narrated by a male Asian student that went around. It was about how all the Asian girls like white guys, leaving all the Asian guys in the dust. I believe that a lot of this is the media portrayal of Asian men. They are almost never main characters, they often have heavy "FOB" accents, and for the most part, are stereo-typed, which in turn, reinforces this stereotype over and over. The media can influence in a way that we're not even aware of. Like the way it's more okay for the man to be fat in a relationship whereas the woman still must stay thin and pretty. For example, every tv show- Family Guy, The Simpsons, King of Queens, American Dad, that one show with Jim Balushi- all fat not attractive men, all skinny pretty women. Habituation- we're used to it, so we just accept it and accept the ways that it affects us. Maybe if we can figure out how to apply this to health well enough, being healthy can be normal, too.