Playing ball "like a girl"

Lana F. Rakow takes feminism head on in her publishing of Feminist Approach to Popular Culture. In her article, she introduces what, in her opinion, are the four approaches to feminism. Her four approaches are: 1) The Images and Representation Approach 2) The Recovery and Appraisal Approach 3) The Reception and Experience Approach and 4) The Cultural Theory Approach. In these four approaches, Rakow examines in depth about the concept of feminism in our society and in past societies.

Looking at the first approach, The Images and Representation Approach, Rakow quotes Fishburn who states four significant questions with this approach to feminism. The questions ask 1) What kind of images are present and what do those images reveal about women's position in the culture? 2) Whose images are they and whom do they serve? 3) What are the consequences of those images? and 4) How do those images have meaning?

The video I use as an example is an advertisement about how society uses "like a girl" as an insult. In the video, a woman asks various adults, both men and women, to perform actions as they believe a girl would. Their enactments are rather disturbing, as when they are asked to run like a girl, they flail their arms in legs in a very non athletic manner. They ask the adults to perform various other actions as a girl would, and they are all performed in a demeaning manner.

As the video progresses, they turn their attention to young girls for the questions. They ask the young girls to do the same things as the adult, and the only difference compared to the adults was how the young girls performed the actions in much more athletic or natural ways. It is interesting to see this, as youth is directly related to innocence, as they simply haven't been impacted by society and the images produced by media as much as adults.

Even though adults are thought to be exposed to the feminist views that society puts on us, the same negative views are placed in a child like culture through shows and movies that are produced for a younger age group.


My second video example is in the movie, The Sandlot, when two rival teams face one another and a conflict erupts. The conflict consists of two "leaders" of the team stepping up to one another and using their words in the form of disses.

As the two boys get to the end of their fight, the fight seems to be settled when one of the boys accuses the other to play baseball "like a girl". Both of the teams stop what they're doing and act as if that was the best insult a guy could ever say to another. A child who watches this film instantly takes that in, and if they are ever faced with a sort of confrontation that is in the movie, they would use that insult, as they now believe it's the best way to win a verbal fight.

This shows how powerful the media is, and how far a feminist comment can go in our society. This also shows how our society is directly impacted with feminism at a young age, and young boys and girls develop the thought that feminism is okay, because the media projects it in a rather positive or affective way.