Just Act Like a Man

This week I just wanted to reflect on that loaded phrase "just act like a man" because I was reminded of it in a recent 30 Rock Episode when Tina Fey detects sexism in her workplace and tells the new female page she is mentoring that she needs to be a strong independent woman and just act like a man and not take crap from people. This seems perfectly acceptable as advice and this certainly wasn't the first time I had heard this given as advice, but thinking about it again... doesn't it reinforce a male dominated society if we as women conform to their behavior/attitudes? And some may argue that women must act like this to climb the ladder and gain power but what is the end game? When do we start "acting like women" again? And what does that even mean anyway? It should be whatever we so choose. We should be able to manifest our own truth and live by that in order to make it what people expect.

These themes reminded me of a prompt one of my friends recently had to respond to in an essay...it went something along the lines of: Does the movie that you choose to write about accurately reflect masculinity?
Wait a minute. Can a film really reflect masculinity when it is medium that creates masculinity that people then try to live out in their lives? According to Dr. Casper yes films simultaneously create and reflect the culture - I distinctly remember that lecture last semester but I didn't really ever try to unpack that statement until I thought about it in the context of this prompt... It just made me think of our various "expectations" and how it is such a cop out when media makers or advertisers say that they are writing to "meet cultural/gender expectations" when they are the ones that CREATE those expectations! There is so much power in the media of the culture and the influence reaches wider than people anticipate. And this all confirms my belief that each person truly creates their own reality and should understand their own power in doing so. Therefore if you want to see social norms or assumptions changed - just live your life according to the assumptions that you wish to see in the world. don't just talk about it - LIVE it and change will come.