Porn: Just for guys?

During our class discussion on last Thursday, the topic "Harlequin, is it just porn?" came up in class. That got me thinking. Most pornography sites are aimed very specifically at men. A quick google search for the word "pornography" comes up with some of these results

Free Porn Videos & Pussy Movies- Sex Videos, Porno, Porn Tube, XXX ... Free porn sex videos & pussy movies. Porn hub is the ultimate xxx porn,sex and pussy tube, download sex videos or stream free xxx and free pussy movies.
www.pornhub.com/

Porn - Free XXX Tube Videos and DVDs & Porno Pics
20 Feb 2010 ... PORN.COM, the world's favorite porn site. Loaded with tons of full length porn videos, adult dvd's, and xxx pics with the hottest pornstars ...
www.porn.com/

Free Porn, Sex Videos, Pussy Movies, Porn Tube, Free XXX Porno
Watch free porn sex videos and the best pussy movies. The ultimate sex porn tube download. Stream free porn xxx video movie clips online.
www.bangyoulater.com/

And so forth. Oddly enough if you search for "pornography" instead of "porn" you do not get any explicit sites on the first page. It's mostly wikipedia and other "educational" type sites, like the history of pornography in Canada.

At a quick glance of the first three sites that I've listed above, they are all very "plain" sites with very basic colours. Nothing fancy as far as websites go. The content itself is all thumbnail pictures of the content, which more often than not were pictures of women in either sexual acts, nudity, or being "picked up". If a man DOES show up in the thumbnail, it's usually only from the waist down. The few times you can see the entire man.... well let's just say that unlike the women pictured, the man was not picked for his physical attractiveness.

An interesting thing I noticed, was the logo for the site "www.bangyoulater.com" shown to the right. The tagline "Why Wait... Masturbate!" is clearly not aimed at Women.

Another good indicator that these sites are aimed specifically at men is the advertisements that appear on the sites. Generally it is either "make your penis bigger" type ads. Ads for other porn sites with more naked or sexually active women on them, or the "hookup sites" which are supposedly for men and women to network together for casual sex, but all the ads show attractive women either naked or in sexual acts. If the sites were for men and women, wouldn't there be more pictures of say... sexy male models with lines like "He's waiting for you baby!" or something? Obviously they are not expecting women to be seeing those advertisements.

I thought though that I would check to see if I could find some "for her" pornography sites. Another google search at "porn for women" revealed the following links:

Free erotica and free porn for women
We bring you only the best free erotica for women and porn for women! We have pics of hot naked men, sexy nude hunks and steamy passionate couples. ...
www.karaslinks.com/

Hot Porn For Women
Free porn for women links to the best free erotica on the net made just for the ladies.
www.hotpornforwomen.com/

Porn for Women Network - Erotica for Women
Porn for Women Network, a site with links to porn for women, site recommendations, women's adult products, sex movies and other information about erotica ...
www.pornforwomen.net/

Notice some of the key difference in the links. The main difference I noticed was the word "erotica" instead of pornography which came up in pretty much every link. Now I know there is supposed to be a difference between "pornography" and "erotica" with erotica being "nicer" but it seems like semantic nonsense to me.

So anyways, quick review of the three above listed sites.

First thing I noticed was the backgrounds. The majority of the sites chose "girly" colours such as pink or purple. The second thing I noticed was the layout. Unlike the men sites where it was an endless stream of thumbnail pictures, the women's sites had FAR less pictures. In fact the majority of the sites were text, which made them look a bit old fashioned. Also there were much less ads on these sites. Generally one at the top of the page and one at the bottom, with the content in the middle and wide margins. Unlike the men's sites, which tried to cram every inch of the screen with something, these sites seemed more "relaxed".

Although there were links to pictures, the main content of these sites seemed to be erotic literature, which makes sense since studies have shown that women prefer their sex with a side of story, and also explains the success of the Harlequin romances we discussed in class previously.

The last big difference I noticed were the advertisements on the sites. Gone are the "adult friend finder" ads and the "penis enlargement" ads. In fact, the only ads at all were links to other sites "for women." The gendered differences in the porn genre are VERY obvious. When I tried to find a "unisex" porn site, the first page of google came up with no results. The links were general porn (porn for men) or porn for women, but no site that catered to both men and women.

Although porn is predominately aimed at men, there ARE many sites aimed at women, complete with handsome men and pink girly backgrounds. Lastly, I found this link on "women and porn"

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/personal/07/24/o.women.watching.porn/

Which discussed such interesting things as "approximately one in three visitors to adult entertainment Web sites was female" and "Female director Candida Royalle's hard-core erotic videos, made expressly for women viewers, sell at the rate of approximately 10,000 copies a month"

It's an interesting article and definitely worth a read. The most interesting thing I found in that article really blew the myth of "only men like porn" out of the water. Apparently in a 2006 study at McGill University, researchers monitored genital temperature changes to measure sexual arousal and found that, when shown porn clips, men and women alike began displaying arousal within 30 seconds; men reached maximum arousal in about 11 minutes, women in about 12 (a statistically negligible difference, according to the study).

I must admit, I was surprised at the amount of porn available for women. I really expected almost no porn aimed at women. I find it interesting that I was wrong. Although the bright pink and purple backgrounds that popped out at me upon first click really amused me. Ah genderization.

--The N3rd.

BBQ's

The BBQguy.com (http://www.thebbqguy.com) is a website gendered toward men! This site logo is "whether it's BBQ, barbecue, or barbeque, bbq sauce, bbq rub, spice, we discuss news, websites, blogs, events and contests." (BBQguy.com) It covers how to BBQ, products, recipes, contests, and most interestingly it has two separate blogs; the guy blog, and the wife blog. I find it interesting how historically domestic duties like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children were all considered to be womens work. However, BBQ ing (which in my opinion would be considered the domestic duty of cooking) is dominating by men. Commercials and advertisments are marketed toward men; attached are the ideas that the bigger BBQ the better the man. I guess cooking over an open flame is "mans" duty, and using a stove is a womans. It is interesting how the lines of gender roles are so blurry at times. The guys blog, and the wifes blog are similar; perhaps the need for two separte ones is to establish that this is a mans domain.

Danger Powers

Parenting Websites

Ok, so this just came to me.... websites dedicated to parenting!!! Of course that must be gendered. After a quick google search of "Women and Parenting" and the second page down was this website http://www.womensweb.ca/parenting/index.php that has a TON of information about parenting. Everything from the importance of motherhood to how to deal with a lazy dad, this website has it all! Then, I decided to google search "Men and Parenting" to see if a website of this nature was available for men. Hahaha Nope. The second page that came up on this topic was a webpage entitled "Parenting Classes for Men"http://www.babyzone.com/mom_dad/fatherhood/article/parenting-classes-for-men. It just goes to show how society still has this idea that women should do the vast majority of the child rearing because women are just so "kind", "gentle", and "nurturing", and are therefore "natural" mothers . Men on the other hand, they have no idea how to raise/look after children, therefore they need special classes in order to teach them how to be a parent. Wow, I mean talk about perpetuating and reinforcing gender stereotypes. Geeze!

Keekers

Extention of Washing Machines

Washers, Dryers and laundry detergents are all marketed towards women because of their traditional role in the household. Check out the cheer website http://www.cheer.ca/en_CA/cheer-laundress/cleaning-clothes.php. This link should take you to an interview with Cheer Laundress, Rose Spires. Read it :)

Here is a small blurb from the interview;

Q- Why do you feel responsible for fighting for the bright?
A- Rose: I spent 20 years defeating the dingies in one home. I took great pride in my work. After the estate shut its doors, I felt empty, love. I knew the dingies were out there, and it was my job to rid the world of the whole lot.

The ideas that women are responsible for care taking and that they are responsible for the home and family, is still very real today. Laundry is not a tough job as it was in the past, and yet it remains marketed toward women because the duty is one of the private sphere. Anyone can do laundry, female, male and children. This interview is reminiscent of old time values, yet many people still buy into it today.

Danger Powers

Let's get cooking!

Ok, so I'm just bored at work, and I'm thinking to myself "hmm, what should I make for supper?" So I decided to visit one of my favourite websites (www.allrecipes.com) that is full of yummy recipes that are all posted and reviewed by people from all over the place. But, what I found interesting was how many female users were on this website. Also, on the main page, there is a helpful section entitled "Kitchenistas" which has pictures of 3 women who are going to help you organize your pantry, make a meal plan, and cook meals that will keep your family happy. It is designed in such a way as to appeal to mother, the woman of the household who is responsible for the bulk of the domestic work. This website (and others like it) is perpetuating stereotypes of femininity and works in such a way to keep women safely contained in the sphere of domesticity.
Contrast this website to another one entitled "Man Tested Recipes" (http://mantestedrecipes.com/) where almost every recipe on the main page has to do with meat (and lots of it), or using alcohol in the recipes. Don't forget that these recipes are "manly", and should be made when your watching the game on t.v and drinking beers with the guys. My favourite quote from this website was "You bring the beer. We'll bring the recipes. And maybe chips" which clearly demostrates how when men cook, it's mostly about male bonding, as opposed to when women cook it is done in order to provide for her family.
Thanks for reading!
Keekers

Dating Websites

Cougar Life- The Ultimate Catch

http://www.youtube.com/user/cougarlife?v=pw7NZ3Z49-Y&feature=pyv&ad=4746618163&kw=cougar

Watch this clip before you read my blog.

Dating Websites are perfect examples of how gender and sex is used to perpetuate stereotypes. The cougar represents a hunter, someone on the prowler to devour a weaker being. The women is sexualized in order to disguise her "evil" intentions. This connects to the ideologies that a woman can either be a Saint or a Slut, and nothing in between. Men however are represented in all shapes and sizes, they are fit, sexually appealing, but remain intimidated, and weak (to the point of falling to their knees) when in the presence of a hot older women. The below description of what a cougar is...is bogus. A Cougar is a hunter. This commercial and website play off the stereotypes of men and tries to challenge the stereotypical idea of a "cougar", claiming that she is "independent, successful" women, when she is really viewed merely as a sex object.

These two blurbs are from the Cougar Life Website. They describe what a cougar is, and what the criteria a man should have in order to be compatible a cougar. http://cougarlife.com/

"What is a Cougar?
Cougars are Women in their PRIME: independent, sexy and wildly successful. They enjoy men that are youthful, fit with the same zest for life. Cougars are classy, confident women that already possess many of the finer things in life — but now want the young, hot guy to go with it."

"What is a Cub?
To snare a true Cougar a man needs to be youthful, fit, unintimidated and of course sexually driven! These men can range from athletes to intellectuals, and from technologists to entrepreneurs and all points in between; they can come in all shapes and sizes, but one thing they have in common is the desire to possess a sexually charged older woman."


As you can see the criteria for men is not strict, insinuating that any man can hook up with a cougar.


Danger Powers

Blogging Project 2

Hey Everyone!
Hope you had a good reading week.
Ok, so we're starting a new blogging project and I think it is going to be interesting. Last week, I figured out what I wanted to discuss on here. I was watching t.v and one of those diet commercials came on, and I thought to myself - Why is it always women on these commercials?? So then I decided to research some diet websites to see if they were dominated by mostly female images and directed at a female audience, and, guess what... THEY ARE!!! Every website I went to had pictures of women trying to lose weight (most of them looked too small to begin with) and there were so many different categories for women. There were brides, new moms, seniors etc. but only one for men. Also, just from reading some of the success storeis it always seems that men try to lose weight for health reasons, whereas women lose weight to fit into a dress, or just "look good." So, I thought, what makes these types of websites directed at female audiences?? I believe it has to do with ideas of fantasy. Women see these adds, visit these websites and read these success stories and think "I could transform my life, I could look as good as that, I'm going to go on a diet." They imagine how their lives might change, how they may look and feel better, and, more importantly, how men may begin to notice them and may even want to date them *please note the sneering tone.* Anyways, it basically says that women want to be thin, and should strive to be thin, which convinces other women that they should want these same things.
Ok, enough rambling... I'm out.
Keekers
ps- here's a link to a website
http://jennycraig.com/programs/how_it_works/