Keeping Up with the Kardashians

During this week’s episode of Keeping up with the Kardashians, Khloe was asked by PETA to participate in their “I’d Rather Go Naked than Wear Fur” Campaign. For those of you who don’t know much about the Kardashain family, Kourtney and Kim are Khloe’s two older sisters. Both of them are very thin and fit. They have each modeled for several well known magazines, one of them being Playboy. Khloe has a different body type than the rest of her family. She is what some people like to call “big-boned”. She isn’t by any means fat or overweight, but compared to her sisters she is larger. For PETA’s campaign, Khloe was asked to do a nude photo shoot for their latest posters. Khloe was extremely nervous and hesitant to be involved because she wasn’t comfortable with her body image. She kept saying that no one will want to see her ad and that they will call her “Kim’s fat sister”. Khloe’s dad even sat her down after she agreed to do the campaign and told her that she should lose a few pounds first (not a good thing to tell a girl). Up until the shoot, she continued to complain about her “fat body”, but after she saw the final results of the ad, she realized how stupid she was for bringing herself down about her image. The ad turned out great and everyone told her how wonderful she looked. She realized she should be happy with how she looks because you don’t have to be super skinny to be pretty. In today’s society, many females in the media have the same thin body type. However that does not mean that they are the only ones that are pretty. Most people do not look like that, and it is good when “regular figured” women are able to show that they have no less beauty than the skinny models.

Desperate Housewives

On week days during the afternoon, old episodes of Desperate Housewives come on the Lifetime channel. Today I turned on the show halfway through the episode, but the part that I did see contained messages about gender roles. Lynette Scavo found out that her pizza restaurant’s building license was no longer accurate. She couldn’t get in touch with her husband, Tom, so she had to take manners into her own hands and get the papers signed by herself. Later that evening when she told Tom about what she had done, he was very upset. He said that he had been trying for weeks to get the building owner to sign the papers but his wife was able to do it in one day. When Lynette asked him why it was such a big deal to him, he said it was because he was the MAN. He was the one who should take charge and get things done. Tom then tells Lynette that he also can’t get an exterminator or a plumbing person to come out. And when Lynette says she will take care of it, he gets upset again. “I’m a man. I don’t want your help. I shouldn’t have to run to my wife every time I can’t do something.” Tom’s attitude towards the situation reflects how much of society views masculinity. Some believe that it is the man who should run all the business matters and that the woman is not capable of doing it. However, Lynette was much more capable of these jobs than her husband. Tom was willing to sacrifice his business instead of asking for help from his wife, who he believes is inferior to him. This episode disproves the concept that women are inferior to men.

The Bachelor

On Monday night the season finale of The Bachelor premiered, however, this was a finale like no other. The Bachelor and Bachelorette has been on the air for several years and every season is almost identical to the one before except for a new set of faces. This season Jason Mesnick was the bachelor looking for the perfect woman to be his wife. Jason warmed his way into hearts all around America with his sweet personality and sad life story. He is a single dad of a three year old, Ty, and the nation watched him as DeAnna refused his proposal during the last season of The Bachelorette. Everyone wanted to see him find his fairy tale ending. During the finale he was down to two girls and he chose Melissa to propose to. The couple looked like a match made in heaven, but within five minutes of the engagement airing, viewers watched the relationship turn sour. During the “After the Final Rose Ceremony” which was directly after The Bachelor, Jason sat on the couch with the host Chris and admitted to not being in love with Melissa. When she came onto the stage he told her that she wasn’t the one he was in love with. She was extremely upset and eventually left the stage after telling Jason how inconsiderate he was. Minutes later the runner up, Molly, came out and he told her that she was the one he wanted.
The show is mainly geared towards a female audience, but this seasons ending displayed very negative messages about females. Jason has asked Melissa to be his wife, and when he decided that she wasn’t all that he thought, he turned around and picked the other girl instead. Jason acted like the girls were his possessions and when he realized he had bought the wrong thing; he returned it for something else. But don’t worry, this message did not go unnoticed. On Tuesday the internet was buzzing with women that were extremely upset about the treatment Jason had with the girls.