Do it like a lady!

Hey blog devotees! Just wanted to make an entry because the girls and I finished watching Mean Girls, and I had a revelation. Even though we had just watched the movie, one of my friends had referred to Janis Ian (one of the main characters) as a lesbian. However, the ending had just shown her kissing her boyfriend, so why then did my friend label Janis as a lesbian? Well, if we refer to the previous blog about the appearance of Janis Ian we may be able to infer as to why this occurred. When the predominate characteristics and traits of a man are exemplified in a character, our minds have been socialized to attach these constructs to a male persona. Therefore, since Janis Ian had been portrayed by the writers of mean girls as having male qualities but a female physical body, then our minds try to make sense of the discontinuity and label Janis a lesbian. If Janis is a lesbian, then it does not threaten our gender representations and preconceived notions of what it is to be a girl.  

If there is one thing I want to leave you guys with after this is that we need to be aware and active viewers in the media process. People, understand that these constructs are mere representations of what is real, and not actual reality. A woman should be able to present herself with power, strength, recklessness, and baggy clothes without being deemed a lesbian. Janis in fact was not a lesbian, it was her prerogative to act, dress, and speak like a man. Why? Because there is no such thing as speaking like a man, it is just a gender stereotype that has been part of the socializing process in Western society. Every time you meet someone your brain tells you to identify that person as either female or male, because then we know how to react to that person and we assume this is a natural process but it is not. Janis was in fact not a lesbian, but was the victim of gender stereotypes.