Saturday, March 3, 2007

Femininity in "The Girls Next Door" Part II

The main stars of the show are Hef's favorite girlfriends, Holly, Bridget, and Kendra. Through these girls, we can see how the concepts of femininity are expressed in the media to the show's viewers. The girls all share the same physical appearance- bleached blond hair, bronzed skin, skinny waists and voluptuous breasts. Each girl has a unique personality apart from the whole "ditzy", very materialistic, and over-sexed side. For example, Holly is the cheerleader, Bridget is the nerd with a M.D., and Kendra is the sports-loving tom boy.

On the show, femininity is seen as being very sexual. The girls are all very open and comfortable with their sexuality and bearing a lot of skin. Kendra dances around in front of the mirror with only underwear and a bra on, while Bridget performs Hef's birthday strip tease for her mother and father with only a string thong on and flower-shaped pasties covering her nipples. "Sexuality provides a resource that can be used to get attention and communicate instantly."
1. Thus, women are assumed to use their physical assests to gain attention and be admired.

The girlfriends portray American women as being desperate "gold diggers" hungry for money, status and fame. They spend their lives trying to please a man that is well "over the hill" in order to live comfortably in his mansion and gather the perks that come along with his status and power. For Hef's birthday, Holly, Bridget, Kendra are stressed about buying Hef a remarkable birthday present(with his money, of course). Bridget worries about how her body will look during the strip tease, and eats almost nothing (with a beer) for dinner in hopes to look flawless for Hef. Thus, in society "single women are depicted as shrews or 'gold diggers' while bachelors are advised to pursue sex on a casual basis to avoid getting snared in a 'long term contract.'"
2.

It is evident that Hef as the masculine figure has superiority over his girlfriends. Their relationships resemble more of a father-daughter one than one of an intimate nature. Hef only gives affection to his girls in the form of a hug or peck on the cheeks or lips. Everything they do is to please him. Obviously, his money and status show his power over the girls and displays them as weak and inferior. Without Hef's political power and wealth to support the girls, it would be nearly impossible for them to achieve the status they have today.

Ultimately, "The Girls Next Door" is an example of how the concepts of masculinity such as power, strength, and status, and those of femininity- inferiority, sexuality, and desperation, are portrayed in the media. The show relates femininity with big breasts, skinny bodies, and blond hair accompanied by "ditzy" thoughts and very sexual behaviors. In constrast, masculinity is shown through being wealthy, successful and a life-time bachelor.

1. Gender, Race, and Class in the Media.Image-Based Culture.p.253.

2. Gender, Race, and Class in the Media. Inventing the Cosmo Girl. p.120

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The second part of your analysis seems rather adequate for the entire assignment; particularly in the final paragraph, where you've summed up the argument quite nicely. Don't analyze masc. just b/c you're analyzing femininity--you don't need to do that to provide a thorough analysis.
You did a nice job with the integration of your quotes and the outline of the basic elements of gender messages in the TV show. Next post, try narrowing your focus and getting into that focus deeper (analytically- as you started to do in the second part) and concentrate on how the messages produced by the topic you're focused on, can be supportive of the hegemonic norms and challenge them too...even here the girls next door is hardly normative in every area.