Chain Email - "If Women Controlled the World"

I just received a "forward" email that absolutely made my skin crawl because of its gender stereotyped language and images. I won't include all of the images here, but if you would like to see the whole email, let me know and I will send it to you.

The first section of the email is called "Men can fix anything." It is full of funny pictures of makeshift repairs such as a bicycle's missing wheel being replaced by a shopping cart, a mailbox consisting of a jar duct taped to a piece of wood, and lawn sprinkler made out of a water hose and two-liter bottle with holes poked in it.


These images aren't doing much for the male community. While these images reinforce the redneck "there i fixed it" stereotype, these images are not completely degrading because they portray men as creative and resourceful human beings.

The second section of the email is labeled "If Women Controlled the World" which, of course, implies that men currently control the world. Although some of the pictures are funny, they suggest women are stupid and incapable of functioning effectively in a so-called man's world.

Here are a few of the pictures with my commentary:


This one implies that women know nothing about cars beyond being able to distinguish between two colors. Even as more women are being recognized as mechanics, race car drivers, and people who sell cars from a car dealership (I tried really hard not to say car salesmen there), women are constantly fighting the "bad driver" stereotype and images like this one do not help.




In case you can't tell, this is supposed to be a computer mouse with a built in compact. While this may seem like a handy device, there are many implied ideas here. Looking at this mouse, I'd imagine the woman using this computer is more concerned about her personal appearance and may be using a computer for shopping or catching up on the latest fashion magazine. This image definitely does not lead me to think about women who are computer scientists, computer engineers, or even professional journalist who work on a computer. On a better note, computer engineering Barbie hit the shelves last month: http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/barbie.jpg.



Again, this image reinforces the women-and-cars-do-not-mix stereotype, but does so in a very different way. Here, women are not only ignorant about classifying cars, but they are also bad drivers. This image further suggests that that women can not convert numbers into speed, and that they react foolishly in dangerous situations (closing eyes and biting lips while driving at high speeds).



I'm glad we have computer engineering Barbie to break this stereotype, but this image goes on to imply that men created computers and women do not know how to use them.



This image is a little funny, but I chose to include it because of the title. This title, implies women do NOT control medicine.



I acknowledge that these images come from an email that was created for the purpose of humor, and were not intended to make a statement. These words, labels, and images reinforce a negative idea that women and men are at odds with each other and competing for "ownership" of the world. The most bothersome point I wanted to make is that even in these "dumb men" images, men are portrayed as resourceful and capable while women are portrayed as weak, stupid, and in need of assistance.