Bro Code, Paper Bag Princess and Cosmo

Here are some of my thoughts that I have acquired from the last two classes…

First off I thought I was a feminist. If I lived back in the day I would have been an advocate for women’s right to vote and I have always loved stories with female protagonists. However, after reading the articles for this week I think I’ve changed my mind. I find many of the readings to the extreme and I know understand what Dr. Pound meant when he said women would say “I’m not a feminist, but”. I think I would say “I’m not a feminist, but I’m an equalist”. There are some aspects of feminist that I can appreciate and some others that I can agree with, but I can’t agree with all the ideas, therefore I don’t think I fit under the title of Feminist.

Next thought…

My boyfriend (Evan) came up for a visit over the Christmas holidays and through some series of discussions he and my 17 year old brother (John) both understood what the “bro code” is. Apparently it’s this list of rules that guys are supposed to follow. Evan lives in Alberta and John lives in T Bay, so this code is significant enough that it transcends provinces. While we were at Chapters Evan found the book Bro Code and bought it for John. When I asked about it I was told that in the code it states you are not allowed to talk about the code to your significant other. (kind of like Fight Club). The point of my story is, women don’t have anything like the code and I found the whole thing rather odd. But in a patriarchal society this kind of code fits. I am determined to read it.

Another thought…

I remember reading an article in” Cosmo”. It had something to do with what a women wore and why you aren’t attracting the guys. Apparently there are two different kinds of cute, boy cute and girl cute. Clothes like baby-doll shirts and boyfriend jeans fall under girl cute. But skinny jeans and low cute shirts fall under boy cute. Even though the majority of boy cute clothes are less comfortable the article was saying this is what you had to wear to get noticed. It goes along with what Dr. Pound was saying about men symbolically dismembering women. Boy cute clothes are more sexual and allow men to take the women wearing them apart. I’m not saying these clothes are bad, we all wear them. When I read the article I thought it was pretty pointless. However, with the knowledge gained from these classes this kind of article does fit into what feminists are saying of our society.

My final thought is that the Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munch is an excellent example of a story that feminists would like. Most of the story follows the traditional Princess and Prince Charming story. Except the Princess goes off to save the Prince. In the end the Prince doesn’t want the Princess because of her clothes; she is too dirty. So the Princess leaves him with the dragon ( I think), and goes off on her own adventures. All in all this is a great story that is a positive story for young girls.

That’s all folks!!