Reading Response, Chapter 4, Week 2

Question 2 on Gender Policing.

The gender policing that takes place in the Miller Commercial mentioned in Williams Sea's article "Advertising Sets Double Standard for the Male Gender" is a common occurrence in popular culture today. The concept is that there is a right and a wrong way to be a man or woman and that anything outside of that "right and wrong" is taboo.
This gender policing perpetrates stereotypes in many different ways. Mainly these stereotypes are perpetuated because of an initial fear of backlash or embarrassment . When we see an ad on television like the Miller ad mentioned in Sea's article, it gets a message into our subconscious that there is a right and a wrong way to be a man. The right way involves beer, or can be arranged with beer and the wrong way involves effeminate behaviour, health conscious eating choices or baby talking to a pet. These ads only promote gender policing even more because they solidify peoples ideas of what is so. Advertising has a way of doing that to people, even when they are unaware of it.
Policing is one element of any sort of organized group too, and not always bad. Many times when politicians are in the public spotlight, they are policed from inside their own parties to only say specific things or release specific information. This sort of policing takes a strict toll on politicians in particular as they are quickly seen as puppets or molded clay. Other groups heavily police themselves from the inside out too, many religious organizations have strict rules and doctrines that are set forth by leaders or members as a consensus. These rules can be designed for a greater good or to direct people to what is regarded by them as a better life, but can at times be obtrusive and overbearing. An example of this sort of religious rule would be a decision by Southern Baptist theologians that homosexuality is a sin and is marked as such in the bible. This has led to policing within Southern Baptist churches that would not allow any homosexuals to be members of or be active in those churches. This is a far reaching general statement that surely isn't true in every case, but generally holds water.
Disadvantages to this sort of policing are many, mainly there is a lack of freethinking that comes from it. When a rule made up and people accept is as a standard without any thought, an intolerance arises with a foundation that was created by someone else. If that intolerance is policed, it can become fact to some and with the blink of an eye it becomes truth.