Greetings loved ones, let's take a journey!

I have spent a lot of time this summer thinking about gender performativity. Gender roles are fairly simply defined by culture, but performativity is a little more specific: it requires the individual to embody society's prescribed gender roles for them. At job interviews I've been observing gender and hiring practices; when going shopping, I've been carefully noting what is marketed to men and women separately. I haven't reached any big conclusions yet, and I don't know if I ever will, but it's certainly been fun.

In the midst of all that, I happened upon a parody of the song California Gurls. I hate this song, mostly because Katy Perry needs to hire better lyricists, and because "gurls" disgusts me...but i digress. I can't stop watching this, because it presents so many opportunities to think about gender and media. By putting men in the position of scantily-clad women, they are hyper-sexualized and objectified in ways that men usually aren't. Imagine a woman dancing like this - we wouldn't think twice about it. I appreciate that "Katy Perry" is the only woman in the video - but she's not inherently voyeuristic towards these men. Crotch shots suddenly are no different than the male gaze-focused tits & ass of film-based media (TV, movies, video games, photography, etc). Girls licking popsicles - hot, right? Guys licking popsicles? GAY. But - that's the point. And I love it.