HW6: Interview Cover Leter

November 30, 2012

Dear Respondents:

I am a student under the direction of Mr. Dustin Celestino in the English Resource Center at Asia pacific College. I am conducting a research study entitled “The Effects of Gender Role Reversals Featured in Anime in the Society”. The purpose of this study is to clarify whether the change in gender roles is already accepted by adults and its underlying impacts. This interview will be conducted for adult males and females.

Your participation will involve answering my interview questionnaire and should only take about 10-15 minutes of your time. The interview questions are:

1. Have you watch cartoons before? If not, can you name some cartoons that are famous during your time?

2. What can you say about women protecting men in cartoons?

3. Some cartoons nowadays portray change in gender role. As a man/woman do you agree with the changes? Why or why not?How does it affect you?

4. Do you think the change that is being portrayed in some cartoons affect our traditional knowledge on the role of men and role of women in our society? How did you say so?

Your involvement in the study is voluntary and you may choose not to participate or to stop at any time. The results of the research study may be published, but your name will not be used. Your identity will not be associated with your responses in any published format.

The findings from this project will provide information on the better understanding of the effects of gender role reversals with no cost to you other than the time it takes for the survey.

If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to contact me at  (+63) 9471 287 444 or send an e-mail at isjovellano.apc.edu.ph .

By returning this questionnaire in the envelope provided, you will be agreeing to participate in the above described project.

Thanks for your consideration!



Sincerely,

Mikaela Gheline S.Jovellano
Student, Asia Pacific College

November 30, 2012

Dear Respondents:

I am a student under the direction of Mr. Dustin Celestino in the English Resource Center at Asia pacific College. I am conducting a research study entitled “The Effects of Gender Role Reversals Featured in Anime in the Society”. The purpose of this study is to clarify whether the change in gender roles is already accepted and its underlying impacts to people of my generation . This interview will be conducted for anime fans.

Your participation will involve answering my interview questionnaire and should only take about 10-15 minutes of your time. The interview questions are:

1. Can you give a particular anime that you have been watching? What do you love about that anime?

2. What can you say about women protecting men in anime?

4.  As a man/woman do you agree with the changes? Why or why not? How does it affect you?

5. What do you think are the similarities between gender role reversals in anime and in our society?

6. What do you think will be the outcome if such change continues? Can it truly change our tradition? How did you say so?

Your involvement in the study is voluntary and you may choose not to participate or to stop at any time. The results of the research study may be published, but your name will not be used. Your identity will not be associated with your responses in any published format.

The findings from this project will provide information on the better understanding of the effects of gender role reversals with no cost to you other than the time it takes for the survey.

If you have any questions about this research project, please feel free to contact me at  (+63) 9471 287 444 or send an e-mail at isjovellano.apc.edu.ph .

By returning this questionnaire in the envelope provided, you will be agreeing to participate in the above described project.

 Thanks for your consideration!

Sincerely,

Mikaela Gheline S.Jovellano
Student, Asia Pacific College

HW5: Actual Survey

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

 For Adults:

1. Have you watch cartoons before? If not, can you name some cartoons that are famous during your time?

2.What can you say about women protecting men in cartoons?

3. Some cartoons nowadays portray change in gender role. As a man/woman do you agree with the changes? Why or why not? How does it affects you?

4. Do you think the change that is being portrayed in some cartoons affect our traditional knowledge on the role of men and role of women in our society? How did you say so?

For Anime Fans:

1. Can you give a particular anime that you have been watching? What do you love about that anime?

2. What can you say about women protecting men in anime?

3. As a man/woman do you agree with the changes? Why or why not? How does it affects you?

5. What do you think are the similarities between gender role reversals in anime and in our society?

6. What do you think will be the outcome if such change continues? Can it truly change our tradition? How did you say so?

HW4: Culture

Culture defines our roles. It involves the total way of life of a  given society. It defines what behavior is particular to an individual. Societal expectations and values mandate males to be “masculine” and females to be “feminine”. A gender role stereotype that is created by a culture governs our lives throughout our existence which vary among different cultures. Men are generally viewed as active, strong, critical, and adult-like with psychological needs such as dominance, aggression, and endurance while women are generally viewed as passive, nurturing, and adaptive with psychological needs such as affiliation and deference. 

According to an article The 12 essential roles of culture in society by Bharat Kumar, culture fulfills a number of function.Our social life has been made possible because of culture and that we cannot survive as man without culture.

Based from the article, culture has 12 roles in our society which are:

 

1. Culture is the Treasury of Knowledge

This means that culture provides knowledge, which is essential for the physical and intellectual existence of man.  Humans have greater learning capacity and intelligence compared to man. With the help of culture, we are able to modify our place in an environment. Culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission from generation to generation. On the contrary, animals do not have this advantage because culture does not exist as to humans.

2. Culture Defines Situations

Culture defines social situations for us. It not only defines but also conditions and determines what we eat and drink, we wear, when to laugh, weep, sleep, love to like friends with, what work we do, what god we worship, what knowledge we rely upon, what poetry we recite and so on.

3. Culture Defines Attitudes, Values and Goods

It is the culture, which conditions our attitude towards various issues such as religion, morality, marriage, science, family planning, positions and so on.  Our values concerning  are influenced by our culture. Our goals of winning the race, understanding others, attaining salvation, being obedient to elders and teachers, being loyal to husband, being patriotic etc. are all set forth by our culture. We are being socialized on these models.

Culture defines our values,attitudes and goods in the sense that we follow the traditional norms of our society. In the Philippines people say "po" at "opo" to give respect to elders. The other way of showing obedience and respect is by the use of " pagmamano". We also show respect to our Philippine flag and song by standing straight and putting our right hand to our left chest. All of this values is because of our culture.

4. Culture Decides Our Career

Culture sets limitations on our choice to select different careers. Whether we should become a politician or a social worker, a doctor, an engineer, a soldier, a farmer, a professor, or an accountant is decided by our culture.  Individuals may develop, modify or oppose the trends of their culture but we always live within its framework. Only a few can find outlet on the culture.

5. Culture Provides Behavior Pattern

Culture directs and confines the behavior of an individual. It assigns goals and provides means for achieving them.  We see dream, aspire, work, strive to marry, enjoy according to the cultural expectation.

6. Culture Provides Personality

Culture exercises a great influence on the development of personality. Culture tells us how we are going to live and how are we going to act. It is the culture that provides opportunities for the development of personality and sets limits on its growth. 

 

7. Culture Makes Man a Human Being

Culture shapes individuals. It is culture that makes the human, a man, regulates his conduct and prepares him for group life.  It teaches one how he/she should  behave with his fellows or friends, how he/she should speak with the people and how he should co-operate or compete with others. 

8. Culture Provides Solution for Complicated Situation

Culture provides man with a set of behavior even for complicated situation. It often does not require any external force to keep himself in conformity with the social requirements. His action becomes automatic. His culture gets into his mind and shutters vision so that he sees what is supposed to see in dream what he is expected to dream and hunger for what he is trained to hunger.

 

9. Culture Provides Traditional Interpretations to Certain Situation

Through culture individuals get traditional interpretation for many situations according to which he determines his behavior. If a cat crosses his way, he postpones his journey. It may however be noted that these traditional interpretation differ from culture to culture. Among some culture owl is regarded as a symbol of wisdom and not a symbol of idiocy.

In my understanding of this role, our interpretation of how one must behave varies by culture.For example in America, a couple who are seen kissing in public is legal because America is a liberated country. But in the Philippines, its different because it looks unethical in our society. this couple will be judge by the society.

10. Culture Keeps Social Relationship Intact

Culture has importance not only for man but also for the group. It is the prescription for guiding values and ideals. By regulating the behavior of the people and satisfying, the primary drives pertaining to hunger and sex it has been able to maintain group life. Lessen the chances that a man will behave irrationally. The members of group characterized though they be by consciousness of kind, at once competing. They are held in line by constraints prescribed by culture.

11. Culture Broadens the Out Looks of the Individual

Culture has given a new vision to individual by providing him a set of rules for co-operation of the individuals. He/she thinks not only his/her own self but also of the others. Culture provides one with the concept of family, state, nation and class and make responsible the co­operation and division of labor.

12. Culture Creates New Needs

Culture also creates new needs and new drives, for example, thirst for knowledge and arranges for the satisfaction. Because of the gradual changes of culture, our knowledge gets broader and broader that gives rise for new needs and drives that will satisfy individuals. 

In my overall understanding of this article, culture has many functions in our lives which makes us a prisoner. Culture designs our lives because it provides us the values and attitudes of an individual. It tells one how he /she should behave in a given society. People's knowledge of the culture varies because every society has different cultures. The culture in America is different from the Philippines. In terms of gender roles, gender development begins from the moment we are born.The colors of pink and blue are among first indicators used by society to distinguish female from male. 

For me although culture is the framework of everything, it does not mean that we are required to follow everything. Culture might be what everybody follows but at the end of the day what is important is that we also understand if we are still following the right thing. We individuals are born with own special minds, skills, talents, or abilities that makes as human. What I mean is that although we follow our culture, we must still be wise in all our actions and decisions.

HW3: Cosplay

I started liking anime when I was in Elementary. I saw my brother watching Samurai X and it caught my attention because the characters are perfectly drawn, their looks, and their clothes. Actually, Kenshin Himura was my childhood inspiration during those times. Because of that, I started to watch for more and became a total fan. 

Aside from just sitting in a comfortable bed while watching, I also aspired to become a Cosplayer because I wanted to experience how it feels to be dressed like my favorite character and act the same. I want to make friends with the cosplayers because we have the same hobby. However, if one wants to be a cosplayer, he/she must have enough budget to come up with a good costume. I’m always trying to watch a cosplay for real but I always don’t have enough time because of my studies. Honestly until now, I’m still hoping that someday I may be able to fulfill this simple dream. 

Cosplay is a form of appropriation that transforms and actualizes an existing story in close connection to the fan community and the fan's own identity. When cosplaying, fan produces their own costumes inspired by fictional characters. It motivates fans to closely interpret existing texts, perform them, and extend them with their own narratives and ideas. Cosplay does not only focus to the fan activity of costuming but is also embedded in fan practices as a whole. If they have a strong preference for certain characters they may role-play them, write something about them, draw fan art depicting them, and others. It creates an intimate and complex relation between the fan and the character. Through the acts of constructing and wearing a costume, the fan constructs his or her identity in relation to fiction and enacts it. This fan practice is very costly and time consuming because of too much preparation in order to produce a perfect costume. 

Some people perceived cosplay as a way of to be famous but do you know that some cosplayers also suffers cruelty in the “Cos” culture? 

According to an article Cosplay, Race, and Fat-Shaming by Joanna, some cosplayers experiences cruelty who were the fat ones. They find cosplaying anxiety-inducing because they are being judge by others. If you’re a woman seen as conventionally attractive, you’ll probably be creped on regardless of your costume but many female cosplay options seem to invite more unwanted creeping just like what these fat geeks experiences. In terms of the decision of what character to cosplay, fat geeks definitely have a disadvantage. This is the reason why fat geeks are less likely to be seen cosplaying. Actually, these people are not only being judge in the cos-culture but also in the society. 

For me, cosplaying does not require a person to be thin, slim, or sexy because no one can please everybody. It is important for all of us in the geek community to think about the particular obstacles faced by our fellow geeks who don’t live up to the thin ideals of our society. As a community, we must not discriminate them because everybody has the right to prove themselves. We must accept our fellow people as they are and respect everybody. 

HW2: Masculinity Ideology

Whenever I heard the word “macho” or even see a man who has a huge muscles, walks with pride and talks with a firm voice, the first thing that comes to my mind is the word STRONG or BRAVE. Some women idealize men with these characteristics because it makes them feel more secured and the chance of being protected is high compared to a man with a slim body. In the view of men, some felt envy because they also wanted to achieve a kind of body for they believe that it attracts more women. But what does a macho really means? Is it already imputed in men from the moment that they are born or it just develops? 

Macho is the exaggerated pride in masculinity, perceived as power, often coupled with a minimal sense of responsibility and disregard of consequences. According to the article Culture, Society and Masculinities, masculinity is regarded as a cultural construction. In this view, men's behavior is accounted for by the conceptions of masculinity that men internalize from their culture and that it varies by age, culture, life stage, historical era and others. This means that the macho image of a man is not imputed but it varies. The masculinity of a man is not by genes but by the influence of culture and others. The article also defined Masculinity Ideology as "an individual's internalization of cultural belief systems and attitudes toward masculinity and men's roles" (Fleck et al., 1993, p. 88). According to this definition, masculinity ideology varies as a function of differences in social, historical, political and cultural context. Fleck also pointed out the that despite the variety in masculinity ideologies, "there is a particular constellation of standards and expectations that individually and jointly have various kinds of negative concomitants," which is referred to as traditional masculinity ideology.

In my understanding of Fleck’s definition of masculinity ideology, a person comes up with different ideas on masculinity because of different beliefs towards cultural, social, political, and historical context. Every society has its own cultures, norms, and beliefs. The culture in Spain might be similar but not the same with the cultures in India. The difference between cultures is what distinguishes the ideologies of an individual towards the others. For example, Filipina women are conservative when it comes to clothes. When a woman is seen who dresses short dresses or skirts, some people perceived them as “prostitutes” but in America it does not matter because it is a liberated country. So when a Filipina go to America and wear such clothes, the feedback from the society might be a lot different from that of the Philippines. All of these happen because we have different beliefs which are the same in terms of our ideologies in masculinity. 

The article also declares that the aspects of masculinity ideology in a western culture include inhibition of emotional vulnerability; avoidance of feminine behavior and feminine activities, aggression, strength and toughness, dominance, providing for and protecting one's family and others while in a non western culture, Asian- American men did not perceive their masculinity in opposition to femininity. In fact, some Asian- American men were generating a more flexible conception of masculinity that involve caring characteristics such as being polite, obedient, nurturing in relationships, and willingness to do household chores. 

The articles also stated that in the Philippines, in terms of masculinity ideology, a prevailing tradition is that Filipino men are expected to be the ama ng tahanan (father of the home) or the economic providers in the home; and the satisfactory performance of this role is the ultimate indicator of a truly masculine male. Based on some surveys done, the two dominant images of the Filipino male is as a protector and dominator. The protector role is realized by getting married and males feel responsible for taking care of women. On the other hand in terms of being a dominator, it is seen through the societal expectation for males to be the pillar of the household and head of the family. It is also where the superiority of men to women comes wherein their decisions are much upheld. The use of violence also is more likely to occur to maintain this privileged position in society. That is why Filipino boys must be trained as early as possible so that they may be able to be good fathers in the future. Also, being responsible is one trait that female considers being masculine. 

Another thing mentioned in the article is that Filipino families nowadays are less patriarchal that was noted by social anthropologists to exist in Southeast Asian societies.

This manifests men being more respectful on women, being gentlemanly and tendency of placing women in high regard. This is evidenced in jokes and common sayings such as referring to the wife as boss or "kumander" (commander) or referring to Filipino men as "macho-machunurin sa asawa" a play on the word macho to mean "I am obedient to my wife. Overall, the predominant practice that male are the providers and the females are the light of the home still remains although there have been a change which views women equal to men. This is not to suggest that gender inequality does not exist in the Philippines as these are definitely experienced, especially in rural areas where many women are at a disadvantage in accessing educational and labor opportunities.

HW1: Background of the Survey

My topic sounds easy but finding articles about gender role reversals is quite hard. Throughout the time of my research, I was able to gather information about it but choosing the relevant ones’ is a bit confusing. As gender role reversals are gradually becoming rampant, more facts can also be observed. Our knowledge of the roles of men and women are shaped by the changes in our environment. In the modern era, there are some men who idolize certain performers like Lady Gaga. These men idolize Lady Gaga in the way she performs. On the other hand, there are women who idolize basketball player such as Lebron James and can even play better than men. In a family setting, some wives become the breadwinner while husbands stay at home. Although they portray the opposite, they are still masculine and feminine because for me the measure of being a real man and a woman is not from what he/she likes or what her hobbies are for as long as they know their responsibilities. The anime which features gender role reversals opens people to the idea that men and women in anime and in reality are similar nowadays. It gives an overview of the challenges and some conflicts that a certain individual might face. As a researcher, I wanted to know other favorable attributes of anime and clarify what I recently find out.

In order to get the information that I need, I am going to interview some adult males and females since they know more of our tradition. For adults, they will be asked about cartoons that they have watch before or famous during their time. Based from those cartoons, I will ask whether they agree or not and how does it affect them and their knowledge of our tradition. I am also going to conduct an interview to some anime fans since these people are of my generation, they know more of what is happening in the anime culture and that they are more vulnerable to the change that is happening to our society nowadays. For this anime fans, they will be asked about their opinions on gender role reversals whether they accept it or not and how it affects them. By asking all of these questions, I will be able to compare the adults view and the geeks view on my research to come up with a final conclusion.

Through the responses that will be gathered out of interview questions, I can be able to figure out that anime contributes to the changes that is happening right now in our society and that it opens as into a new idea of the status of men and women and that these new ideas are already accepted in our society. Some of these new ideas are that men nowadays are allowed to cry if situation requires, women can also be now the breadwinner of the family, and others. Some effects are that the changes featured in anime towards gender roles empower the role of women in the society. It also cause changes in the personality and somewhat destroys the “machismo” image of man.