Adrian Dunbar

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For this week’s post, I watched an episode of the Cleveland Show that was entitled, Terry Unmarried. This episode is about how Donna (Cleveland’s wife) lies to Cleveland about his coffee making skills. Donna lies to Cleveland about how good his coffee is when in actuality, she cannot stand his coffee. Once Cleveland finds out that Donna doesn’t like his coffee, he wonders what else she has lied about. While a heated argument about this coffee spirals, Donna blatantly tells Cleveland that she never officially divorced her ex-husband so her and Cleveland are not really married. Cleveland took this news very lightly and decided to celebrate his new found singleness by going out to the new club with some buddies of his. Soon while visiting the club, Cleveland and his friends find out that they are at a gay club but that doesn’t steer them away, they a have a few dances with people they met at the club. Just right before the guys leave the club, the guys see Terry making out with another fellow at the club. When the guys find out that Terry is gay, they are very accepting and happy that Terry is living his life more freely instead of in a lie. Later on in the month, Terry decides he wants to marry his partner but gay marriage is not yet legal in their state so they have to travel to Massachusetts to get married. The fact that Terry was getting married influenced Donna and Cleveland to get (re)married as well. This episode refers to my topic of gender roles in society because since it seems like for forever, gay marriage has not been “socially acceptable” because it’s not what the bible says or many other made up reasons, but thankfully in this day & age, we as a society are becoming more aware and open to people and their expression of their sexuality along with themselves.

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For this week, I watched a Cleveland Show episode entitled, “Know Your Roots”. In this episode, Cleveland takes Cleveland Junior and Rallo back to where he grew up when he was around their age. They visited Cleveland’s parents home in the inner city. Of course, these suburbanized kids had no idea what to expect because they have been in the suburbs for most, if not all of their life. While watching this episode, it reminded me of of the documentary of G-Eazy we watched in class because his artist, Nef the Pharaoh, was from the inner city and he explained the everyday trials and tribulations they go through. While watching the documentary along with this Cleveland show episode, I quickly saw that being from the inner city automatically negatively stereotypes you. Negative stereotype types of being from the inner city is that you have no education, you’re related to gun violence, and you rob/steal/kill. This is so unfortunate because when Rallo and Cleveland Jr walked up to their Grandparent’s (Cleveland’s parents) house they were so sacred that someone was going to rob them. They did not expect a white man to rob them but they sure did expect a person of color to do so, and that is sad considering that they’re a black family and they’re helping contribute to the stereotype. Throughout the documentary of G-Eazy and Nef the Pharaoh, Nef continually talked about how his goal was to get out of the hood and funnel money back into the hood so that his community can grow and be known for positive things. In relation to my topic of gender roles in society, Cleveland and Nef touched base on how you have to grow up rather fast and become a man because the streets are no place for a “boy”.

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During this week’s post I would like to discuss the inequalities in our society and how they have effected the United States for so long. This week in class we watched 13th, which is a documentary that thoroughly expresses how the system continually fails African American men and women. The government has explicitly shown how decade after decade African Americans are seen as predators, less than humans, and lazy. I connected this documentary to the novel we are currently reading, The Education of Kevin Powell. Powell, in his memoir discusses how his struggled financially and behaviorally throughout his childhood and he believed that no one really owed him or his family anything he just wished that there was a better system to help his single mother. Although they were on welfare, it still never seemed like enough and even when they did acquire some type of luxury such as a watch or a record player, people looked at them as if they didn’t deserve it. This brings me to connect the 13th documentary, and the Kevin Powell’s memoir to my theme of the Cleveland Show. In this week’s episode, the Brown family celebrates Black History Month. Throughout this episode, Cleveland attempts to show his family the importance of their culture and its history. When Cleveland Brown Jr. goes to school to ask his teacher about Black History Month she kind of shuts him down and blows him off because she doesn’t believe that February should be celebrated solely because of a race of people. She believes that everyone is created equally and no one deserves to be put on a pedestal but that is only because she is ignorant on the subject and fails to realize how many trails and tribulations people of color go through to maintain in this society. All three of these ideas tied into my theme of gender roles in society because often times, men of color, especially black men are negatively stereotyped and often times all odds are against them even when they try to succeed in this society.

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This week during class time, we as a class, got an opportunity to take a walk through the life of Gilda Wabbit as she explained her trials and tribulations throughout exploring her phases of drag, and how she has gotten treated while dressed in drag. I tied the experience of getting to listen to her stories to the Cleveland show this week. I tied these two together because Cleveland Jr. had to dress up as a grandma in the school play. Cleveland Jr. did not mind it at all because he had his outfit picked out and he had his grandma voice ready. While Cleveland Jr. did not get the role he wanted, he knew he was going to be the very best that he could be at whatever role he did get, so he said I’ll be the best damn grandma I can be. Cleveland Jr. of course, got made fun of at school for being happy with playing a grandma the kids at school called him names and laughed at him because he was excited about being in the play. With this, it reminded me of Gilda Wabbit because she did not land the exact role that she wanted when she first decided to try drag but she knew after so long if she kept working at it, she would soon finally get to where she wanted to be just like Cleveland Jr. I can relate both of these situations to my topic of gender roles in society because as men/boys in our society, they are supposed to be seen as masculine and very tough so portraying a woman in any way shape of from gets you harassed and made fun of and its sad because it hurt Cleveland Jr.’s feeling and Gilda Wabbit has gotten criticized beyond measures for just self expression.

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This week’s episode of the Cleveland show was about Cleveland and Rallo spending more father- son time so that they can finally create a bond. While trying to having father- son bonding, they tried bowling, the movies, and all other sorts of fun things but none of them worked. While on the way home from these fun places, Rallo happens to see a fair where they have sheep. He soon finds out that kids are riding the sheep and it is called “Mutton Bustin’”. Rallo gives it a try and of course he’s a natural at it. Dona, (Cleveland’s wife/Rallo’s mother) being the woman she is, is not happy about it so Cleveland and Rallo lie to her about their whereabouts for about the next week just so they can go Mutton Bustin’. Cleveland Jr. gets jealous of Cleveland and Rallo’s new relationship and tries to sabotage it. During the journey of trying to sabotage this relationship, Cleveland Jr. ends up getting lost via port-a-potty. While Cleveland Jr is lost Rallo finds out that the sheep get murdered after they become un-useful so during final ride on the sheep he helps the sheep escape so at this point, Cleveland has lost both of his boys and has no choice but to tell Donna about the mishaps. Donna of course flips out but at the end of the episode they find the boys. This episode relates to my topic of gender roles in society because instead of playing the balloon and darts game and the kiddie-pool game, Cleveland encourages Rallo to do the most “manly-like” thing and to me that just shows that men want their boys to be very manly because that’s also a reflection of them so if their kids are manly, it kind of equates that they are too.

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For this week’s episode of the Cleveland show I watched the beer walk episode, this episode was about how Cleveland wanted to prove to his friends he’s the best beer drinker out of all of them. Cleveland believed that men are supposed to drink beer and hard alcohol and women like his wife Donna should drink wine coolers and champagne. The competition with Cleveland and his friends takes place in two weeks. For this competition they train day in a day out drinking beers and eating food at the local Stool Bend bar. Along this journey, Cleveland, along with friends make great aquaintences with the waiters and bartenders. The waiters and bartenders happen to be young women and throughout this episode I could not stand how creepy Cleveland’s friends were towards the female workers. This episode related to my topic of gender roles in society because of how Cleveland stereotyped women drinking a certain type of drink opposed to beer and hard alcohol like “men” do. This episode also related to my topic because of how Cleveland’s friends would treat the workers by cat calling at them and making sexist jokes along with insulting them but giving them tips to make up for it. This episode reminds me of almost how hooters girls are treated because hooters is a well-known wing spot that most people know of and pretty girls are associated with this restaurant. It just goes to show how women are portrayed as not as strong as men and always portrayed as a trophy or just a sexy being.

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The episode of the Cleveland show this week is about Christmas, the episode is even titled “Murray Christmas.” In this episode, Rallo (Cleveland’s step son) is forced to spend the weekend before Christmas with a Jewish resident at a retirement home. Rallo, is only four years old but he is ahead of his time, waaaaay ahead of his time so he knows that Santa is not real, and he’s looking forward to going shopping this weekend with Cleveland and Donna. Rallo knows that his resident is cranky and mad all the time and is never in a good mood but at the end of it all, he actually learns a valuable lesson with staying the weekend with Murray (the Jewish resident). They get to know each other and realize that even though they differ in age, they have a lot in common especially their daily schedule because they both include naps, dinner, and wheel of fortune. Rallo ends up befriending Murray because he finds out that Murray’s friends have died and he really has no family. On the other side of this episode, Cleveland’s dad (who he is not too fond of) comes in town for Christmas and continues to embarrass him in front of his family because Cleveland doesn’t enjoy fighting like his dad. His dad continuously calls him a sissy in front of his kids because Cleveland likes baking instead of fighting. This episode ties in with my topic of gender roles in society because usually men are supposed to be violent and manly and enjoy fighting but Cleveland is considered a sissy for enjoying baking and dishing out sweet deserts. Guys also aren’t supposed to have a caring side and this episode defers that because Rallo befriended Murray because he had a heart and wanted to be friendly.

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The Cleveland Show this week was about how Donna (Cleveland’s wife) did not want to be a “grown up” anymore. She found out that she was a year younger that what she thought she was after she looked at her birth certificate. Once Donna found out that she was a year younger than anticipated, she stopped doing things that mothers and wives usually do. She had stopped cooking, cleaning, and going to work in exchange for parting with her younger sister, Janet, who Cleveland absolutely despises. This episode was funny because without Donna, Cleveland, and her children (Rallo, Cleveland Jr., and Roberta) we’re so confused on how to live their everyday life and the house was a complete wreck. I thought this episode tied in very well with my topic of gender roles in society because very often we see the woman of the house doing the cooking and cleaning, keeping the house stable, and being a nurturing human being, and this episode vividly portrayed how if the woman of the house doesn’t do what society thinks is her “job”, then shit just becomes utter chaos. I also tied this episode into my topic because Cleveland tried to become a “mister mom” while Donna was going out to the club and coming home drunk but it did not work because since he was a man he was not capable of doing such things successfully. To me, when I saw this, I related it to how men do manly-like things like outdoorsy work at hone and women stay in the house and keep the house in order almost like the American society has been for centuries now. By the end of this episode, Donna realized that she had to grow back up again and be a supportive wife and a role model to her children.

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In this episode, Cleveland Brown Jr. does not want to get in the pool on a hot summer day because he is uncomfortable with what his body looks like. He says that he’s not comfortable with taking his shirt off because he is on the heavier side and has “Frisbee nips” and he does not want people making fun of him. Cleveland Brown Jr. knows that he has always been bigger in size than the other kids his age, but he loves eating and baking goods. The kids at school always make fun of him for being bigger and it has really started to hurt Cleveland Brown Jr.’s feelings. Ms. Kendra helps Jr. by being a good friend and neighbor to him because she is also on the heavier side and can relate to him with personal experiences. Jr. and Ms. Kendra were so hurt by the fat comments that were made by other people that they believed that teasing people about their weight should be considered a hate crime. By the end of this episode, Cleveland Brown Jr. and Ms. Kendra become a dream team. They put together peaceful protest for fat people and they even had a mini fair after. This episode relates to my topic of gender roles in society because we have this social standard that women have to be pretty, nice, conservative—yet sexy, along with maintaining a nice weight. Men have some of the same standards for keeping a six-pack for abs. This episode shows that everyone has feelings and everyone has to have respect for everyone to live in a copacetic society.

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For the remainder of this blog, gender roles in society will be my topic and of course my theme is none other than the Cleveland show. In the episode I watched for this week’s assignment, Roberta (Cleveland’s step daughter) wants to show her boyfriend that she is more than just a pretty face and a nice body. In order to prove to her boyfriend that he wouldn’t like her as much, or if at all if she did not look the way she did, Roberta decided to get a makeover. This makeover was not an everyday makeover she went through a “fat makeover” to prove to everyone that she just as beautiful inside as she is outside. After undergoing her makeover, she went to school to test it out & no one even recognized her. Students pointed, made fun of her and talked behind her back degrading her saying that her she was fat and ugly. This episode in reference to gender roles in society just shows how women are supposed to look a certain way and if you do not look like the societal standard, you are made to seem as less desirable and unwanted. This episode reminded me much of the film Miss Representation we watched for class because that movie is all about how women have to fit in this box of beauty because of the standards that are raised. Roberta, at the end of this episode learned a valuable lesson because her boyfriend doesn’t pay attention to the real her and is only focused on her exterior appearance more than what’s inside. Along the way, she found out that her friends aren’t really her friends because they ended up disowning her and not wanting to hang around her because she did not look like them anymore.

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For this activist blog, I have chosen the topic of gender roles in society and my theme is a favorite show of mine, The Cleveland Show. In this episode of this show, Cleveland Brown Jr. tries out for the baseball team. The only reason he had tried out was because his father, Cleveland. Cleveland had played for that same baseball team as a high school student and ended up being an all-star at the school. Cleveland Brown Jr. in hopes to make his father happy, tries to learn how to play baseball and become who he knows his dad wants him to be. Although Cleveland Brown Jr. wants to make his dad’s legacy live on, he knows he’s not that skilled in athletics and is not too fond of sports in the first place. Cleveland Brown Jr. enjoys baking and watching the food channel unlike majority of the young men his age. He knew that if he did not try out for the team his dad would be disappointed and his dad’s friends would also joke on Cleveland Brown Sr. for having a “sissy” as a son. This episode in relation to gender roles comes about because Cleveland Brown Jr. enjoys doing things that aren’t considered “masculine”, like baking and watching the food channel. Cleveland is expected to enjoy sports like his father did and how most young men his age do. When I watched this episode I asked myself a couple questions, “Why does an action we take determine masculinity or femininity?” and “What makes baking a feminine quality and what makes enjoying sports a masculine quality?” This show, although is a cartoon,has a lot to learn from it because I believe it shows real life scenarios, commonly much more dramatic, but very relatable issues in our everyday society.

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I would like to advocate for women of color. The reason I would like to advocate for women of color because I, myself is a women of color and I first-handedly experience the everyday obstacles we have to overcome. Women of color are always seen as less desirable and the stereotypes associated with women of color do not help the problem. In the media there is a lack of representation and diversity, young women of color never see their color in media or even on toys, children shows, Disney movies, etc. from a young age, women of color look up to white women as superior more desirable because it is more frequently seen in the media and in reality.  I am passionate about advocating for women of color because I feel like this is a great issue in today’s society. When Disney came out with the movie Aladdin middle-eastern girls finally had a movie they could relate to. From personal experiences, I remember when Princess and the Frog came out I was so happy because for the first time, black girls finally had a Disney princess to look up to, I was about 13 at the time when it came out but I remember my 7-year old cousin was so happy because she had a princess to look up to growing up. I have not really been involved in activism really and I think I haven’t been involved because I haven’t really been exposed to it until the last 2 years so I sometimes don’t feel as passionate as others do about the same subject. I really have no excuse to not be involved because I was really upset when the killing of black males by police officers had skyrocketed about 2 years ago. Hopefully in this year of 2017 I get more involved because I would like my voice to be heard.

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@theveganmothership‘s page is about saving animals and it gives insightful information about veganism and animal cruelty. I believe the greatest strengths of this page is that is it very straight forward and to the point and un-sugarcoated. This page also shows much compassion for animals and their rights. A weakness I believe that this page has, is how gory some of the posts are. I totally understand why it needs to be gory because it is supposed to get a point across clearly and it is just showing the sad reality of animal abuse with food products. My reaction to this page would have to be shocked. I am shocked at this page just because I was so ignorant about what animals go through. One of my close friends is vegan and has been for about 6 years now and I am finally seeing why she is so passionate yet angry about this subject.

@diaryofakanemem’s page is black activist page. this page posts about the uplifting of not only black people, but people of color in general. the biggest strengths of this page has to be how comical, real, and how uplifting it is. On the other hand, I believe the greatest weakness of this page would have to be how informal it is. Usually activists’ pages are more formal but is is social media so I see where the informality plays apart. The informality probably also draws in a bigger crowd to the page so it, in a way in is very fitting. my reaction to this page would have to beI am LOVING what this page is doing. this is by far my favorite activist that I chest follow. I love and enjoy this page so much because I love when people of color are praised just because they have been put down for so long. I also like this page because it is uplifting and inspires me to want to really do something with my life.

@feministorsomething‘s page is awesome! what makes this page so awesome is of course the girl power. This blog is full of women empowerment and encouraging words for everyone. I think the greatest strengths of this page is how everyone (women,men,boy,girl) can relate to this page and can feel better about themselves. A weakness in page, I would have to say would be how it often puts men down. I would much rather the page strictly uplift women than uplift women by putting men down. This is also a page I love because it’s super funny but it keeps it real.

These activist pages impacted how I want to engage in activism because these were all something I cared about so I was inspired to want to change the world in a positive way.