The Social Network: Student’s opinions on new era, but same lame gender roles

By Ruby Araiza, Cristina Montes, & Anthony Noga 

 

Ruby’s view:

Woman have come a long way as far as having a voice vs. the 1920s when they weren’t even allowed to vote. All though things have changed since some things such as gender roles in movies haven’t. In the movie, the social network is a good example how woman are viewed as less than men. Mark Zuckerberg is famous for being the founder and creator of Facebook. Facebook has been very successful and has made him the youngest billionaire. This movie didn't only show the birth of Facebook but it also put out Mark Zuckerberg’s flaws such as computer hacking. He has portrayed as very devious, a backstabber, and misogynist.

The Social Network not only brings out Mark Zuckerberg’s dirty laundry but it also exposes a lot of sexism throughout it. Mark Zuckerberg along with his entrepreneurs are portrayed as young, geeky, geniuses’ while the women are portrayed as floozies, and disposable one night stands. There are plenty of women that come out throughout the film but it’s to cater to these men. It is pretty hard to name the ethical parts of this movie when Mark Zuckerberg hacks into directories and computers. I mean hacking itself is an illegal act and not so much as only unethical. Mark Zuckerberg was charged for breach of security and violation of privacy. In the movie he spends most of his time in courts being sued for his wrongdoing which again makes it very difficult for me to see any ethical behavior.

The movie over says “ You don't get 500 million friends without making few enemies”. That statement itself gives off a negative vibe about the film. It was unethical from computer hacking, stealing ideas, betraying his partner/friend, and the demeaning of women. I was appalled at it all but more so at the fact that Facebook started from the misogynistic campus website he created. In this website, his college male peers and he would rate female colleagues. They were compared to farm animals based on their looks and were publically ranked. Sure one might say The Social Network might come off as very sexist because it is told from the men’s perspective but either way their acts in this movie were based on very misogynistic acts and views.

Unfortunately, The Social Network isn’t the only movie that is sexist. Children’s Disney movies are based on gender roles. I personally love princes' movies and have a daughter that loves them as well but I don't want her getting the idea that she must fall in love with and marry a prince in order to live happily ever after. I try to teach her about the importance of being a strong independent woman. To love her self above everything which is why I like her to watch the more empowering Disney movies such as Mulan, Brave, and Moana. These movies aren’t your traditional gender role Disney movie. Although we have come along way from the 1920’s, unfortunately, there are currently still gender roles in the movies we view as you can see. I strongly believe that women should be treated fairly and that men shouldn't be downplayed in today’s modern era. When will these gender roles be stopped is the question?  We live in a new era but with same lame gender roles…

Cristina's View:

The film The Social network seems to put out women in a very sexist way. This movie starts up with a lot of gender bias. Since the beginning, Mark Zuckerberg looks like a complete jerk because as he is talking to his girlfriend he makes it seem like he is better than her. When she broke up with his he went and created a website where people could vote to see who was the hottest girl from Harvard. Sexism takes a big part in this film because as they created Facebook there were able to bash on girls and just make it seem like girls were nothing.  

Simply in this film, there were no big woman roles it was pure men. Sexism is a big part of many daily things, though it has slowed down quite a bit it is still a big problem just like it is in this film. The gender relationships in this film go on through the whole movie. They found sexism as to be their pinpoint and to make their creation (Facebook) drama. Sexism is shown in the way that the boys use Facebook to put down girls. Like Eduardo instead of putting that he was in a relationship I didn't and that's why his girlfriend broke up with him. We might see sexism as more of back in the day because things have changed now women can vote and many other things. Though it was worst back in the day sexism is still part of our lives! We live in a world where it seems as sexism will never go away and this fill shows a good example of it. We can't say that they are old men that’s why it seems that they might be acting sexist because they aren't they are college students to top it off they are Harvard students doing this. They are supposed to be smart, intelligent young adults. I mean they are but they seem to also be childish to do those things like creating a website to see what Harvard girl is the hottest. 

Sexism, gender bias are things we will see forever I truly believe. As I think and think I cannot find a way that sexism will go away because even if we have a woman president there will still be males especially that will disagree with us having a woman president. Even some woman grow up believing that they are only good for being stay-at-home-moms and housewives. The question that I keep asking myself as I am writing part of this blog is will sexism ever go away? If so how? I seem to come to the same answers that there is no way that sexism will completely disappear or go away. Many men think like these young men on this film that they own women and that they are better than women. I said it at the beginning of this blog and I am going to say it again the way the movie started made me notice the sexism right away because as they are talking, Zuckerberg talks he seems to be putting his girlfriend down.

Antony's view:

Gender relationships have been a big problem lately in the movie you see Mark telling his girlfriend how lucky she is to be with him. Also when they were first starting there social media website it was only females that were the ones on the site that other men were able to pick from on which was hot or not. They also talked about how males would be more successful than women would be. I would even come close to say there was a lot of feminism in this movie. Men should never try and think nor act like they are better than females in the movie you see that throughout the beginning of the movie. If he would have made the social media to wear you could talk to people like he did later on. Going through and just letting people pick who’s hot or not is just wrong in all aspects. There are different ways that people could go about gender profiling. The worst part is now we see it more and more through our regular days Pepe are not just judging male or female there judging people for making life choices. I believe that he could have started a different types of social media accounts that he could done and not been so bias to females.