Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

If I were a boy

sekang's picture

Hi guys, I found a "blog" that has a lot of interesting stuff! And I found a video that we all can related to. One of the videos presented in the class was "If I were a boy" by Beyonce. And this one is called "If I were a bro." Would we be able to argue and hold the same views as we did toward "If I were a boy"? Or, would you view this video (If I were a bro) just as a joke? Do you find anything similar in both videos?

If you can find something feministy about this video, which one do you think is the better way to approach this topic: jokingly or seriously? 

See video

Comments

S. Yaeger's picture

I think this video avoids

I think this video avoids some of the problems we found in "If I Were A Boy" by focussing on an exaggeration of a pretty universally  annoying sub-set of people.  Instead of attemping to cut across gender lines with a pretty sharp knife, this video just focusses on douchey behavior that pretty much no one I know would argue for being ok.  That said, it's still problematic in the sense that it's heteronormative, and that it makes the assumption that women can't be bros.  To answer your question about humor, I do think it's sometimes more effective to use humor to critique behavior, and I think this video is a good example.