Billy Madison Gender Roles

Gender defined roles are continuously adapting to the new societal norms of the era. There is a surplus of historical events that have reimagined the traditional expectations of a man or women.

Why do people want to change the way we live our life? I don’t fit in, so what? In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Lee uses characterization and tone in order to convey the idea that in society every gender has to follow their code of conduct, consequently it restricts people from being themselves in order to fit in.

The theme of love is also shown. James Farmer Jr., 14 year old boy, seizes to hide that he like Samantha, aspiring female lawyer, but sadly for Jr. Samantha likes Henry,the other debater. After constant rejection,including Samantha sleeping with Henry, Jr. gets frustrated and get into an argument with Samantha following Professor Melvin Tolson’s arrest. However, the role shifts, and Jr. becomes angry at Henry because he cheated on her. Thus, we can see the shift of both the themes racial discrimination and love.

Throughout William Shakespeare’s play, Romeo and Juliet, there is an overlaying presence of the typical gender roles that men and women were supposed to enact. These were the very roles that influenced the fate of their lives. Romeo and Juliet defy the rules placed upon themselves in both subtle and extreme ways. Juliet’s conflicted adherence and rebellion puts her in the position of deciding protagonist as every decision Juliet makes has a domino effect on the other characters in the play.

In Lewis Carroll’s, Alice in Wonderland, traditional gender roles are reversed by portraying women with masculine behaviors and males with qualities generally attributed to women. Where aggressive and dominating behavior is seen as masculine, and sensitive and submissive acts are considered feminine, Carroll paints a picture of a society where these qualities are switched. For instance, the Queen of Hearts is a dominating and aggressive figure who terrorizes her meek husband. While some characters seem to possess qualities that Carroll's contemporaries would consider traditional, they are in the minority and they serve the purpose of teaching Alice something about the true meaning of gender. Alice has to navigate this bizarre world to discover

Before reading the play Fences by August Wilson, I wish I knew about the gender roles in marriages of the 1950s in America. I would have understood why the characters Troy and Rose acted the way they did in the play. In addition to wanting to know more, I looked at how society affects how the roles were back in the 1950s even on a microsystem and mesosystem scale. Which means, a microsystem is the immediate surroundings in a society of a person and mesosytem is the next step up; so where somebody works, goes to school, or church are examples. After doing research on the different gender roles, I was surprised to see how strict the gender roles were and how accurate August Wilson was at depicting Troy and Rose’s roles in their marriage. Throughout

“The woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to rule over him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved” (Matthew Henry). Gender roles are how each human is supposed to act, speak, or dress according to their assigned sex. The world has always depended on them to make crucial decisions and they have marked every aspect of society. Several people have taken advantage of gender stereotypes to determine what to do with their lives or to come up with excuses as to why they are carrying out a task. Literature is one of the main agents that exposes human attitude towards life. It has been affected by time

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee develops the theme of gender roles through characterization. During the 1930’s, stereotyping between males and females were prominent and even today in our society .Scout challenges the idea of gender roles to remain a tomboy. She challenges characters such as Aunt Alexandra and Jem. Primarily unconventional in terms of gender, these role models fluctuate between different ideas. Lee describes characters that resist agreeing to the example of masculinity and femininity and instead fill middle positions between the stereotypes, as Scout’s tomboy a behavior exemplifies.

Gender roles once played an important role in marriage in the 1950’s. There was expectations for what a man should do compared to a woman. Women were supposed to stay home and take care of their husband and kids, while men were supposed to go out and make money for their families. Women were expected to want to be stay at home mom’s, and if they did work they had to work and still take care of their families. The husbands were not expected to help out.

In both plays, The Importance of Being Earnest and Death of a Salesman, issues of gender and class are central to the development of the plot of the plays. These issues are critical to plot development. When the author mentions the society and culture of the plays it focuses on the issues of both genders and different classes. For example, in the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Ernest lives two different lives and is actually named Jack, but goes by the name Ernest in the city and is a businessman with a decent amount of money. Ernest has made a life for himself in the city with a brand new identity where no one knows about his life in the country and that he’s actually from the country where a man raised him when he was left as a baby.

The person who actually protected Cat was Christian, however this is an example of another factor in the book that has to do with the gender roles portrayed in Black Creek. Everyone in this town seems to have a fairly old fashioned idea of how men and women are meant to relate to one another. Almost all male and female relationships are driven by the idea that men are there to protect women and, vice versa, women are there to care for men. Take, for example, Cat’s relationship with her father. Almost every time he is brought up it is to say that Cat is bringing him something or talking about how he needs her. She cares for him like a mother would a child. Still he refers to her with pet names that are demeaning and disempowering. “I was either

While watching the “Ladies Room” episode of Mad Men, a lot of traditional gender roles were portrayed. Gender roles are often defined as how a society defines how women and men should think and behave. Men are often taught to show instrumental qualities, such as competitiveness, dominance, and confidence, while women exhibit more expressional qualities, such as empathy and sensitivity. The Mad Men episode started off with a man showing dominance by being demanding towards a waitress. While at work, the men competed against each other all while messing around and having fun at work. Women in the episode expressed themselves by gossiping and showing feelings towards others.

In today’s society, men are seen as the more domineering figure in contrast to their female counterpart. Certain attributes that typically evoke admiration from others are usually granted to men more than women. This explains the illusion of men being superior to women in all aspects of life. These power relationships can be explicitly seen through the stereotypical gender roles the American man and the girl play in the short story,“Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway. As the story begins with the man and the girl seated at a table, the girl remarks how the hills look like white elephants, to which the man replies that he has never seen one before.

Men and women have long been compared to one another since they have existed. Ernest Hemingway, the author of “Hills like White Elephants,” wrote this short story, in 1927, to illustrate how much men and women differ emotionally from each other when they are put in a certain type of situation. Gender roles over the years has changed very much, especially since the 1920’s. Both men and women may be raised similarly, but they were not taught the exact same values as each other. Certain expectations are expected from the two genders based on what their parents have taught them while growing up. Gender roles have also evolved so much as time passed, meaning the gender roles then are definitely different from the men and women today. Although men and women are diverse genders, a relationship between the two affects their expectations in society, thought processes, and their values during the 1920’s.

Moreover, Mary evolves that story and explains to her grandmother, Mrs. Tilford, that she saw the two women kissing through the keyhole in the door. Mary knew the power that her grandmother had over the school. Mrs. Tilford is one of the main financial contributors to the school. She is also a wealthy, influential older woman who is well respected throughout the town. But, because of her adolescence, Mary did not know the underlying effects of telling the lie to such a powerful person within the community. Mary does not realize that her actions have given Mrs. Tilford the power to ruin the school, the women’s reputations, and most importantly their lives. Although Karen and Martha never committed the act they were accused of, the lie spreads all over the town and ultimately results in the closing of the school and ruining their lives.