Boots Gender Roles

The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century

In the 21st century, many women, myself included, take for granted that we can wear whatever we desire and say what we want, in public, without the fear of being thrown in jail. However, that was not always the case. While the fight for the continued advance of women’s rights rages on, women of the 19th century lived a very different life than the one, us women, lead today. The feminist agenda was just emerging on the horizon. One particular woman was preparing to do her part to further the cause of women’s rights: Sarah Willis Parker. Parker was better known by her pen name, Fanny Fern. After facing and overcoming extreme adversity, she made the decision to start writing. To understand how truly ground breaking Fanny Fern was, we need to understand that in a 1997 edition of an anthology of American satire from colonial times to present, Fern was the only woman writer from the 19th century in that text. Her satiric style and controversial subject matter was just what the oppressed needed to gain some support and give them a voice.

Does deviating from one’s gender norms inevitably doom one down a spiral of moral corruption? Tim O'Brien, author of “Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong” and Ernest Hemingway, author of “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber”, certainly seem to hold this view, as evident by the fates of the major female characters in their respective works. The deviance of the major female characters in both works appears to corrupt not only themselves, but also pollute their partners, causing them to suffer injury or harm as a result. The degree of injury ranges from negligible, like Fossie’s demotion and broken heart, to fatal, like the bullet that rips through Macomber’s skull. It begs the question, are these stories meant to serve as cautionary tales for their female readers, or possibly for their husbands, so they may recognize gender deviance and stop it in its tracks before their wives transform into Margot Macomber or Mary Anne Bell? This essay will analyze what such characters say about pervading views of women, both in society and in literature.

When a man greets Taylor on the street, he warns her about the special kind of poison in the spider walking across the pavement. From this, Kingsolver’s beliefs on feminism come out when she writes, “I never could figure out why men thought they could impress a woman by making the world out to be such a big dangerous deal” (51). Taylor’s thoughts on the stranger’s words reflect Kingsolver’s feelings about a man’s role in society. “Men… making the world out to be such a big dangerous deal” is showing how men attempt to gain power over women and make them dependent on men. However, the women in this book help develop the idea that women don’t depend on men. Mattie and Lou Ann are two other strong, female characters who also act as a way to address the social issue of equality between men and women. Mattie runs her own business and understands cars, just as most people would think only men can do. She beats the stigma that men are the breadwinners of the family. Meanwhile, Lou Ann raises her son without the presence of a father while Taylor discovers herself while raising Turtle on her own. Kingsolver purposely includes these women in her novel to prove that women can be

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

Throughout history, men and woman have always seemed at odds; men tend to favor war and brutality, while women embrace nurturing femininity and peace. S. E. Hinton’s The Outsiders plays on this idea, featuring many instances of male-female interactions to illustrate the idea that male-female relationships are the mostly likely to succeed between the Socs and the Greasers. In agreement with this idea is author Joshua Goldstein’s “difference feminists,” who embrace the idea that women think differently than men, especially when it comes to war and violence. Although no relationships are perfect, and the relationships between the two gangs will never be in complete harmony, Hinton’s belief is that male-female relationships inspire hope for a better future, as displayed through the interactions between her characters.

Issues of women rights have been debated for years as well as women and their place in the world. Movies have prompted the relevance of this idea; books have spurred its opinions on whether there should be a sort of revival in this nation. The House on Mango Street does not fall too far from this act of prompting. One specific instance in which feminism is mentioned is its relation to shoes. In the chapter “The Family of Little Feet” Esperanza begins the chapter by giving a vivid description of a random family’s feet. She states that the grandpa’s feet were “fat and doughy like thick tamales, and these he powered and stuffed into white socks and brown leather shoes” (39), in other words, that his feet were horrific. Esperanza proceeds to speak on the grandma’s feet, the baby’s feet, and the mother’s feet, who each reached the standard for beautiful feet. The chapter continues by telling the instance in which Nenny, Rachel, and Lucy received old- high heeled shoes from their neighbor. It also mentions the three friends being highly excited about the distribution given to them. They even declared that they will no longer wear the “other kind.” Why would they be so excited about something so insignificant such as heels, or is it insignificant? They implied that the “other kind” of shoe couldn’t compare to the new pair of old- high heels they received. Michelle S. Sugiyama, the author who wrote Of

In the past few decades, Lego has grown into one of the most prominent brands of children toys worldwide. Unfortunately, the success Lego continues to endure is accompanied by disapproval and accusations. The new Friends line of Lego has attracted criticism as some find it to be too gender specific and sexist. Despite the popularity of the Lego Friends sets, individuals found the sets to be offensive and discriminating towards females. The pink and purple colours with the fairy, princess or family figurines were said to be supposedly stereotyping girls. When compared to the boys Lego sets which incorporate themes such as super heroes, doctors and firefighters, the Friends line appears inferior.

In this story the author portrays men in a way that they view women as objects of desire. You can see that when the men in the story make comments about the women in the story in a sexual light. For instance, when the author says “I see the girl has what could be an attractive body…” (Tiptree 255). showing that without even meeting the women that the author is commenting on the character is already making comments on her looks. Also, when the author makes the comment “The women doesn’t mean one thing to me, but the obtrusive excessiveness of her, the defiance of her little rump eight inches’ form fly – for two pesos I’d have those shorts down and introduce myself” (Tiptree 263). During the 60s “there was seldom justice for women who had been raped… she had been inviting the rape by wearing revealing clothes or tight dresses” (Coontz 13). Reviling the nature of the time that women had very little sexual rights during this time in “seventeen states in 1963 is was still restricted that women access to contraceptives…Massachusetts prohibited the sale if it” (Coontz 11).

In many ways, Buddy Willard is a dangerous figure in Esther’s life had she been naive and accepting of his propositions. These dangerous traits, however, simply encompass the ideologies which many men believe to be true, particularly in this time period. Such traits are evident in the following events: his ridicule of her poetry, his implication that she should give up poetry when they have a baby and when he unsolicitedly reveals his genitals to Esther, asking if she’s ever seen a man. Though these actions seem disconnected from the masculine gender roles, they are almost direct reflections of the societal norms for men. Creative careers such as poetry tend to receive disdain and contempt from society because they engage with sensitivity which is often associated with femininity. Buddy’s dismissal of Esther’s career aspirations is a reflection of the common male opinion that creative work is unrespectable. Had Esther been naive, she might’ve agreed with Buddy and conformed to the female expectations that she must stay home with a baby. The danger that such ideology poses to Esther’s growth and conceptions about the world around her is evident in her reflection:

We immediately begin to see gender roles which are embedded within the film's dancing when Ryanna is watching Bishop's dance crew performing and is about to ask him to let her in. His dance crew is fully male and the choreography for the dance number "My Boots" consists of stomping, clapping and the crotch-grab (movie). These subtle cues which are seen within the choreography reinforce the idea that males must use their bodies in an aggressive, combative and dominating way (Meglin). In contrast, we later see an all-girls step dancing crew with choreography consisting of the shaking and popping of their butts and breasts, grinding, moving their butts in circular motions, the splits and getting on the floor. In addition to their choreography, they also wear

In response to the flagrant 1920 's, the thirties and forties were very sobering. The Depression hit and business was lost, in both the rural and urban areas. Women who had been taught to be independent and find work for themselves were confused, and the gender roles went back to what they once were. The boyish look of the twenties had vanished and women tried again to look feminine, searching for a new realistic, but untouchable ideal. World War II was taking its toll on much of the world, and it set in a harsh reality. Women were called to duty for many jobs, working with men in factories and not so much time at home. In addition, women writers started to express their feelings about the war. Authors like Marianne Moore and Edna St. Vincent Millay used their witty humor to get attention. A famous poem, The Paper Nautilus, was written by Moore. In this poem she expressed how she did not want young men to go off to war through imagery and symbolism. Times were hard for most; causing fashion to be very insignificant, but was a huge

Author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou once said, “How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”. When one thinks of comic books, it is very likely that the subjects that come to mind are Marvel’s Spiderman or DC’s Batman. Although comic books are stereotypically thought to be mainly about super heroes, there are a wide variety of subject matter they could be written about, such as romance. In the 1950s – 1960s, it was common for these romance comics to exploit the social norms of that time and emphasized the subject of gender roles. While the men in comic books were usually illustrated in a brave heroic manner, the women would be portrayed to be what would now be considered a stereotypical “trophy wife”. As a young child reading these comics and taking in these images, they are slowly molding their ideals to believe that what they are reading and seeing is what is accepted and normal in their society. By coding gender norms into the texts, authors are helping mold the ideology of its readers to believe that it is acceptable for both genders to follow specific rules that accommodate to the believed social norms of the time.

In reading the short story, “Up in Michigan”, by Earnest Hemingway, Hemingway appears to take a feministic approach in writing this story. In this story, men are seen as the dominant or domineering partner in the relationship and women are more seen, not heard and are often found in the kitchen cooking and doing house choirs as their womanly/ femininely duties called for in this era. In this story, Liz is a young lady who was physically and mentally infatuated with a blacksmith by the name of Jim Gilmore. Even though Liz was smitten by Jim, Jim in return appeared to barely notice Liz. Towards the end of the story Liz puts herself in some rather compromising positions, which lands her in more than a noticeable position