Gender Roles And Feminism

What is gender roles really about? What really makes it so important in our day to day lives? Well to first understand gender roles, you have to understand gender. The dictionary definition of gender is "either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior:" While Gender roles are more complex, they are something that society has shaped us to look at in a certain way. The sociological perspectives all help justify gender roles. They are seen as essential to society's makeup because the assigned roles work together. Men are, also, seen as dominant and women as submissive. These views are what make individuals in society act a certain way towards a gender because of the beliefs

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.

Gender is one of the biggest ways we judge someone in our world today. Being a girl is typically a sign of being weak, powerless, and not as important. If a man was called a girl, it means they are being childish, or stupid about a certain situation. On the reverse, being a man comes with many expectations of power and strength as well as just being the bigger, better person. They say boys learn how to be a man from none other than his father, or a father figure none the less. People stick on stereotypes for being both a girl and a boy. Gender even depicts things like being in a rock band, or playing sports. Most girls who are in rock bands are considered childish, almost as if they are playing around and are not any good. Just like boys who do not play sports are known to be sissy and weak. The groups society puts people in do not even make sense half the time, seeing as, for example, there are many sports that are for girls rather than boys. Although gender roles do play an important part in how we treat people, we should not judge people based on their gender. Pearson writes in a way that makes gender constrict and define the characters. Stereotyping someone based on their gender is an awful way to get to know someone.

Gender Roles can be defined as roles society expects people to play on account of their sex life. Like all roles, gender roles are made up of sets of expectations, so they can be thought of as sets of expirations, so they can be thought of as sets of expectation that are attached to sex.(pp: 220 John E. Farley & Michael W. Flota).

Societies today are highly affected by the way people are believed to act. Gender roles are created by society, and they are a way to define how a gender should or shouldn't act. In “Answers” by George Singleton, there is a husband and wife thinking about getting divorced, and they begin answering questions in a book, and realize that the other turned out to be less manly or trustworthy, than they believed to be. In “Public Relations” by George Singleton, a man and his wife are out eating with his boss and his wife. While eating he gets fired for talking about how women should act, and how they will amount to nothing without an education. In both of these stories, men and women act differently than the stereotypes put on them by their

Gender can sometimes be seen as biological characteristics humans have, when in fact it is the social characteristic ones society deems either masculine or feminine. Sex, on the other hand, is the biological differences in humans, for example, hormones and sex organs. People usually play gender roles in society, otherwise known as gender ideology. Gender ideology is when men and women have certain attitudes regarding their ‘fixed’ roles, responsibilities and rights. Throughout history men and women have been socialized to play these expected roles that have been placed on them due to their sex. In my own personal life I have encountered many instances where I have been socialized in relation to sex and gender.

Literature throughout history has displayed to us the evolution of the male and female gender roles in society. Women have been described as ‘the angel in the house,’ whilst men are typified as dominant and prevailing in comparison to women. The gothic genre in literature is used to personify and exaggerate these stereotypes, by using gothic motifs such as dream sequences and themes such as horror and terror. Not only does the gothic exaggerate the stereotypes, but it also allows them to be contravened, due to the transgressive nature of the genre. The psychoanalytical aspect of this genre, allows for repressed desires to be made eminent and therefore characters can transgress and in the process, cross their contemporary gender boundaries. Keats uses the gothic device of Negative capability in order to conceal the transgression of the females in his poetry, Carter revised gothic fairytales in order to display them from a feminist approach and Stoker uses gothic themes, set against the backdrop of the fluidity of Fin de siècle period, to allow characters to stray from their gender stereotypes.

Gender roles in any society dictates specific standards by which each individual (based on gender) is expected to act. Proper decorum based on sex, is manifested in the way men and women verbally express themselves, reason, act, and participate with each other. These differences in social expectations have impacted the way in which humanity perceives family responsibilities, job allocation, entertainment and even tangible products based on masculinity or femininity. Yet, based on the scientific principals set by Charles Darwin, evolution is inevitable. Gender roles in today’s culture seem to be obsolete. Socioeconomic factors have forced the hand of evolution, tarnishing the guiding lines of gender roles and responsibility. Society should evolve and stop trying to push the so-called typical gender roles because it can hinder the growth and development of today’s and the future’s society.

Everyday you hear women and men being compared in life. A majority of the time it is in a form of men being more superior than women rather it 's stereotypes, appearances, or money; Men usually end up more dominant. Society tends to assume that men are more capable than women in all aspects throughout life. These postulations have commenced before we were even born. Men are expected to constantly be working and providing the home for the women and children; Women are assumed to be cleaning, cooking and taking care of the children in the house. There multitudinous assumptions made towards men and women affect the way we live. Expectations like these are why patriarchal societies are composed. Patriarchal society means that men over rule the women in many ways and are more dominant causing a contrasting way of life. It has become more instinctive for humans to think this particular way because they are being circumvented by these assumptions everyday. Throughout literature, it is clear that men and women make gender role assumptions during all different time frames forming patriarchal societies. From the novels Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, and Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire the male characters show how they specifically formed a patriarchal society with how dominant they are to the women characters in the novels due to the assumptions that men and women make about gender roles.

Gender roles have really changed throughout time, whether it’s women or men. For women, their roles have drastically changed, and in this play one can see the progress that women have made on affirming their roles either as housewives or just a woman in general. The man’s role may be the main role in this play. The man, in this case, runs the family and is the provider for his family. The woman is the caretaker, does the cooking, and the cleaning. Each one of these roles have an impact in this play. Both of these roles have developed throughout the play, and also throughout time.

Gender roles and status influence every social institution on the planet. From tribal indigenous people to the western world society has given men and women specific social constructions, roles, and obligations that affect work and family. Many of these social structures are easily seen throughout history and in modern day. We will be focusing on the workplace and how gender and societal roles impact men and women. We will also be looking at the similarities as well as the differences of roles for men and women in varying areas of work and family responsibilities around the world focusing on Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United states.

Gender is one of the greatest factors that can determine how we define ourselves and others. Although gender is determined at birth for many, it does not influence one 's identity of self until a later age. How society views the roles of each gender influences how a person views themselves. As the views changes, so does one’s identity. In the past, the roles of men and women were defined and separated. Men were expected to provide income for the family, while women were expected to take care of the home. Doing things outside these roles caused negative reactions from the community and frowned upon. Today, there is still a difference between men and women, but a lot of the roles have become acceptable for both.

War films like 300 (2006) maintain and amplify the stereotypical roles of males and females, where males are portrayed as the ones who have to serve as defender of all. The film industry mainly classified the conventional gender roles of society into their movies; majority of films have supported some of the male and female stereotypes. In the history of the film industry, the role of men is primarily the stereotypical working class man or hero, while the roles of women are primarily portrayed as being somewhat inferior to men. In the 1930s through the 1970s, men held the leading roles in films while women played smaller roles. In terms of jobs, women were given mostly family roles and rarely were shown outside of their homes, while men had successful careers and did many activities outside of home. As women were given a more active role in society, the gender roles in movies changed. However, many types of gender stereotypes in films still exist. Men are typically portrayed to be the hero, while women are often portrayed as sexual objects. In the movie 300 and according to "8 Reasons It Wasn 't Easy Being Spartan.", the Spartan men served and protected the city of Sparta, while the Spartan women did domestic chores and were just to be there to breed more strong warriors. “Long-term effects also involve learning processes. From infancy, humans learn how to perceive, interpret, judge, and respond to events in the physical and social environment.” (Anderson & Bushman) The

Men and women are consistently sexualized and misrepresented in the media. These misrepresentations have serious implications on society and both sexes are constrained by these ideals. These ideal depictions of masculine and feminine are threatening to the already distorted gender roles. The media standards for beauty are outrageous and simply unattainable, putting immense pressure on women today. Moreover media targeting men present a constant theme of hyper masculinity that is normalized in male culture. Both exaggerations are detrimental to girls and boys today.