Gilman And Masculinity

Through my experiences with people of many backgrounds, as well as my education, I have learned to separate the idea of sex and gender. I still maintain certain traditional views regarding gender, however I’ve come to the realization that the social constructs of men and women are not, and should not, be as rigid. In my opinion, I have acknowledged that there are differences between ‘men’ and ‘women’, however these differences should be used to uplift one another, rather than to tear the other gender apart. For example, a family unit in which the man decides to take on the responsibilities of the

Another interesting statement I would like to bring to the surface is Alvarez writes in her book that “boys are born men but girls turn into women” (72). This made me think of the BBC YouTube clip we watched in class. Within this video a mother, father, and daughter are getting prepared for their daughters sweet fifteen. One of the first things I recognized in this film was that the father a male was speaking about and for the females when they were in the same room as them listening to what he had to say. This is a problem in itself as the male voices his and silences the women, in addition, he is speaking on a subject that he does not even fully understand, women. For arguments sake a women would never speak about a man and what it means to be one. This power dynamic within this family is troubling and shows the dominance of one gender over

There is a huge debate going on today about gender. Society believes you’re a boy if you like blue, and like to play sports and go hunting; and you’re a girl if you like pink and have long hair and pig tails and play with Barbie dolls. Society has forced us to choose between the two. I believe that both women and men can both have it all. As Dorment says, ‘competing work life balance and home as much as women’. (Dorment 697) I believe in this article Richard Dorment, has argued his opinion very well, I think both men and woman equally need to be involved in housework as well as taking care of the children. In today’s world were judging who were going to be even before were born. Throughout this article Dorment effectively convinces his audience that men and women should be equal by using statistics and emotional stories, Dorment uses personal stories and extensive research to make readers believe in his credibility, and lastly Dorment employs the rhetorical appeals of pathos and ethos effectively.

In both essays, two common themes revealed are the dominance of man and to find the perfect female spouse to satisfy their male spouses need. Ideas that are being presented are girls need to stay girly and attractive and males cannot sustain friendship with females. Each author elaborates on what the ideal male or female is. The author Paul Theroux talks more about how society sees as a man in his essay “Being a Man” and uses metaphors and hyperboles to get through readers. While the author Judy Brady explains what the ideal female is viewed as in her essay “I Want a Wife” and uses satire and domestic ideology.

Traditional gender roles are typical roles for men and women based on biological and social differences. The book describes two benefits of traditional gender roles for males as: Higher Income and Other Job Related Advantages and Less Domestic Work and Marital Stress. Men are expected to always provide a stable income for the home. As personal experience in my household, my dad’s paychecks were always higher than my mom’s. He worked as head of security of a grade school making over $3,000+ a month, meanwhile my mom working as a homecare nurse made only $2,000. Because my dad’s income was higher, he was always expected to pay majority of the bills such as rent, cable, lights, car notes, and insurance. My mom paid for the smaller bills such

In the reading “Hearing the Difference: Theorizing Connection” by Carol Gillian, Gillian talks about a shift from the psychological patriarchal “norm” when the voice of women started to become less peripheral and more central. She relates the voice to the relationships, experiences and connections of women. She separates her ideas into the feminine ethic of care, which is the ethic of obligations and interpersonal relationships in a patriarchal world, and the feminist ethic of care, which is the connection and disconnection of human life which requires change. She believed that the psychological knowledge that had been recently gained at that time was a map toward the future, and that although it may be hard, the voice of women had been heard

I found it fascinating that they counsel women to deal with sexuality and gender appropriate roles. The first idea that I would like to discuss is the idea that we as a species have created this false sense of roles for each gender is ridicules. Women can procreate ideas equivalent to men. The ability to critically think and analyze is equal in both genders. The division of genders does not define a person, or their character. The mere difference between both genders is biology; and in the prehistoric eras, men were determined to fight and protect and women were designated for reproduction and nurture. In todays civilized society, it is irrelevant because the gender roles can be overlapped. Women can fight alongside men in the army and men can nurture children because the notion that men have to keep up to the brave persona

In the critique, From Doing to Undoing: Gender as We Know It, discussed how wives did most of the household work including cooking, cleaning, and taking care of children even if they were employed outside of the home. Whereas men only had to work outside. Household labour was seen as a female job and men did not take apart in it. However, in todays day and age this can be seen as undoing gender. Nowadays a lot of men take equal responsibility in doing the household work and it is split equally between the husband and wife. This shows how household work that was designated with only woman is now also associated with men. Barbara indicated that we should try to focus getting rid of sex categories but I believe this extremely difficult because everything around us is gender and to change that we would have to change people perspectives and everything they have been influenced by that has formed their definitions of

Therefore, feminist sociology is not effective in leading women towards change or an end to dominant heterosexual assumptions that put patriarchy at power. Thus, it is difficult for women to breakthrough the oppression merely on theories and lacking practical action or reforms. When sociologists, such as Smith uses categories to analyze the relationship between women and her male counterpart, she draws on this notion that there is this believed or assumed natural heterogender relationship in society. As Smith proposed, men are able to work in the public materialist world and contribute to the everyday capitalist world is due to the existence of a female figure working within the private sphere to support the workings within the household, and in turn, make a patriarchal and capitalist society possible. Therefore, there is the assumed husband and wife, nuclear family in the household, with each playing their part and indicating that every individual is required to situate themselves as actors in this

The lack of communication between both authors and their spouses is a large source of anger. Bennetts claims that, “ And men won’t truly commit themselves to the effort until they too must be responsive to family needs” (43). Until men put themselves in women's shoes concerning household duties with children and when those duties cut into their time they will not fully understand the anger their spouses are enduring. Bennetts in her article complains about making sacrifices and supporting husbands’ needs while sacrificing their own. It is not until later in the article that she mentions solutions, but none of them include

The video provided was very informative, I believe gender roles is very important issue to address especially in using some of our concepts within family therapy. While, I grew up in a home where my father was seen as the head of the home, however my mother worked outside the home not because she had to, however she preferred to work. Also religion played a big role in how the structure of our home was set up. The bible has defined roles for men and women, and it causes problems within family unit. Among Bible-believing Christians, the gender revolution has spawned intense, emotional controversy over what the Bible says about the roles of men and women. There are two major viewpoints in this debate. One is the evangelical feminist view (or

Man and women were made is the beginning of time. The reason why, we will never know, but throughout history these two beings have been compared through every aspects of life. Men are the dominate creatures, controlling the earth, while women are the nurturers. The obvious differences between men and women have been capitalized and fought over throughout humankind’s history. Many of the people in the world have strong opinions on both genders and what their roles are and why they are the way that they are. One of these famous writers is Karen Horney. An informational, biography article stated, “Therapist, teacher, lecturer, writer--Karen Horney was a pioneer who laid the groundwork for the development of a feminine psychology. (Karen Horney)” She wrote many opinionated and researched books and essays on the psychologically based opinions and observations of the world based on men and women, and how they affect each other. One of these famous articles was The Distrust Between Sexes. She developed her career with the influence Sigmund Freud and his interpretations of male psychology. Horney took his information to depict her resulting conclusions on female psychology. Karen Horney’s essay, The Distrust Between Sexes, reflects on the differences between men and women.

Throughout many decades women have been struggling to be equal to men, both at home and in the work place. Women have come a long way and are certainly fighting to gain that equality, but gender roles are very important in our society. They have become important in life from birth, and society continues to push these gender roles. The treatment of the male gender is very different from that of the female, and this issue has become very important to me, as a woman. As children we learn and adapt to specific gender roles, and as we grow they become more evident and more important to our role in a society. There is a lot of discrimination against the female gender. Carol Gilligan argued that

She is especially upset by the field of sociobiology.  Gender as Social Structure By assigning people to one or two categoriesmale or female- society has created difference between them. Risman feels that genders strongest influence is found at the interactional level, and therein lies the deepest liability for the continuation of inequality in American family life

Women’s role within the household has changed considerably over a period of time. In the later days in the United States women were to attend to the children and to the house and not do much more than that. Children are now being raised by stay at home dads instead of the stereotypical stay at home moms. According to Gardner, "Real-life families have changed considerably since 'Mr. Mom ' appeared, with more men sharing child-rearing and household chores." (Gardner 2010) This is occurring because women’s jobs are no longer labeled as being just for women. Men have gotten a lot of criticism for being stay at