Stereotypes Of Men And Women In The 60's

In the 1900’s it was a social accepted practice to believe one’s gender restricted what an individual was cable of doing. During this time period and going back further in the past the main ideology of society was males were there to lead, provide and protect the fairer sex. Susan Glaspell uses stereotypes to disprove the notion that women are less superior than their male counterparts by having the women solve the murder of Mr. John Wright.

How often do you hear your friends, family, or acquaintances say they would like to go back to simpler times such as the 1950s - the era where you could wear fancy poodle skirts, drive big cars, eat at your favorite diner, or catch a movie at the drive in. Americans tend to think of the positive aspects of the 1950’s. Unfortunately during that era women were treated unfairly. Even though women had rights, they were still unequal to men. Fortunately feminism has progressed since then. Today, women comprise over 50% of the workforce. Nonetheless, men still cling to stereotypes that should have been destroyed long ago, whether in the workplace, at home, or in society.

The sixties was an evolutionary era with a new variety of movies, tv shows and books. The 60’s revolutionised the way that people thought about movies and television and has inspired our favourite shows and movies today.

The 1950s and the 1960s were a crucial stage for the feminist movement, a stage were women sought to find their rights and be whatever they wanted to be instead of what the society ought them to be. It is important we discuss the changes that have happened throughout time to see if we at all have improved, and how far we still have to go in this day and age. This topic is of special interest to me seeing as I love editorial and the printed media, whilst I am also a strong believer in equal rights and fair representation of the sexes.

Part of the article focuses on African American mothers living in Harlem where 69% are families where the head of the family is the women. These tend to work or get their income from more than one source, and many are still below the poverty line. Many of these women, sho live in low income neighbourhoods on top of these struggle to keep their children away or bring them out of the drug culture in their neighbourhood, since the a lot of the youth tend to be in these cultures. This as well afects their reproduction because some might not want to have children beause their scared of them being eveloped in this drug world. African Americans have twice the rate of infant death compared to the whole america while Central Harlem had three times the amount of death.

Life in the 1960’s consisted of many deep cultural changes; especially when it came to a change in gender roles and stereotypes. For woman, society was set on a believing that a their overall goal in life was to be married, have lots of children, and devote their life to be 100% dependant on their husbands. On the other hand, men had to be the provider and the rock of the family. This all changed when The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensured that people of all colors, races, and gender could not be discriminated against in employment thus females were entering the paid workforce head on. Men also started to learn more about being a caregiver and became stay at home dads. Both Walter Mosley and Raymond Chandler help convey this representation of gender roles, gender as a category and gender stereotypes in the 1960s through their written works.

During the World War 2, women defeated society’s stereotypes by working in professional and hard labor jobs while the men were away winning the war. As the men returned from war, majority of women returned home to face society’s standards and gender roles. Women were expected to be at home mothers that were practically slaves to their family and their appearance in society. Women were expected to be the perfect wife, having the perfect appearance, and have the ideal social life.

For thousands of years, established gender roles have been a part of our society. Women are commonly known as sensitive, emotional, or passive. On the contrary, men are described as rational, competitive, independent, or aggressive. Believing women are more emotional than men is stereotyping. However, the stereotype is not entirely untrue. Development of gender roles is often conditioned more by environmental or cultural factors than by hereditary or biological factors. The development of gender roles between men and women involves the inference of peer community of each gender, the communication style of male and female and the intimacy or connection level of men and women.

The sexist stereotypes of men and women significantly enforced their roles in the Vietnam War. While the draft excluded women, protecting them from war’s brutality and tragedies, men were forced from their homes to be enlisted in the army. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a platoon is comprised of struggling young men whose lives are challenged each day. On the other hand, women blissfully live in the states, provided with complete comfort and security, both of which the soldiers are not able to acquire. There is a tremendous discrepancy between the lives at war and in the states. Those who are not exposed to the world outside their own have an inability to empathize with the emotional baggage that the soldiers carry. Throughout

Stereotypes are used to categorize a group of people, they are typically based on the truth but are very over exaggerated. They are simply a mental picture that people perceive of a group, that others start to believe. They can have a positive or negative approach, but are mostly negative. Mean while, misconceptions piggybacks stereotypes. Misconceptions are formed based on stereotypes, that are viewed as incorrect and are based on untruthful tellings.

For most of the poem each description compares and contrasts females vs. males, spotlighting men as “better” and “stronger” which makes a lot of sense when doing research about the time period of the 1960s.

The way people look at gender has changed quickly over the past few years. Gender has always been a social topic on what boys should do and what girls should do. The new generation of young adults seem to break the mold of gender stereotypes with effortless ease. I have seen many classmates and many schools changing the status quo of gender within the last few years. My generation has a different opinion on gender stereotypes than my grandparents and even my parents. Gender stereotypes are rapidly changing with each generation, whether it be through sports or the occupations people have.

The sexist stereotypes of men and women greatly enforced their roles in the Vietnam War. While women were not included in the draft and protected from war’s brutality and tragedies, men were forced from their homes to be enlisted in the army. In Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, a platoon is comprised of struggling young men whose lives are challenged each day. On the other hand, women are blissfully living in the states, providing complete security and comfort, both of which the soldiers are not able to acquire. According to society, women are supposedly the homebound sex, too fragile and moral to be exposed to the world outside their own, and unable to empathize with the emotional baggage that the soldiers carry.

I agree that many of us talked about how men and women are expected to live a certain way. I also agree that people are viewed negatively if they are trying to be themselves, but are not fitting society’s stereotype of how they should act. It is difficult to be told “to be yourself” and act as such when there are individuals who are going to ridicule you.

Society can put unrealistic expectations of reality into individuals from a very young age. As soon as a child can begin to comprehend what is going on around them, they are shown movies of perfect society’s and perfect marriage. So, as they grow older, this is what they expect life to be like. Then, when they finally reach a certain age they begin to wonder why life isn’t going the way they thought it was going to go. The picture that the media and movies portray of life and how one is supposed to look can make individuals put outrageous expectation on themselves in order to be “normal”. Nobody feels those expectations more than females growing up do. Women are oversexualized and kept inferior to their male counterparts and this can affect