The Kaleidoscope Of Gender : Gender Roles, And Stereotypes

Gender can be a hot topic within cultures; a male or female does not want to be told that they can or cannot do something based on their gender. Every culture views gender roles differently, and some cultures are more serious about gender than others. Many times, male and female actions are determined by what a person has been taught is right; furthermore, gender roles are a set of societal norms that are the behaviors that a sex is generally known to do and what is considered accepted of a person based on their sex; gender roles can also known as stereotypes (“Gender”). Many times men are associated with masculine and logical ways in the United States, whereas women are associated with nurturing and passive ways.

While the significance of gender roles has declined in the past fifty years, they still play an integral part in our perception of others based on their gender. Gender roles create gender stereotypes that influence our view of someone and their aptitude in work and child caring. Gender stereotypes depict women as caring, compassionate, and kind; however, gender stereotypes also imply negative qualities for women such as cranky, overly emotional, and submissive. On the other hand, gender stereotypes classify men not only as dominant, assertive, and powerful, but also as aggressive, violent, and uncaring. Many people apply gender roles in how they view other’s aptitudes and responsibilities in a work or home setting, but by doing so they subconsciously discriminate against a person for his gender. Extreme Feminists focus on the discrimination and harassment women face in everyday life due to traditional gender roles and complain that “men have it so good”. However, extreme feminists fail to realize, due to their blind but justified hatred for traditional gender roles that supposedly benefit men, traditional gender roles disadvantage men as well. Similar to how many women fail to climb up the corporate ladder because their superiors view them as too caring and soft to hold a demanding leadership position, many people look down on men when they care for their own children considering them too tough and insensitive to take care of children properly and label their care as

Every day I am at school, my mother stays at home and my father goes to work through the New Jersey transit train. My mother is always watching culinary videos and cooking from afternoon until around 6 p.m. in the evening. My father does not come back at home until 7 p.m. When he arrives home, he simply eats dinner and watches the television. I was raised to think that I would have to work at a white collared job one day. I thought that men go to work while women bake cookies and go for a walk each day. During the weekends, both of my parents are at home together. However, my father does not insist on helping my mother in cooking food unless he is told to do so. Therefore, I have never seen my father and mother ever cook together with love even though they have so much time off on the weekends. Every child wants their parents to work as a pair instead of being divided on who should complete certain tasks. However, this event that every child wants to see their family is not fulfilled due to the discriminating gender roles that are part of our everyday life. Gender roles have been part of human existence for a long time and it affects how men and women are seen in society. Being born with a certain gender means you will be expected to follow the stereotypes pertaining to your gender. For example, boys will become masculine as they are exposed to the stereotypes that men are physically stronger, love sports, go to jobs and skilled at math. Girls will learn to be feminine

Imagine, a world where you cannot vote, hold a job, or even walk down the street without another person’s permission? That is what it would have been like, if you were born as a female around the early 1900’s. Flash forward almost a century later and women are still in a struggle with the opposite sex in todays’ society. Women for decades have battled for equal rights. But will we ever get there? Probably not, but I certainly would like to think so. Fair and equal wages, the opportunity for job advancement, affordable childcare, and abortion rights. These are just a few in a long list of rights that we as women have been pushing for since the very beginning.

Women often have a stereotypical role in our society. Whether it is today or back in the 1800’s. Women are to cook, clean and take care of the children at home. The fact is, women can do more than that. They deserve more respect than what they get. Sex nor race does not define who someone is. It is what is on the inside that defines what they are capable of.

Gender stereotypes are present in the United States today. Women are only supposed to act in feminine ways while men are only supposed to act in masculine ways. Women and men have different standards when comparing one another. Men and women have different roles that society says is more feminine or masculine. Gender stereotypes are present throughout any race. Race stereotypes are also a problem today and still have their own gender stereotypes with in their culture. When people act outside what society says those gender roles are, they are seen in a negative way. Society has determined what we consider to be acceptable definition of feminine or masculine. Throughout history, gender stereotypes have played a significant role in peoples lives.

Cecilia Ridgway, in “Framed by Gender: How Gender Inequality Persists in the Modern World,” holds that gender exists as an organizing social force. We value certain stereotypes of how people of a certain gender should act and incorporate these expectations into our social relations. Men, Ridgeway explains, are typically viewed as having more “competence, assertiveness, confidence, independence, forcefulness, and dominance” (Ridgeway, 2011) in social relations. Women, on the other hand, are viewed as valuing “emotional expressiveness, nurturance, interpersonal sensitivity, kindness, and responsiveness” (Ridgeway, 2011). According to Ridgeway, these gender stereotypes are

This was another article that could be consider to be the back support of essay. This piece went through and discussed typical stereotypes/gender roles for both sexes. As well as to discuss how the roles affect multiple aspects of everyday life for individuals. This was another source that was placed throughout and helped myself have a better idea of what was going on. It allowed the reader to collect some ideas about this given topic. This article is necessary to for success in understanding what is really going on in everyday lives.

Distinction is a concept that is learned at a very young age. It is used as a tool to distinguish between race, religion, language, age and especially gender. Where certain topics regarding race and religion may be considered more taboo, the definition of gender is always open for discussion but it is not always depicted in all forms of the word. Children can feel isolated if they cannot relate to individuals they look up to whether they are shown in the media or in real life. “…literature is a home for gender stereotypes. These narratives have been instrumental in promoting and spreading a gender bias ideology” (Ruterana 86). Specific gender roles can make children feel confused or unwelcomed if they do not identify with their predesignated roles. Using Matilda by Roald Dahl as an example of the separation of genders into limited categories, shows how a child’s perception can be altered by stories at such a young age. The stereotypical gender distinctions used traditionally in stories allows for understanding, however a lack of reality can alter the view one has on the ever changing relationship that distinguishes genders in real world society.

I am born in an Asian family. Our culture has high expectations in academics, beliefs and values.  Our gender plays an extremely important role for both male and female since we are expected to follow these gender roles as we age in our life. The media is always placing ideals everywhere from television to the web.

Females and males find themselves to be more confident in different areas. A possible cause for the genders being like this is their parents expectations in such areas. In “Gender Role Stereotypes, Expectancy Effects, and Parents’ Socialization of Gender Differences,” the authors, Jacquelynne Eccles, Rena Harold, and Janis Jacobs performed two different studies to test their hypothesis of parents using gender roles and stereotypes formed towards the different genders to determine the ability of their child to do a certain task.

I feel that gender roles are slowly fading. Today there is almost no one that fits the perfect male gender role anymore. Has Stephen Mays state “A gay man may show effeminate qualities, but that doesn’t make him the “woman” of the relationship.” (718) As I understand this if someone might some characteristics doesn’t make them a women/girl. It’s now more expected for males to take care of their children. They just can’t go off to work and not pay their kids any attention. They now have to play mama bear at some points when the mother can not. It’s also expected that female work also. This makes it where men can’t be the sole breadwinner of the family. As a female, I would love to be a stay at mom but I know that I would be truly bored to death.

We will never be able to control how gender stereotypes are formed. Gender roles were naturally created as a result of human evolution and the different modes of living that were adopted by humans. Humans, however remain the driving force behind reinforcing gender roles and stereotypes with different mediums. Such as television, art, and writing. In order to understand how gender is portrayed in contemporary American comedy this paper will analyze the characters from the television show, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Gender stereotypes and gender roles are a largely contested issue in the modern world. Countries around the world have very different gender norms, though there are some recurrent patterns between many cultures. For most recurrent patterns there is a culture who does not abide by those gender norms. There is typically many good reasons for each recurrent pattern that makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. There is also a significant difference in the way men and women are treated. This is caused by many things, from location to physical requirement. There is differences from the occupations they may have, to the punishments they may suffer for extramarital sex. This and other factors leads to both matriarchal societies and patriarchal societies. These societies are very different, yet similarly successful in relation to similar societies of the opposite gender stratification.

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry