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middle east feminism based on north america
middle east feminism based on north america
feminism in western society
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Gender socialization and gender roles have always existed in society. When analyzing gender roles, they are not always equal or consistent when comparing cultures, however, the expectations of females and males are often times clearly defined with a little to no common area. The Japanese culture is an example of the defined gender roles that change over time. According to Schafer (2010), because “gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females”, they must be taught (p.357). These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. When examining gender socialization in the Japanese culture, it is important to analyze how gender roles are taught, and its history, before, during, and after WWII.
According to Friedman (1992), the position of women in Japanese society before WWII is a result of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Samurai based feudalism. The ideas of Confucianism and Buddhism merged with the military class of Japan to form the Samurai class in the 15th century A.D. The Samurai code became the law of the land drastically changing the roles of women in Japan. These combined influences limited their roles. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Samurai were cultures that discriminated heavily against women. Confucianism stated, “A woman is to obey her father as a daughter, her husband as a wife and her son as an aged mother.” Despite the age of the son, in the Confucianism culture, society holds him as above his mother. Buddhism denied women salvation and the samurai class stated that “A woman should look at her husband as if he were heaven itself.” All three philosophies held men at the top of society’s hierarchy and forced women to be sub...
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...t needed more assistance with rebuilding their country after all of the damage caused by the war. With an increasing number of women working, their social status began to change in Japan. This eventually led to increased gender equality for women allowing them to have a greater say in the household due to their financial contributions. For the Japanese culture, this was difficult for many to accept since they had once held gender empowerment as a high priority.
Gender socialization is society’s expectations and views of how to behave and carry one’s self. These expectations and views are not universal and change over time. These expectations are taught from early ages within the home, community, and workplace. In the Japanese culture, women had experienced severe limitations on self expression and up until WWII, women were inferior to all males regardless of age.
The Fifteen-Year War was a time of great turmoil and uncertainty in Japan. Various facets of the country were tested and driven to their limits. During the occupation, race and gender began to evolve in ways that had not exactly be seen before. War had a tremendous impact on every part of the life of a Japanese citizen. Both men and women began to fill roles that were completely novel to them. Race became a part of the definition of who people were. As the war progressed and American troops landed on Japanese soil for occupation, more drastic changes occurred. Economic hardship and rations befell the people of the Land of the Rising Sun. Prostitution began to rear its ugly head and rape transpired. Through memory, research, and vivid creativity, the evolution of Japan during the Fifteen-Year War can be analyzed with great scrutiny.
Nolte, Sharon H. and Sally Ann Hastings, 'The Meiji State's Policy Toward Women, 1890-1910', in Gail Lee Bernstein (ed.), Recreating Japanese
Watch the classical film Grease and one will understand how relationships function in western Society. The film tells a story of a boy (Danny) and a girl (Sandy) who falls in love. Through a series of misunderstandings they break up, but still care enough about each other that they still try revive their relationship. Through ballads such as Summer Night’s that are still popular today, the film shows how differently males and females view relationships. Danny, for example, describes his relationship in more physical terms while Sandy describes her relationship in much more emotional terms –such as what they did that night. Films like Grease are like a mirror, reflecting societal values and how it socializes its members. It makes clear that in relationships, males –like Danny—are socialized to view relationships as mostly a physical, sexual endeavor, while females –like Sandy— view it as an emotional bond, that is has resulted from a deeper connection between the two individuals within a relationship.
Gender may be a universal concept, but the meaning of gender differs between societies. The way humans behave, speak, experience, think, and view the world is the final product of socialization. From the moment the sex of a fetus is known, humans are being molded into the person society wants them to be. Different parts of society have different functions in the gender-socialization process. The familial relationships and interactions one has with their immediate surroundings—peers, school, religion, and neighborhood—are the most influential aspects of gender development. Loosely connected societal influences like mass media, politics, and culture are influential as well. Throughout childhood, one’s family and interactions with their immediate surroundings teach and reinforce gender, while the rest of society acts as a reinforcer. During adolescence, the broader society begins to take on a minor instructor role in relation to the family in the further development of gender. Essentially, family always acts as the main gender instructor and reinforcer, while society acts as the secondary gender instructor and reinforcer.
In our current culture, there is a huge difference between what is considered to be for girls or boys. From birth, children are told what colors and styles of clothing they wear, what toys they should play with, and how they should act. Often, girls are told they cannot play with toys considered to be for boys and boys are told they are not allowed to play with toys considered to be for girls. Children who do decide they want to play with the toys not traditionally for their gender are often scolded by family members, pushing the children back to their gender-specific toys. Gender socialization starts at birth and continues from adolescence, to adulthood, causing specific and detrimental differences
Since the beginning of time women and men have had their own set of duties. Society has this chart of what a woman is supposed to do, along with what men are supposed to do. As new eras emerge not only does technology, cultures, ethics, but also the duties of each gender role. I will be explaining the effect of men doing work that is deemed to be a woman’s job. There are a few key terms to understand first in order to comprehend the effect this has on society. The key terms are as follows; Gender roles, gender role socialization, and men gender role.
Gender roles are stereotypical labels placed on males and females within a specific culture. In addition, gender stereotypes for males and females are products of cultural aspects rather than their physical differences (Kincaid, 2013). As time inevitably progresses through history, a coherent pattern can be identified in regards to changes in gender stereotypes. These changes in gender roles are directly correlated with the alterations in societal advancement. The changes in societal and cultural development over the course of history can be thoroughly recognized in specifically Japanese culture. Although gender roles in Japanese culture deviates from western norms, perpetual emphasis is placed in adopting desirable characteristics for men and women in media and society (Kincaid, 2013). Contrarily, professional studies, conducted by Yoko Sugihara and Emiko Katsurada, indicate that gender role differences in contemporary society are diminishing as time progresses (Yoko and Katsurada, 2002).
Gender Socialization Part II: Annotated Bibliography on Annotated Bibliography on Masculinity, LBGT as other, and Rape Culture
Human beings have been, and always will be, dichotomized into either male or female. When determining a person’s sex we often look for differences in facial features, body shape or mannerism’s, but another promising way to determine a persons sex and one that is most often used today, is through gender roles. Gender roles are behaviors that portray masculinity or femininity. The theory behind gender roles through multidisciplinary viewpoints is the focus of this paper. Throughout history and in every culture these roles have shifted and transformed into what society says is expectable. In this analysis, gender roles will be examined through a sociological, biological and evolutionary scope.
The political, economic, and religious roles of women in Japan and Western Europe provide evidence of similar and different characteristics. Politically, there were numerous female empresses in Japan while in Western Europe, women could rule as solitarily rulers and regents. Economically, women in both locations could be involved in the merchant class and work with necessities but women in Western Europe were better all around and could inherit land while Japanese women could not. Religiously, there have been religious role models in Japan and Europe but given the opportunity to become a nun; women in Europe had a better religious life. Collectively, women in Western Europe could be considered better than those in Japan regarding religious rights, political roles, and economic engagement.
There is clearly an opportunity for those expectations to affect our behavior toward men and women so that they produce the stereotypes we hold” (2012, p. 67). She came to this conclusion based on her critical review of a study of college men and women from 1977 by Snyder, Tanke, and Berscheid. In the study, men were told to talk to a woman on the phone and half were shown a picture of an attractive woman and the other half were shown a picture of an unattractive woman before talking on the phone. However, all of the men were talking to the same woman. The woman also provided self-fulfilling prophecy for she began to behave differently based on whether the men were shown a picture of an attractive or an unattractive woman. If she was attractive, the men were nicer and the woman, herself, acted “more likeable.” This study demonstrates “that our expectations influence our own behavior, but they also influence the behavior of others so that they confirm our expectancy” (Helgeson, 2012, p. 67). Within cultural differences of gender role attitudes, Asian cultures perpetuate a traditional gender role ideology based on Confucian doctrine (Newton, 2016). The doctrine emphasizes the lesser status of women and how they must lie their obedience in line with men, such as their fathers or husbands. Men are also not expected to show emotions, men are the
Socialization refers to “the lifelong social experience by which people develop their human potential and learn culture”. (Macionis, 2012) By gender socialization, the simplest explanation is the process of learning what it means to be a male or female in the society, in which gender stereotypes and bias are usually involved. For example, boys should be tough, brave, strong, sporty, while girls are soft, moody, passive, and allowed to cry.
In conclusion, we see that gender roles, as specific as they are in our culture, vary from culture to culture. And the variation of gender roles, in a global perspective, demonstrates that they are learned through socialization as oppose to stemming from nature, instinct and drive.
At one time men were expected to be loyal to their lord and women were supposed to be loyal to their husband and family. During this women were allowed to own property and even inherit family property. They were expected to control the household budget and household decisions to allow men to serve their lord. When World War II hit it marked a shift in thinking about gender roles. The Japanese society went into the past of loyalty and courage to promote war effort during this crucial time. This is when women’s duty became to only have children. Women were looked at as keepers of the nation’s household even though many women worked in factories. During this war many “unused” women were drafted to sexually service military men. Soldiers referred to these women as “hygienic public bathrooms” or even as “semen toilets.” Japan was influenced by China to take on the confucian ideals in society. Confucian society focuses on the family and the roles of the genders in the household. Men are the heads of the household; women are dependent on the men. Women were expected to marry the men their family set for them, produce kids, and oversee the house. Women became not able to own property and became “slaves” to men in every way possible. It is believed that women’s happiness in life is only to be found in marriage. In this society women were to be married between 22 through 27 and if this was not met you were considered
The cause of this is the way that gender roles are now being protrayed in their country. For Japanese woman, they are currently not being displayed as the...