Gender plays an enormous role in society, it distinguishes the difference between men and women. Men and women has different role to play in society because it is what they have to do in order not to be criticized. Moreover, they have to be the head of the household and they have to provide for their family. On the other hand, women has to be the housewives and have to take care of the family. Gender roles takes place in every single era that people lived in and it always had an influence over every single individual. During the 1700-1900s, women had few rights and they never had a voice in society. They had to stay pure until marriage and men who are sexually inactive are considered less of a man. Women couldn’t divorce their husbands, or own properties. In addition, women were treated more like a property or an animal to be tamed by men. Once a baby is born, s/he has to live up to the expectation of society or …show more content…
else they would be beaten to its oppression. No matter what era people live in, gender roles will always apply to them. Gender had always been an issues in people’s lives. Most do not know why people make so much of it or why it exists. According to the article, Why Do We Make So Much of Gender?, by Allan C. Johnson, state that, gender exists under patriarchy. Patriarchy is a system of society where men hold the power and the women are excluded from it. In other words, men has to remain male-dominant. Therefore, men cannot be seen as anything else but strong and dominate and they have tame their women, who are seen as very emotional or an untamed animal. However, even though men have to be seen masculine, there is a trend that has them shave their body parts. According the article, Manscaping: The Tangle of Nature, Culture, and Male Body Hair, by Mathew Immergut, stated that this is a social construct, therefore making it okay for men to do the same thing as women. In other words, a man’s masculinity won’t be questioned whether their body looks feminine. On the other hand, women will always be oppressed and they will never be equal to men because society will always make sure they are ran under patriarchy. Women are treated more like property and no matter how hard they work to be recognized by society, however, they will always remain inferior. In today's era, women are still oppressed, even if they are successful than most men. Things haven’t changed for women because they are still viewed as a sexual object, weak, and emotional. For instance, in the article, From Girls’ Bodies, Girls’ Selves: Body Image, Identity, and Sexuality, by Elline Lipkin, stated that at birth girls had to live up to cultural expectations and conventions. In addition, women has to be perfect in the eyes of society, meaning they have to have the perfect body, and perfect skin. Furthermore, this is a social construct making women want to change their physical appearances. Society tells women that the most important thing in life are physical appearances and not personal achievements. This is mostly due to social media, commercials, other advertisement who try to make profit out of women by selling their beauty products. In every advertisement, there is an image of how a perfect woman should look like. Thus, in the eyes of society, a woman has can’t be thin, fat, or be covered with acne and they have to have clear smooth skin. Moreover, women has more limited freedom than men. For instance, women cannot be seen alone at night and as a consequence men can take advantage of them. Most people would blame the girl for being out at night or for the way she was dressed. It is easy to see that men can easily overpower a women because they are much stronger than them. However, men can easily be punished by raping a women, but if a woman rapes a man, they do not get punished. It is hard for people to see that women can overpower a man because of physical appearances. Men and women’s action are rooted in society, not biology. Gender is a cultural construct or a social construct.
Boys and girls are raced to behave a certain way based on their gender. Therefore boys have to play with boy toys and girls have to pay with girl toys. If a boy plays with girl toys, they are considered a faggot or gay, if a girl plays with boy toys, they are considered a tomboy or lesbian. Furthermore, men don’t like to be compared to women because they get the harshest treatment than women if they do something that is unmanly. People would called them a fag, which does not have to mean they are gay, but yet, behave like a girl. If they are seen as failures, they do not deserve to be call a man. For example, in the article, Gender, Class, and Terrorism, by Michael S. Kimmel, elaborated that Mohammed Atta, one of the pilots that crashed a plane into the towers of the World Trade Center during 9/11, was a failure to his father’s eyes. According to his father, Atta questioned about his sexuality because his father always told that his sisters were the men of the house since all of them are
successful. It is a probability that this is what lead him to attack the United States. He wanted to prove that he is not a failure and what he was doing was a good cause. He didn't want to be seen or remembered as a failure. He is not the only one that have this type of dilemma, whether he was considered gay or a fag. For instance, in the article, “Dude, You’re a Fag”, Adolescent Masculinity and the Fag Discourse, by C.J. Pascoe, stated that there is a difference between the word fag and gay. The author also pointed out that boys who call each other fag are white middle class. The only difference between them and Atta is race, but their socioeconomic background are the same. However, the only conflict they have is being called a fag and for them it is normal to be called a fag. It is said that it is how boys get along and it manages anxiety and discomfort. Being called a fag doesn't question a boy’s sexualtity but masculinity. Faggots represent a penetrated masculinity and it abdicates power. Boys can be called a fag for anything, meaning if they act all non-masculine. Being called a fag means that they are nothing, but however, boys never call homosexuals a fag. It is said that being a fag has nothing to do of being a homosexual. Everything is social construct and it has nothing to do with gender roles. It is normal for boys to call themselves fag because it is how they get along, even though, there is always that person that takes it seriously. Being called a fag is way to tell boys that their behavior is non-masculine but not necessarily feminine.Whether a men or women are homosexuals or not, society will always criticize them. No matter what the case is, gender will always be a complicated issue in society. Gender roles are types of social pressure that people are expected to conform to. It is reinforced often by parents who pushes their child to behave a certain way and greater society who imposes expectations of people based on their gender. Therefore, man has to be the head of the household and they have to maintain dominant over women. They cannot show weakness and they always have to toughen up. However, society made it okay for them to shave, even though shaving body hair is only for women. On the other hand, it is not okay for women to have hairy bodies, meaning they have to shave. It is socially constructed to limit women’s freedom of choice, therefore they have to maintain a perfect appearance and representation. Men have more freedom of choice, however they are limited as well. Men has to remain masculine and obtain power, if not, they are considered a failure or a fag. There are no satisfaction in society, meaning gender role will never be equal and it will always be part of society.
Before the Women’s Rights Movement women were viewed less than men in every aspect. Pre- Civil War women were viewed as the source of life but viewed less than men intellectually . In the 19th century the ideal women was submissive, her job was to be an obedient, loving wife . There were two important thing that ruled the way that women were treated. One of these was the most important out of the two during this time period this was the Cult of Domesticity, which basically said that women were supposed to do all of the domestic work in a household 3.
That being said, women were extremely limited in their role in society. First of all, women were expected to be homemakers. By homemaker, I mean the women w... ... middle of paper ... ...ay."
Thesis Statement: Men and women were in different social classes, women were expected to be in charge of running the household, the hardships of motherhood. The roles that men and women were expected to live up to would be called oppressive and offensive by today’s standards, but it was a very different world than the one we have become accustomed to in our time. Men and women were seen to live in separate social class from the men where women were considered not only physically weaker, but morally superior to men. This meant that women were the best suited for the domestic role of keeping the house. Women were not allowed in the public circle and forbidden to be involved with politics and economic affairs as the men made all the
18th and 19th Century Attitudes Towards Women From the author of both sources we can immediately gather that they both relate to middle-class women. Working class women were on the whole illiterate, as they were offered no education, so therefore would not be purchasing, 'The Magazine of Domestic Economy'. For Florence Nightingale to be able to write diaries, this demanded a middle-class upbringing. With the ability of hindsight, we know that Florence Nightingale was a very unusual woman, as the, 'Lady with the Lamp' tendered to many injured soldiers in the Crimean war. Despite experiencing the nurturing into being the 'typical woman', such as attending tea parties and presenting yourself respectably as a lady, she seems bored by this monotonous routine, as suggested when she finishes her entry with the sentence, "And that is all."
Every decade brings new rights and opportunities for women. Specifically, in the Elizabethan era between 1558 and 1603, women were given little freedom due to the common idea that they were weak and needed a man to care for them (Thomas). Imagine you are an Elizabethan woman in 1560; you are in an arranged marriage with two children, a boy and a girl. Your daughter is growing up to become a mother and devoted wife just as you did while your son attends school to become anything he desires whether it be a doctor or even a lawyer. As time grew on, society discovered the true potential of women, and today, women play a large role in politics and in everyday life, but they still carry the stereotypical role as homemaker and mother. Elizabethan England was a male dominated society ruled by a powerful woman, Queen Elizabeth I. She made powerful decisions, such as establishing the English Protestant Church, while most other women made little to no decisions in their life. Besides being a mother and wife, English drama and poetry was an outlet for their restrained social life. Women had a strenuous everyday life due to their few rights, arranged marriages, and inferiority in politics, education, and their occupation.
Point of Analysis: I feel that the author was a bit long winded in her
When exploring the evolution of gender roles overtime, it’s clear that the most effective gender role revolutions have occurred at the hands of single revolutionary figures that saw injustice and vowed to fight it. There have been several key figures that have played a crucial role in overthrowing the gender norms of each time period. I’ll be focusing my attention on gender roles in 3 significantly different time periods: the Age of Enlightenment, the Romantic Era, and the Modern Era. These time periods represent clear and unique ideological stakes, and the transitions between them have highlighted some radical figures in history that are responsible for the gender roles we have in society today.
Women were only second-class citizens. They were supposed to stay home cook, clean, achieve motherhood and please their husbands. The constitution did not allow women to vote until the 19th amendment in 1971 due to gender discrimination. Deeper in the chapter it discusses the glass ceiling. Women by law have equal opportunities, but most business owners, which are men, will not even take them serious. Women also encounter sexual harassment and some men expect them to do certain things in order for them to succeed in that particular workplace. The society did not allow women to pursue a real education or get a real job. Women have always been the submissive person by default, and men have always been the stronger one, and the protector. Since the dawn of time, the world has seen a woman as a trophy for a man’s arm and a sexual desire for a man’s
During the 1800s, society believed there to be a defined difference in character among men and women. Women were viewed simply as passive wives and mothers, while men were viewed as individuals with many different roles and opportunities. For women, education was not expected past a certain point, and those who pushed the limits were looked down on for their ambition. Marriage was an absolute necessity, and a career that surpassed any duties as housewife was practically unheard of. Jane Austen, a female author of the time, lived and wrote within this particular period. Many of her novels centered around women, such as Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice, who were able to live independent lives while bravely defying the rules of society. The roles expected of women in the nineteenth century can be portrayed clearly by Jane Austen's female characters of Pride and Prejudice.
Throughout European history, women have struggled endlessly to become the intellectual and social equals of their male counterparts. After hundreds of years of physical labor, housekeeping, child rearing and many other difficult tasks, women’s attitudes about their place in life began to change. In the last few years of the eighteenth century (after tough and troubled decades) possible beginnings of early women’s rights were born when society began to evaluate the education and potential of women as a social class.
society. Women’s rights and feminism did not exist. In the 1800s divorces were frowned upon and everything was given to the males.
Before Freud introduced psychoanalysis and psychosexual behavior in the 20th Century, women were extremely confined in their options for their sexuality and sexual behaviors. Women were restricted to the gender roles implemented by the law and customs, as means to enforce traditional marriages between men and women. It was difficult for a woman to form an emotional connection with men because of the deep gender segregation, so they formed close emotional relationships with their close female friends instead. This also made women cautious to form relationships and marry men, so physical intimacy had to be hidden through abortions, lest the woman would be forced into marrying a man she was not entirely ready to commit to.
...nancial needs or just in the home men held the advantage. "A Doll's House," by Henrik Ibsen portrays the genders role of nineteenth century women and men in society. Torvald's perception of his wife of how she is a helpless creature shows the overall role which women filled. Women were responsible for the purity of the world through their influence in the home and through the upbringing of her children. They had to beg and ask for permission to do certain activities and essential things. Men were the ones in the family who worked and provided for his family's wellbeing. Because of the family's economic dependence on the husband, he had control over all of all his family members. This showed the amount of progress needing to come in the future to allow woman to start receiving some of the many rights they deserved which men had and so frequently took for granted.
In today’s society the public tends to socialize gender to an extent. As soon as people are informed the sex of a baby, they automatically go out and buy blue clothes for boys and pink clothes for girls. We think of baby dolls for girls, and trucks for boys. What if it went further than that? During the Victorian era, being born a girl meant much more than little dolls and pink, it meant a lifetime of servitude. Being born into a family where one was raised under harsh conditions, then getting married off to be husband’s housewife, not just a wife. During the Victorian era, if one was born a woman she was automatically subject to a lifetime of servitude, and it took strong feminist views to deviate from the social norms. Most women tolerated the social norms and their “duties” of subordination, while others deviated and had their own ideas of what a society should represent.
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole, they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights.