Bacha Posh Essay

Bacha Posh: She is My Son

The movie series "Bacha Posh: She Is My Son: Afghanistan's Bacha Posh, When Girls Become Boys" is a movie documentary which emphasize on the gender roles practiced by the citizens of Afghanistan. The movie depicts how the social construction of gender roles affects mostly the female children in their society. It focuses on the need for every family to have a male child, with the reason that only the Male children have the right to go to school, obtain a job and make money for the family, while the Female children are expected to stay at home and take care of the family and they are often discouraged from getting a job. The most interesting part of this movie series is the fact that in an event that a family gives birth to only female children the family would most likely disguises their female children into dressing and acting like a male child a term which is referred to as

Bacha Posh in their society. Furthermore, the family disguise of their female children into a male child is to enable them to make money for the family and to enjoy the rights and freedom that comes with being a Male child. From the above description of this movie series, we can observe that there is a high level of gender inequalities that exist in this society because of the unfair treatment of the female children.
Bacha Posh in Afghanistan society shares the same privileges that comes with being a Male child, unlike the Female children whom are discouraged, by society not to go to school or even get a job with the reason that Female children are good home makers. Bacha Posh (female children disguised as a male child) have the privilege to work, go to school, participate in sports, dress the way they like and can move freely in the street alone without the company of a male
child. Although, Bacha Posh enjoys these privileges they must hide their true identity from the society, which makes them to bear two names, one male name to be used when in public and one female name which they use when they are at home.
The expectations from the society on gender roles and the consequences that occurs when an individual deviate from these socially constructed roles can be quite devastating.

The social construction of gender roles has made it mandatory for an individual to behave in a certain way that is acceptable by the member of the society. In our society " Boys must be masculine, active, aggressive, tough, daring and dominant but girls must be feminine soft, emotional, sweet, and submissive" (Scheaffer 251). The Traditional gender role on the expected way a female child should behave have being one of the most important causes of underrepresentation of Female in the workforce and business, this is because the society teaches a female child to be submissive at an early stage of their lives which in turn affects them negatively and influences the female child not to have the zeal to aspire to belong in leadership positions in the society. Meanwhile, the society also teaches the male child at a very young age to possess a dominating

characteristic
Which accounts for Male dominance in the Leadership positions in the society.
However, there is some common consequences attached to individuals who deviates from the social constructed gender roles. One of the most occurring instances in our present society is the issue of Homophobia. "Homophobia contributes significantly to rigid gender- role socialization, since many people stereotypically associate male homosexuality with femininity and lesbianism with masculinity men and women who deviate from traditional expectations about gender roles are often presumed as gay"(Schaeffer 251). gay characteristics in our present-day society is frowned at, most people find it hard to accept the fact that a family member or relatives are sexually attracted to the same sex or gender this is because the societal expectation of gender roles and sexual orientation are neglected, hence, exposing the gay people to suffer various negative consequences, ranging from bullying, lack of communication from family and friends, being judged by the society, discriminated in the workforce as well as underrepresented in leadership positions. From the above description of social construction of gender roles and the consequences that affect individual who deviates from these roles we can conclude that the society shapes how each gender behaves and not a natural occurrence.
Finally, from the above movies "Women in Business", "Race the power of An Illusion, Skin Deep: Nina Jablonski's Theory of Race", and "Bacha Posh: She Is My Son: Afghanistan's Bacha Posh", we can observe the similarity of the various inequalities that exists in our society through these movies, ranging from the underrepresentation of women in workforce, racial
inequalities, discrimination of people based on their skin color and gender inequalities, we can conclude that all these inequalities we experienced in our society are not a natural trait but rather a problem created by the society to subdivide the people into distinct subgroups. In other words, the society creates these inequalities among human being by dividing individuals into different subgroup in order to manipulate and control how human beings behave, interacts, their achievements and the class they belong to in the society. Therefore, it will be hard to obtain an egalitarian society where all human being regardless of their race, gender or skin color will obtain equal right since these inequalities is socially constructed.