Gender Stereotypes

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Recommended: Negative impact of stereotyping views on gender roles and responsibilities

Since the beginning of time, gender has played a big role in how one acts and how one is looked upon in society. From a young age children are taught to be either feminine or masculine. Why is it that gender plays a big role in the characteristics that one beholds? For centuries in many countries it has been installed in individual’s heads that they have to live by certain stereotypes. Women have been taught to be feeble to men and depend on them for social and economical happiness. While men have been taught to be mucho characters that have take care of their homes and be the superior individual to a woman. For the individuals who dare to be different and choose to form their own identity whether man or woman, they are out casted and secluded from their community. These stereotypes that people have been taught to live upon have been a huge burden on women because they are the ones who have been taught to be the inferior individual. Women have struggled to obtain their own identities and become independent, but as time has evolved women have developed and are able to be independent. Surprisingly it is being accepted.

Even through some of the greatest literature women are exposed are flat characters. Meaning that they never have too much personality or they don’t possess any purpose to the story. Feminist Critic believes that “literature is merely one of the many expressions of the patriarchal society with a vested interest in keeping women subordinate to men.” (Feminist Criticism 1132) Through literature people find out the many ways women are taught to live in different countries and throughout time, it often seems to be the same routine for women no matter the country or time period. In literature women are shown as housewives...

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...me. But through this struggle they never build a connection. They live this Doll like life which is unrealistic. “No name woman” shows a young girl being told not to shame her family by following the traditions of a woman not forming her own identity. These stories show the oppression women go through and the forced lives that they have to live.

In conclusion your gender determines the type of lifestyle you are suppose live. No matter what a women culture is or the time period she lives’ in woman are always going to be put second to men. But as time has evolved Women have tried to refrain from these roles that have been forced upon them. Women have become independent and are no longer just only housewives. Instead women have tried to express the struggles of being a woman through literature to teach other women they don’t have to be what society wants them to be.

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