The first decade of this millennium witnessed a dramatic awakening concerning the role of gender which had its marked impact on gender roles. As Wharton states, “the study of gender emerged as one of the most important trends in the discipline of sociology in the twentieth century” (1). This emergence prompted many theories regarding gender issues, which in turn, “propelled the sociological study of gender from the margins to become one of the central features of the discipline” (Wharton 2). Though every group is uniquely structured in a societal set up based on categories, the colossal development of research on gender issues clearly shows that all social interactions, and the institutions of human progress, are biased in the case of gender in some manner or other (Wharton 2).
The Oxford dictionary defines the word gender as “being male or female”. It also explains the term as “the members of one or other sex” ("gender"). However, the two above-mentioned usages of the term gender appear to be too simple, as the word gender seems to have a deeper meaning than just a reference to the biological differences between male and female. World Health Organisation explains gender as the “socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”.
In sociology, the term gender refers to the differences suggested by the society while categorising human beings as masculine and feminine. Therefore, gender is not biological, but by how people look at the roles of men and women. A role is a “comprehensive pattern of behaviour that is socially recognized, providing a means of identifying and placing an individual in a society” ("role"). Roles are performed according to social ...
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... then having written Dance Like a Man, I was prepared to take on the gender issue head on, and I think that was a powerful metaphor. Again, you know, the play is misread and, you know, people tend to focus on the medical details but that’s really not what the play is about. It’s a metaphor either for being born equal as male and female and sharing so much more and with the surgical separation comes a cultural distinction and prejudices as well, but on another level, it could also deal with the individual having the male and female self…
He also comments that,
I see Tara as a play about the male self and the female self. The male self being preferred (if one is to subscribe to conventional categories of masculine traits and feminine traits) in all cultures. The play is about the separation of self and reluctant angst (Subramanyam 129).
There are many things that influence our behavior from internal influences to social norms. Social norms are implicit or explicit rules that govern how we behave in society (Maluso, class notes). Social norms influence our behavior more than any of us realize but we all notice when a norm has been broken. Breaking a social norm is not an easy task and often leads us feeling uncomfortable whether we broke the norm ourselves or witnessed someone else breaking it. Sometimes however, you just have to break a norm to see what happens.
William Shakespeare is known for his masterful way of writing and using love and romance to strengthen his work. In his phenomenal romance comedy, Twelfth Night, Shakespeare redefines and mocks the idea of gender roles and the motifs of love. Shakespeare achieved this theme by using the main character, Viola, to give the readers the thought that the play’s intentions were to disrupt and throw out gender roles and present the concept of cross-dressing through Viola. Although this concept was a twist to the plot by itself, Shakespeare then uses Viola’s language and interaction with other characters to reaffirm stereotypes and expectations of her specified gender background.
Gender roles can be comprehended through studying human society and the individual relationships among people in that society. Different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society, are interlinked with gender roles. This paper will look at the gender roles and stereotypes from a modern and a traditional society perspective. The three different areas will be compared by looking at the traditional and modern societies, in order to understand how many changes have occurred and whether or not anything has really changed. Generally speaking, a traditional society is more conservative while a modern society leans toward being more liberal. The conservative nature of a traditional society is mainly a result of assigning certain roles depending on the gender of individuals. These roles have created gendered stereotypes which traditional society and even modern society have abided by. These roles and stereotypes have created a society in which one individual becomes dominant and the other becomes a subordinate. Modern society, however, has started to “level out the playing field” by allowing males AND females to succeed through accepting the identity of individuals’. Even though de facto segregation still exists, equality is emerging in society more and more each day.
Gender roles have withstood the test of time and equality throughout the world, and only recently has society made advancements towards gender equality. Undoubtedly, this modern progression in equality can be partially attributed to canon literature which broadens a reader’s perspective and challenges them to think critically. Such as the plays “Trifles”, written by Susan Glaspell, and “M. Butterfly”, written by David Henry Hwang, which address gender inequality through dramatic portrayals. Moreover, when compared and contrasted, “Trifles” and “M. Butterfly”, share the universal themes of femininity and masculinity as well as cultural stereotypes.
A gender role is simply a behavior learned by an individual that is considered appropriate for their own gender. Many times these roles depend on cultural norms, and most of the times these roles have a tremendous effect on people. These impacts are quite transparent in books like The Great Gatsby, or passages like The Globalization of Eating Disorders and When Bright Girls Decide that Math is “A Waste of Time”.
Her play proved that women are not at the mercy of men and are capable of making decision or assumptions for themselves. The two leading women in the play emphasize the idea of women having power. Even though it is in tedious means of her play, it contributes greatly to the overall idea. The reader of the play or participating actors are introduced to dynamic gender roles that can be seen in everyday life. The play showed how women are capable of taking control of their own lives and how it affects the lives of others around
The movie She's the Man shows much of the general idea of the original Shakespearean book, the twelfth night. It also, illustrates the change in feminine roles in the community and society at large, the main theme of the movie being feminism. In Shakespearean era and time, the important, recognizable and powerful positions in the society were taken by men and therefore Viola in the twelfth night disguises herself as a eunuch in order to get close to the Olivia, the countess and the
The word gender refers to a general classification of human beings into male and female with socially and culturally constructed characteristics, behaviors, attributes and roles preconceived and labelled as appropriate for each class. The society and culture today have placed human beings in a box which to a large extent dictates how we act in the world.
The main thrust of the play has a lot to do with gender relations in
Every day of my life the sociology of “norms” is at work in my daily life. It works on a subconscious level, keeping me from acting “strange”. These norms are my guiding light to acting “normal” and fitting in with the societies that I am a part of, they tell me how to conduct myself and what my expectations of other’s behaviors should be.
Williams makes the audience think about the world about throughout this issue in the play. The audience is exposed to the grim reality on how woman were treated. It demonstrates how far society has come in respecting woman. The topic of woman being treated fairly is always in the media, and Williams uses this contemporary issue to show a different perspective of this topic allowing the audience to go into deep discussion about an issue happening in our world at this present
The way women were treated, as animals, forced to obey and listen to every command their husbands had to say, and how their weddings were treated like business transactions. Women were treated terribly in the Elizabethan times. In the play it shows how badly and terrible there were treated, many of them do. This also shows his the personalities of character changes at different times and environments, becoming more obeying or disobeying a master, but everything has gotten better since then, and one may agree that how women are treated now is immensely better than the way they were treated before.
Today’s society is filled with many social classes and groups each containing their own social norms for the members of that group. Although these norms are apparent within the group, new individuals who join the group must learn and adapt to fit in. Because of this, being able to adapt to new social norms is important as every individual will encounter a situation where these norms differ significantly. Individuals are then faced with a decision to conform to the group’s norms by bending their own, or they can maintain their ideals which can result in stigmatization against them by the other group members. This leads to self-conflict within the individual, the outcome of which can be identity ambivalence. In the piece “Making it by Faking
In this play, the men and women characters are separated even from their first entrance onto the stage. To the intuitive reader (or playgoer), the gender differences are immediately apparent when the men walk confidently into the room and over to the heater while the women timidly creep only through the door and stand huddled together. This separation between genders becomes more apparent when the characters proceed in investigating the murder. The men focus on means while the women focus on motive: action vs. emotion. While the men...
Although so easily forgotten, Diamond reminds us of how plays during this time were generally written by upper-class white men, meaning, what they wanted society to see was what was going to be portrayed on stage. It was inevitably a brainwashing that was taking place. Instead of merely interpreting the play, Diamond takes a feminist stance, exclaiming the outrage she feels towards this façade theatre tends to play. She intends to express how the theatre "sells" women. Many of Diamond's journal publications include essays on seventeenth and twentieth century drama and Brechtian and feminist theory. Her work is always exploring the connection between performance and feminism, using texts from early modernism through postmodern art. I never thought about using my research and studies gained in my schooling to further examine, and deeply identify with the different plays I read. In the play, she realizes how female "desire" is staged, considering women in reality have no actual power, it's a masquerade. It's sort of like Gestus, in that it's untrue, yet is still used to portray a fake