My roommate is taking a gender sociology class and she shared this article with me. It discusses different sociological insights on gender roles and how they are created by society. I thought it was very interesting. Specifically, in the last two pages of the article it discussed the ideas of how a "real man" or "real women" should act, dress, and socialize. It discussed that it is more scrutinized if a man is not behaving in masculine manner. I think the boundaries and roles set by society for men and women can make it difficult for them to be themselves. This article made me think a lot about the pressures put on men and women to behave in a certain way. For example, women are seen to be very emotional and it is frowned on at times if men show their emotions openly. The article also discusses about gender stereotypes and the negative repercussions they can cause. I wish our society was less focused on labeling people. I think that if everyone was more accepting of people's differences this world would be a better place. I uploaded the article to a google document and by clicking on the link below you may access it. When you read this article think about different gender stereotypes you have seen in your life and how they can be harmful to society. It is very hard to change a societies' perception, but you can take individual action and change the way that you think about gender roles.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Gender Roles
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I agree that I think that men are far more scrutinized that women. I think that part of the reason is that the attributes that men usually have are seen as being "stronger" or "better", whereas female attributes are seen as being "weak", as you mentioned. I believe that this is due to the male dominance that has been prevalent in society for the past several decades. Therefore, when a man has more feminine attributes he is weakened in the eyes of other men and women, but if a woman has manly attributes she is seen as being stronger than other women. However, I do also believe that woman who are strong are often criticized of being female dogs, while men who are strong are simply patted on the back. So there are unfair judgments going both ways. But I don't know if there really is a way to change these social norms, unless everyone becomes aware of the problem and actually does something to change it.
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