Gender Roles, Femininity and Masculinity - Essay Example

Key Words: Gender, Metrosexual, Society, Stereotyping, Sex, Female, Male…. Gender Over the years, the number of women ingovernment has increased whereby more are becoming involved in professions and activities that the society used to consider as being in man’s domain. Women are becoming Secretary of State in states like US and even action movies are increasingly featuring women as the heroes. Lately, this issue of gender and the role played by each gender in society has been on my mind a lot. The society expects that a certain gender should behave in a certain way. Moreover, I wonder what changed such that women are now doing what society considered before as things only done by men. People sometimes interchange the term “gender” with “sex”. Among all the books I have read discussing gender, some of the scholars reject the word “sex” while others use both words synonymously. This is something that I have debated on before, as my stand has always been that, sex refers to the physical differences between males and females whereas gender refers to the social and cultural distinction of being male or female. Wharton (9) argues that there is no consensus among gender scholars on the appropriate use of these two terms. Generally, scholars regard gender as something not existing naturally but a concept created by society. I will start by finding out the definition of gender provided by a gender scholar just to make sure that I am on the right track. According to Wharton (9), gender is a process as much as it is a fixed state. This is because gender is something produced and reproduced continually. Wharton further asserts that gender is something enacted or done, not just expressed. I agree with this definition since the fact that gender roles have evolved over the years, means that gender is something that the society continually produces or reproduces. I believe that this is mainly because the cultural norms shape gender roles since the gender roles are simply concepts defined by society on how women and men should act. Most of us have learnt a lot about males and females even before starting school. In fact, if someone asked my classmates and me to come up with psychological ways in which males and females differ, I am sure we would all come up with almost ten points. This is because as we grow, people learn the appropriate behavior from the people around. Thus, the adults introduce children to the roles linked to their biological sex. According to Bryan, De Vault & Cohen (113), at the age of two, children can easily differentiate males and females based on things such as hair and clothing, that is, long hair and dresses for girls and short hair and no dresses for boys. At around age six or seven, children now start differentiating gender based on the stereotypical roles. They now start believing boys should not play with dolls but instead with toy guns, trucks and superhero paraphernalia, associated with aggression. Narrowing the topic to include gender roles, I found a book that discusses gender-role standards. Shaffer (241) defines the gender-role standard as either a motive, class of behavior or value considered as being most appropriate for a certain gender. The gender-role standards define how society expects males and females to behave and reflects on the stereotypes by which the society categorizes and responds to members of each gender. The learning of roles starts at birth through socialization. Gender role socialization is the process of learning the gender behaviors regarded as appropriate for one’s gender in a particular culture (Coon & Mitterer 427). When a baby is born, they will either be dressed in pink or blue depending with the gender. This socialization occurs due to different agents, for example family and education. These agents are responsible for reinforcing gender roles through the creation of the normal expectations of the gender-specific behavior. This continues until later in life where men outnumber women in professions such as politics, the military and law enforcement. Conversely, women outnumber men in the professions that are care related such as healthcare, social work and childcare. These are examples of the typical American gender behavior derived from cultural traditions. Repeated agent exposure leads to women and men believing that they are behaving naturally instead of following specific roles constructed socially. Adhering to these roles is a fulfillment of social expectations but not of personal preference. In showing how culture affects the gender roles, femininity and masculinity, I had to look for evidence suggesting that different cultures have a different view of gender. The American cultural society usually associates dominance, aggression, stability and strength as the masculine roles whereas nurturing, passivity, subordination, intuition, gentleness and emotional expressions as the feminine roles (Carroll 94). These masculinity and femininity variants of these attribute are strongly associated with males and females, respectively. The society attributes these ideal traits to each gender. However, these gender changes are becoming less acceptable as our culture changes. Some studies contend there is less gender role stereotyping in the African American population than in the Caucasian population. This is probably because African Americans are less gender-role restricted than the European American groups who deem that they possess both feminine and masculine traits. It is interesting to note that African Americans tend to view people through a lens of competency and age before gender. This emphasizes the point that people learn about masculinity and femininity from the cultural heritage of the specific ethnic group that they come from. A study conducted found out that when Latinas were asked about what they remembered being taught about the behavior of girls and boys, majority answered traditional role expectations (Carroll 94). The society tends to judge people whose behavior are not in line with their gender, for example, males who take pride in their appearance by dressing impeccably, donning expensive haircuts and going for facials and manicures may be assumed as being gay. These are the metrosexuals. Metrosxuality is not a new term. In Georgian England, the metrosexuals of the day were the dandies who wore tight clothes to accentuate their autonomy and considered aesthetes while celebrating everything aristocratic (Parish 9). These expectations and attitudes that surround gender roles their basis not always on natural gender differences. Some may be due to gender stereotyping. This means that certain attributes, such as occupations or role behaviors, differentiate women and men (Cook & Cusack 9). Masculine and feminine versions for all these attributes exist, for example, the independent and the dependent roles in everyday life. Gender stereotyping is often the basis of sexism and the prejudice of one sex over another. In some parts of the world, women are undervalued strongly, which is very unfortunate as the young girls may not receive the same treatment as boys including healthcare, nutrition and education. This is sad, considering the fact that these girls will grow up thinking that they deserve such treatment since they are inferior. Even though stereotyping may provide useful orientations in life, they may also produce misapplied knowledge evaluations and oversimplified conceptions, thus producing misleading evaluations of people from specific social categories. For example, in situations whereby the evaluations of job applicants are based on stereotypes, men may be favored over women for some jobs in which men have traditionally performed (Eisend, Plagemann &Sollwedel 257). Using gender stereotyping as a source of humor happens when the gender roles contrast with the societal expectations through the defying of social norms. Hence, this utilizes stereotypical depictions that are nontraditional. The nontraditional stereotypical depictions bring out changes in stereotypical roles, for instance, men may be shown in domestic roles maybe doing chores while the women represented in independent roles. The usage of stereotyping as a source of humor and as a deviation from social norms may also be via exaggerated traditional gender roles. In the modern society, the changing gender roles are causing ideals of gender equality to replace the traditional gender-related norms (Ceci, Williams & Barnett 223). Therefore, the exaggerated depictions of traditional gender roles may be regarded as non-normative thus possessing the potential to be sources of humorous incongruence. For example, men could be portrayed as philandering womanizers, while women may be depicted as desiring to flirt with these men and obtaining them. This is a contradiction of the gender emancipation norm, which may create the perception of humor (Eisend, Plagemann &Sollwedel 257). Therefore, advertisements often use gender roles in promoting products, due to the humor they may depict. The main motivation for advertisement using gender roles is the notion that gender stereotyping strengthens and influences societal values, which may lead to negative consequences, especially for women. As for the effectiveness of advertisements, research cites stereotyping may be helpful or detrimental. It depends on several factors, such as the audience’s gender attitudes. Since gender stereotyping can produce several negative consequences, especially for women, public policy is concerned about marketing the activities, which promote these stereotypes (Eisend, Plagemann &Sollwedel 256). Stereotyping is illegal in the US when people practice it as a form of discrimination to treat women as being unequal. Nevertheless, women treated unequally still pervades social life today. This gender discrimination occurs in both the macro and micro levels and when built on social structure, it is institutional discrimination (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman 224). In America, at least there is some flexibility when it comes to the gender roles expectations. To some extent, males may perform some feminine roles and vice versa without any serious societal repercussions. Nevertheless, some situations that appear extreme, and one steps outside to what the society considers less extreme thus acceptable, faces some serious consequences. This is mainly because gender roles not only shape the behavior of an individual but also penalizes the individuals who do not conform to the accepted norms, especially the individuals who do not identify as being female or male. The gender queer, the transgender and other non-conforming gender individuals are discriminated, oppressed, and faces violence for being different from what is expected by the traditional society. The society also ostracizes the homosexuals, bisexuals and the queer for not adhering to the gender norm of which gender an individual should be attracted to, especially when done in way, which is obvious. Generally, there has been a great reduction in the gender inequality brought about by gender stereotyping. This has been very noticeable especially when one considers the male-female difference in earnings. In general, from 1955-1997, there was a large increase in pay equity between men and women during that period. After 1955, the women’s wages declined relative to that of mane until 1970 when a low point was reached. Thereafter, the conditions started to improve steadily with the 1980 – 1990 being a decade of dramatic amelioration. To date, there has been a significant improvement (Cohn 14). In addition, in the recent years, the status of women as political actors has captured the attention of spectators around the world. This is because the growing number of female presidents and prime ministers all over the world, as well as record proportions of women elected to national parliament suggests that women inequality is soon ending (Krook & Childs 3). Therefore, the gender roles, which are constantly changing, are expected to continue evolving to a point where an individual’s behavior will be less determined by gender role. Concepts such as the dandy and metrosexual provide perfect examples of the tweaking tradition by blending the conventional notions such as ambition, aesthetic ideal, hard work and patriotism with bold fresh perceptions to form new, contemporary definitions of men, women and gender in general. Today, women are not only pursuing careers traditionally considered as male-only such as football, hockey and boxing, but also men are now becoming lead fashion designers, returning to their homes as stay-at-home dads and taking on other roles that the traditional society reserved for women (Parish 9). When people are conversing, they normally refer to women or men as the “opposite sex”. The term opposite sex shows that men and women belong to completely separate categories. Males and females cannot be that different. In fact, human males and females share very many characteristics, especially biological ones. For example, both males and females are warm-blooded and have 23 pairs of chromosomes. However, in other aspects, the male and female body differs. Their distinguishing characteristics include internal and external sexual structures, chromosomal differences, hormonal production and other physiological differences (Wharton 10). After conducting all this research, I have come up with one major question: Is the society correct in stereotyping the gender roles? I will answer this question in thesis form: The separation of male and female, a father and a mother, a brother and his sister, is that single chromosome, yet centuries of ideals and culture, roles and role reversals, medical treatments and diagnoses continue to revise this complex definition of gender. Works Cited Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Top of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Considerations,” Psychological Bulletin, 135 (2), 218–61. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Carroll, Janell L. Sexuality Now: Embracing Diversity. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth CENGAGE Learning, 2010. Print. Ceci, Stephen J., Wendy M. Williams, and Susan M. Barnett. “Women’s Underrepresentation in Science: Sociocultural and Biological Considerations,” Psychological Bulletin, 135.2 (2009): 218–261. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. Cohn, Samuel. Race, Gender, and Discrimination at Work. New York: Westview Press, 2009. Internet resource. Cook, Rebecca J, and Cusack, Simone. Gender Stereotyping: Transnational Legal Perspectives. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. Print. Coon, Dennis, and John O. Mitterer. Psychology: Modules for Active Learning. Australia: Wadsworth, Engage Learning, 2012. Print. Eisend, Martin, Plagemann, Julia and Sollwedel, Julia. "Gender Roles And Humor In Advertising: The Occurrence Of Stereotyping In Humorous And Nonhumorous Advertising And Its Consequences For Advertising Effectiveness." Journal Of Advertising 43.3 (2014): 256-273. Business Source Complete. Web. 13 Nov. 2014. Krook, Mona L, and Sarah Childs. Women, Gender, and Politics: A Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print. Parish, Lawrence C. Manual of Gender Dermatology. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett, 2011. Print. Shaffer, David R. Social and Personality Development. Australia: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. Strong, Bryan, Christine DeVault, and Theodore F. Cohen. The Marriage and Family Experience: Intimate Relationships in a Changing Society. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning, 2011. Print. Wharton, A. S. The sociology of gender: An introduction to theory and research. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print. Zastrow, Charles, and Karen K. Kirst-Ashman. Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Read More