Gender Roles

In honor of Halloween and the grand tradition of dressing up as whatever or whoever we want--

 *ehem*

--I'd like to--

*ehem*

What? You mean we can't do that? Even on a day where we pretend to be something we're not, gender roles (for the purpose of this entry, gender is between your ears and sex is between your legs, right? Right! Good.) still hold sway?

Bummer. For this little boy, the expectations tied to his gender (a socially constructed term tied to biological expression of sex. Well... generally. Disgendered individuals and gender roles is a whole different ballgame) trump his personal desire to the extent that he and his mother were heaped with both derision and acclaim for their choice of Halloween attire.And the worst part is that we do it to our kids from the very beginning. Gender neutral clothing is often difficult to find or overly plain, and the pressure to find out sex while pregnant is fierce.

--As an aside, did you know that originally, pink was for boys and blue was for girls? Pink was seen as a form of red and as such too potent for females while blue was heavily associated with the Virgin Mary. The painting above is King Louis XV. 

Traditionally, men were believed to possess one set of attributes and attitudes and women were believed to have another separate set. The two were supposed to be complimentary, but not the same and individuals that violated them often experienced significant social pressure to conform.

Today, when you think about what makes a man versus what makes a woman, there are still characteristics that are seen as predominantly male and predominantly female. Even some insults continue the trend of clearly delineating good and bad along what is perceived as male/female. When someone gets too emotional, they're sometimes told to 'man up', implying that they're acting too female and female=bad. 'Throwing like a girl' is still largely negative even though female athletes are becoming more and more common. If you stop and think about it, a large number of insults are specifically tied to the female anatomy. I could list some, but I'm pretty sure you know what I'm talking about.

As we evolve as a culture, gender roles (the set of behavioral norms determined by a persons gender) still hold sway even as roles have to change to keep pace. That is not to say that they haven't changed, but they definitely haven't gotten anywhere close to a true equality. Today, it is nearly impossible to live comfortably on a single income, necessitating that both parents work.

Even when a woman works outside of the home, the idea of the mother as caretaker is still prevalent. The Kelly Ripa Electrolux ads even reinforces this idea by insinuating that even as a financial provider, it remains the woman's responsibility to act as hostess, maintain a clean home and provide healthy fresh meals for her family.

 

 


Look,  I realize that the bulk of this post makes it sound like I'm some kind of bitter man hating feminist, but that's not what I'm going for. I'm not saying that men aren't held back from certain experiences by virtue of their gender, that was the entire point of the Daphne article, but my own personal experience is as a woman and heavily influenced as such.