Gender Roles and Society Essay

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Sakura Blossom
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Gender Roles and Society Essay

Post by Sakura Blossom »

Hey, all! Knowing that we have some feminists here, I thought I would share an essay I wrote for my English class. It's only the rough draft, so I'm not expecting perfection, but I'm actually rather pleased with how it turned out (the limit was 4 pages and I seriously could just keep going on this subject so I wasn't able to touch or go super in depth with some things). It also helps me, because I'm sure none of you have read the articles mentioned in this paper, so I can see if it is a successful argument essay or not. Haha. This is an assignment for class, and not meant to sway anyone's opinions on here. (:

Here it is!
Lucy, I’m home! – A popular phrase that has forever been immortalized thanks to the all-famous TV show known as “I Love Lucy”, that ran from 1951 to 1957. The TV show which was centered around Lucy, the hard working wife of Ricky Ricardo, was very popular and still remains so. Why wouldn’t it be? If you were to read the IMDB description of the TV show, it says, “A daffy woman constantly strives to become a star along with her bandleader husband and gets herself in the strangest situations”. The popular phrase was usually said by Lucy’s husband, when he arrived home from a long day at work while Lucy would be in the kitchen waiting with dinner. The show seems innocent enough, but in reality it brings to light a problem that’s been plaguing our world since civilization began: The misconstrued gender roles of men and women due to societal influence.

In an article by Phillip Cohen, he addresses this exact problem. While going to McDonald’s and purchasing a Happy Meal, he discovered something rather disturbing. As many know, McDonald’s always gives toys away with their children’s meals and this time around they were handing out Smurfs to promote the new Smurf movie. However, the problem lay with the fact that only one female smurf was being handed out, which left the rest as males. Many would argue that it was alright, and there wasn’t a problem with this, as Smurfette is the only female smurf in the television show (popular in the 1980s). If you delve deeper into the show itself, it reveals why this is such a big deal. Smurfette was created as temptation to the happy-go-lucky smurfs, by the evil wizard Gargamel as he hoped to turn them to the ‘dark side’. In the beginning, her presence disrupted the daily lives of these little blue men as they would argue over who would be able to be with her. This was a TV show popular with children, and this movie that was made was aimed towards children as well.

Cohen has a right to be concerned, just as we all should. The TV Shows referenced thus far, are prime examples of what we as a society are exposing our children to. How is it a good idea to teach young girls, that when they get older men will only want to come after them with the hopes of a relationship – If not just for sex? From a young age, girls are taught that they are to be the homemaker, a wife and a mother, while boys are taught that men go out to work and bring home the money to support them. It’s littered through many more shows than just these two mentioned, but it’s not limited to just television or film in general.

On the topic of McDonald’s and their toys, for the longest time they would ask if you would like to have a ‘girl toy’ or a ‘boy toy’. This ultimately brought up a choice defined by societal norms: Be feminine or be masculine? This was directed towards children; Children who are innocent and at the beginning of their life when they are beginning to develop their own, unique identities. By presenting them this choice, they are going to see that certain objects and ideas are limited specifically towards a gender and grow up in fear that if they like something outside of this label, they will be ridiculed and perceived as defective because they don’t fit this title.

In another article, written by Harvey Mansfield, he addresses another concern known as ‘rape culture’ which can easily be linked back to the idea of stereotypes. He addresses the subject of a female student on campus, who had written an open letter to the college’s newspaper, speaking of how she’d been sexually manipulated due to being under the influence of alcohol and now felt ‘hopeless, powerless, betrayed, and worthless’. Mansfield begins to pick apart her complaint and appeal, questioning whether or not this woman purposely got drunk for this to happen because on some subconscious level, she wanted to be a part of what he calls the ‘hook up culture’ and had to be under the influence to give consent. He goes on to use what he calls ‘principles of feminism’ to try and support this topic. The two principles he explained, being: “There is no essential difference between men and women, and the corollary that men and women are not real beings but arbitrary “social constructions” containing nothing “natural” or permanent.”

This is where issue needs to be taken, but some ideas need to be explained to help understand why. First is that feminism is not the idea that men and women should be equal, as he’s implying with the first principle. True feminism is the belief that there should have never been a power structure based on gender in the first place, and feminists seek to eliminate this hierarchy entirely. This also brings up the fact that seeking equality completely ignores those who don’t fit the gender binary (i.e. Transgender and Gender Queer). The next being the idea of stereotypes, which can equate to the “social constructions” Mansfield mentions in his second principle. We as a society give labels to men and women alike, based on their interests and the activities they do, some examples being: Tomboy (enjoying things labeled as ‘masculine’, Girly (enjoying things labeled as feminine), and Slut (having sex with more than one man, and dressing ‘provocatively’ as if ‘asking for it’).

While it is true what Mansfield implied, that some women might take advantage of the ‘rape hype’ going on right now, there is still the obvious problem with his mention of the woman getting drunk so that she could consent to having sex without feeling guilty. It is a well-known fact that alcohol impairs judgment, and while it’s a woman’s responsibility to ensure they care for themselves it doesn’t give an excuse for a man to try and take advantage of a woman in a defenseless state because they had consumed something that will cause their minds to think unclearly or because that woman might have chosen to wear something a little more revealing. Mansfield addresses how we as humans may be resorting back to primal urges and this is why women are supposedly doing as he claims. Can this same argument not be turned to men? Do some feel so threatened by these rising stereotypes, that they need to take advantage of a mentally impaired woman, just so they can get that sense of being ‘on the top of the food chain’ again?

Our society and our world has come incredibly far in this battle for eliminating these ridiculous gender roles and notions that men and women have to have a specific title and position in life, just because of the gender they were born into. We as a society need to come together, and not influence our children with such things as gender-specific toys or colors. We need to let them make their own choices and discover their interests on their own and do our best not to sway their minds one way or another. This country was built on the idea of freedom, so why must we not have the freedom to make our own decisions on what we want our roles in society to be?
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