Gender Roles Are Reversed

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The Roles Are Reversed Gender roles is a set of society's norms dictating the types of behavior and attributes that are considered to be appropriate based on a person's sexuality, which is either male or female. Feminine behaviors are expected of females, and masculine behaviors are expected of males. What is expected from both feminine and masculine roles has changed in many ways throughout history as well as within recent times. Gender behavior is significantly influenced by social forces, which also includes literature, and by culture rather than by nature or innate differences (Lahey 104). “Witch War” by Richard Matheson challenges western society’s norms on traditional gender roles during the 1950s. Gender roles vary from culture to culture and provide a set of different expected behavior for persons of different sexes. Members of a culture classify which behaviors are deem appropriate and expected for both males and females( Lahey 104). For example, the United States culture, during the 1900s, …show more content…

The process of teaching gender roles begins almost instantly after birth. For instance, female infants are generally held more gently and treated with more care than male infants. This treatment continues as the child grows, with both parents typically playing more roughly with their male children than with their female children. Not only that, but boys grow up being told that “boys should not cry” and are encouraged to control certain emotions that society believes to not be masculine, while girls are taught not to fight and not to show anger or aggression. The teaching of gender roles does not only come through obvious verbal teachings from parents and others in society, it also occurs in other social forces, such as literature (“Gender and

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