Gender Roles In World War Z

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Even under completely new circumstances, in a world reshaped by a zombie apocalypse, sexism and gender roles prevail. In the novel, World War Z, by Max Brooks, specifically the chapter “Parnell Air National Guard Base, Tennessee” highlights the main character, Christina Eliopolis, as a strong, admirable survivor of the tragic zombie apocalypse, but during her interview she is depicted as weak and discreditable due to her gender. Society’s conventional ideas of gender roles install hyper-masculine expectations towards men and in turn permits men to treat women as inferior, ultimately pitting women against each other and insecure about their gender. During Christina’s interview, it is evident that the interviewer treats Christina differently, …show more content…

Alexander Mussap stresses how “women and men are socialized to conform to gender-stereotyped roles” and this conformity heavily influences all their actions (Mussap). Christina explains her situation as “a lady cadet in a man’s world” reflecting how, in the perspective of a woman, the world is fixed around men’s standards and needs (Brooks ). When Christina talks about the plane incident, it is clear that she is angry at herself, highlighting how she “was squatting over a bucket like a goddamn girl” underlining the idea that doing something “like a girl” is not something to be proud of (Brooks 175). Christina beats herself up about something that she cannot realistically take the blame for. This is because society has promoted the idea that women are the inferior gender, and that everything they do has a negative connotation linked to it. At the end of the chapter, when Gavin Blaire has his suspicions of Mets, Christina immediately jumps to the defense, which makes readers question would Gavin Blaire even be questioning Christina’s sanity and story if she were to be a man. Authors Natasha Patterson and Camilla Sears discuss how society “[let’s] men off the hook” and elaborate further how in general men “suffer few consequences, particularly career or publicity wise, and the public seems no longer shocked by it” (Patterson and

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