Gender Roles

Gender Roles

In the five articles we read, each one discussed gender roles according to the situation the people were put in. From Noel Perrin’s Androgynous Man being least to Deborah Tannen’s Sex, Lies and Conversation being most effective, I have ranked these articles in terms of evidence provided and examples used.

Androgynous Man by Noel Perrin is ranked last or fifth, not because the article is bad, but because it lacks some of the elements listed above. Noel Perrin uses a good personal experience to get the reader’s attention. He explains what it means to be androgynous. Perrin, a sheep wrangler, is completely surprised when he tests himself through an article test called “How Masculine/Feminine Are You?” On a scale of one to ten, he is a 1.2. This greatly discourages him at first. He does a piece of original analysis on himself and manages to find what the patterns are that differentiate “masculine” men from “feminine” men. Perrin realizes that he is androgynous, however, he does not let this get in his way of being able to fulfill “manly” jobs. “A few years after that summer, I was leading troops in combat”. This is a good point from Perrin to show that being androgynous does not determine your gender. Perrin brags a bit on how being androgynous is a kind of freedom, but many who are androgynous do not realize it. When he gives his opinions, he then supports them with his own personal experiences as evidence. Androgynous Man is ranked before Evan’s Two Moms because no outside information or evidence was used.

Next is Evan’s Two Moms by Anna Quindlen. This article was better than Androgynous Man in that this article gives more outside information. Quindlen does a great job of explaining how difficult it is to have a ch...

... middle of paper ...

...xample is when she explains how men tend to talk more in public settings whereas women are more comfortable in their home setting. Tannen says this is a big problem. She has conducted her own research and heard complaints from both sides. There is evidence to back both sides up such as Issue of American Psychologist from Stanford University.

“Gender roles” sounds like a simple way of determining whether someone is male or female; obviously, this part is true, however, the actual roles of that male or female can often differentiate. In the five articles we read, the authors all did an excellent job of explaining a certain situation. I ranked these five articles in terms of evidence provided and examples used. Some authors did better than others but, overall, they all helped to explain how gender roles really work in the society or generation that we live in today.