The United States has been a patriarchy since its founding in 1776. This is largely in part due to the values of the Christian church which demonizes the nature of women and claims that they are weak and easily corrupted and have been this way since the Biblical story of Adam and Eve(GENESIS 2:4-3:24). Thus women were rarely trusted with positions of power and were only seen as valuable for bearing children and tending the home. They were sold as property to the highest bidder and accused of being whores or witches if they did not conform to their father’s or husband’s wishes. The United states has certainly made enormous progress in the way that women are treated. The female populace has gone from being considered little better than livestock to being seen as human beings with the mental and physical capacity to work outside the home, participate in the democratic process, and own property. However even with women in positions of power such as the Senate and Congress they still make up less than 25% of the seats available, and we have not yet come close to electing a female president. There are many different roots to the problem of inequality. A major one, that we are exposed to from birth, is objectifying images of women in the media. Particularly in commercials, magazines, and popular music women are used as props. Their bodies are dissected and exposed in ways that remove their humanity. They are shown as being submissive and easily overpowered. If the heterosexual male gaze continues to define commercial media women will continue to be seen as lesser than their male counterparts because,these images instill a lack of respect for the female gender in both men and women starting from a very early age.
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...osition of power to change these gender stereotypes they often continue to propagate the heterosexual male gaze because it is the only way that they know.
Works Cited
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In today’s contemporary American culture, gender roles are despised by the younger generation because of the distinctions placed on them. This is the era of open-mindedness and self-expression and because of this individuals feel they should not be told what they can and cannot do based on their sex. There are now material things such as, clothes, shoes and perfumes that are considered unisex, males and females can now fight in wars and men are no longer fully needed to be the providers of their families. Though the American culture has attempted to make a leap forward when it comes to breaking down the barriers of gender roles, it is still being held back. Being a culture that was first influenced by the Christian religion, there are still traces of these gender roles present. From areas of
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In " Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke and Pharrell it talks about how a men humiliates a women.This song talks a about sexiest men and how he caresless about womens rigths or feelings, this song made alot of people angry becaause of how it talks about women.This song actually compares womens rigths and feelings to animals
In the United States, while women have consistently been gaining more equality since the beginning of the Women’s Rights Movement in 1848, we still have a long way to go. Women have come a long way from being typical housewives who were not allowed to vote, drive
In contrast, men have been seen as more dominate than women because of their masculine abilities and other traits and most importantly their profound responsibility of being the provider and head of the household. Americans constantly uses theses two distinct stereotypes that in many cases present many biases regarding gender codes in America. Things have changed over time the women are no longer just house wives taking care of the house and children waiting for their husband to come home from his nine to five occupations. Andrea L. Miller explains in her article “The Separate Spheres Model of Gendered Inequality” that, “A common theme in the study of gender is the idea that men and women belong in distinct spheres of society, with men being particularly fit for the workplace and women being particularly fit for the domestic domain” (Miller 2). Miller gives two very specific examples on how gender is viewed in American
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Traditional gender roles in the United States and other societies have always been dictated as where the man goes and works for a salary as women stay at home to take of house related work. However, many changes in the traditional family has made gender roles go through significant changes. Many women have gone through college and have obtained college education degrees, which has allowed women to advance their careers. The break down of rigid gender roles and the increase in participation of women in the workplace have granted women more choices in life. The choices many women now have in there career fields has made some controversial views on the intelligence of women achieving the status of their male counterparts The first view obtained in the workplace is the ability to make a even paying field for both men and women. Many constituents have pledge to achieve equality for women through laws forbidding the use of any sexist policies that may constitute discrimination against sex. The second is weather working women have been allowed to working women have the same opportunities rewarded to them as men do. Many political action committees have help perpetuate feminist movements which intended to build equal opportunity workplaces for both men and women however, many questionable issues still arise at weather working conditions have become better for women.
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Throughout Western history it was known to have this Patriarchal system in which the men are the head of the family, and community, during which these spheres between the male and female were divided, each having their own set of roles: the male in the public view and the women in the private view. The men worry about what is going on outside the home like politics, money, control over property while the women take care of what happens on the inside of the home doing things like taking care of the children and doing the house work. With these roles set in place the women have had a hard time being respected because of this Patriarchy.
For centuries, women have simply faced the challenge of having their rights and being recognized in The United States. In a union that is supposedly “united”, women are often criticized, ridiculed, and shamed simply because they are women. There have been various efforts to get women their equality. There is a need for respect, that goes beyond just equality with men; it is a fight for living, surviving, and finally getting what is deserving of women. It is the equality and rights of women that should not be up for debate or heavily controlled by the government. Society is constantly dehumanizing women, their status, and undermining their achievements. There are many factors that play in the detrimental society in The United States such as rape culture, media, and religion.
Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need to do severe critical thinking about this delusion of gender, how has limited us in the home, media, and education, how it currently limits us, and what the results of the current and future changes in gender roles will be.
Since the beginning of time, women have always been seen as things purely for the pleasure and benefit of men. Women have always been objectified. Objectification is seeing and treating a person as if they did not have thoughts and feelings, as if they had the status of an object.{1} Only in recent years have they begun to be seen as individuals of equal intelligence and ability. You may think, ”Women have had equal rights for a while. I do not see how this is a problem.” It may not seem like women were given their rights recently, but in our history, women have been treated objectively for thousands of years, even dating back to biblical times. Still, even when women have the same rights, opportunities, and responsibility as men, women can be found almost everywhere being treated as though they were incompetent and lesser human beings.{4}
That is why for years to come women will still be seen as motherly, passive and innocent, sexual objects, or they are overlooked or seen as unimportant entities. Whether it’s motherly birds on kids TV shows or scantily clad dancers on Monday Night Football, the portrayal of women has yet to catch up with what real life women are like. There are single women, obese women, and smart women. Women who are single mom’s, lesbians, or don’t have any children at all. Women are able to do the same type of work as men without being manly.