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The effect of the media on gender roles
How does masculinity get constructed in society
Masculinity in a male dominated environment
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Recommended: The effect of the media on gender roles
Olivia Souza
Prof Thompson
GND 101
17 May 2016
Heterosexuality and Male Power
While the people in the LBGTQ community have become more accepted by the heterosexual society in recent years, such as the legalization of same-sex marriage, they are still not in the clear. We still have a society that is controlled by the white patriarchy and praises heterosexuality. Compulsory heterosexuality is the theory that heterosexuality is enforced and made to be the norm by a patriarchal society. This term was made popular by American writer and feminist Adrienne Rich in the 1980s. In Rich’s essay, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and
Lesbian Existence”, she argues that feminism should focus on lesbianism and that heterosexuality is not “natural” but rather
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Children also learn that if they don’t fulfill these expectations, they will be subjected to harassment or even violence. If men do not follow traditional gender roles or don’t meet the expectations that constitute traditional masculinity and are anything but strong, sexual, powerful, respected, and virtually emotionless, they are punished by other men by using homophobic or feminizing slurs such as: “homo”, “girl”, “bitch”, “pussy”, or “Mama’s boy”. The use of these degradations allow men to police the boundaries of what is adequate appearance and behavior for men, which is why gender roles are still enforced today.
By everyone having different upbringings, environments, and experiences, masculinity is not exactly the same for everyone. Influential factors such as race, class, and sexual orientation can help shape a male’s idea of manhood and masculinity. Through intersectionality, some men face oppression while others are given power. For example, homosexual colored men who belong to the working class would not have the same amount of male privilege and power as heterosexual white men who belong to the upper-middle class. Men who are considered as
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This teaches women to ask men for permission and make sure that they are dressed to men’s standards. Sixth, women are used as objects in male transactions through pimping, arranged marriages and cocktail waitresses dressing for “male sexual titillation” such as geishas and call girls. This allows women to be viewed as objects that can be played with and dressed to a male viewer’s liking. Seven, women are constrained of creativity by male creativity being praised more than female creativity and cultural values being the “embodiment of male subjectivity”. By being taught that women have limitations to creativity, women are taught that men are simply more creative and women shouldn’t be creative (Rich 639-640). Lastly, women are withheld knowledge about lesbianism and are not as educated in science or technology because women are stereotyped as not being interested in those “masculine” areas of study (Rich 639-640).
Without this education, women are stereotyped to pursue non-science or technology based careers and are also deprived of the history of lesbianism. Men have controlled women successfully for an extremely long time by using these
Jay, had been charged with an account of sexual assault, when one of his classmates had accused him of raping her violently. Jay continually contended that he was innocent and had committed no such crime. It was found later however, that Jay had completely supported rape in one of his conversations he had with friends. Jay and his other high school friends discussed a girl that attended their high school, with evident dislike and disgust. Near the end of this conversation, Jay had seemingly threatened to “take her out to the street races and leave her there. Leave her there so she can get raped.” All of Jay’s friends laughed at that remark. The method of “mobilizing rape” is therefore identified within this narrative. While Jay was upset and furious about being accused with rape, he supposedly had no problem with sexual dominance over women, even if it was violating the legal code that consisted of rape. Jay found a way to navigate between the opposition of opposing rape yet supporting masculinity and dominance at the same time (Pascoe, 2014). According to one theory, Hegemonic masculinity is a normative ideology that works to put a man in utmost power, and in order to preserve that power, women must be inferior to men (Connell, Meserschmidt, 2005 as cited in Smith et al, 2015) (Mankowski, Maton, 2010 as cited in Smith et al, 2015). Jay’s story portrays this sort
Within America’s society today, 3.8 percent of the population is gay, lesbian, or bisexual. With only 17 of the 50 states legalizing and recognizing this type of relationship (“History…”), it puts a stronghold on same-sex couples to publicly declare their love with the promise of marriage. Same-sex marriages should be legalized because everyone has equal rights of freedom and liberty.
In “Dude, You’re a Fag,” multiple boys that were interviewed said they “didn’t like gay people” and were disgusted by gay men but lesbians were “good” (Pascoe). These boys only viewed female homosexuality as “good” because of its place in the heterosexual male fantasy and not because they approved of homosexuality as a legitimate and accepted sexuality (Pascoe). The binary gender system creates a male dominated society that allows for only female homosexuality to exist because even through it goes against the strict normative heterosexuality it can still be a source of pleasure for men. Male homosexuality, however, is not accepted because in a male dominated world it is associated with not being masculine. Through the use of the slur “fag,” people demean and emasculate boys and men (Pascoe). The use of “fag” against someone does not imply that they are homosexual; instead, Pascoe’s study and interview of high school age boys shows that it is used to say that a person is not masculine and therefore not conforming to their gender roles. Even though women can be sexually fluid and have intimate relationships with other women, it is not viewed as legitimate sex because there is no penis involved. Women are allowed by society to have sex with whomever they want, as long as they are still able to perform their gender role as wives and birth givers. In contrast, in
The clothing for both boys and girls sections are close together. I noticed that there are articles of clothing that are similar for boys and girls, but they are called different names to make them more masculine or feminine. For example, shirts for girls are called fashion tops and just shirts for boys. Some patterns that I saw in the clothing/toys is that for almost each advertisement or label had a picture of a boy or a girl to indicate which toy or clothing is meant for which gender. I did find some things that I thought were unusual. One thing that I noticed for boys is that the majority of the boys toys were more expensive compared to the girls toys. For example, I did not realize how expensive Legos and other building toys were compared to some dolls for girls. A set of Legos could be up to sixty dollars just for one set! Another thing that I noticed about the boys toys was that there were a lot more choices in ratio to girl’s toys. For girls, one could either choose from dolls (Barbie’s), dress up clothes, or play make-up. As for boys, there is so much more to choose from, they have cars/trucks, sports equipment, Legos, guns, different trading cards (Pokémon, Yugioh, sports trading cards, etc.)
Society places ideas concerning proper behaviors regarding gender roles. Over the years, I noticed that society's rules and expectations for men and women are very different. Men have standards and specific career goals that we must live up to according to how others judge.
Society has taught its people that men are supposed to have certain and different characteristics than women and vice versa. What is difficult to understand is why society split the uncomplicated human characteristics in to two categories. Jensen brings up two important questions in this text pertaining to the separation of characteristics, “What makes these distinctly masculine characteristics? Are they not simply human characteristics?” These questions are really important to discuss because whether an individual is male or female they are still a human and all humans have access to the same set of characteristics. Males and females can express masculinity and they can both express emotions because they are each human. Jensen’s main point about characteristics is that any characteristic can apply to males or females because characteristics are not sex based, they are human
‘Boys will be boys’, a phrase coined to exonerate the entire male sex of loathsome acts past, present, and potential. But what about the female sex, if females act out of turn they are deemed ‘unladylike’ or something of the sort and scolded. This double standard for men and women dates back as far as the first civilizations and exists only because it is allowed to, because it is taught. Gender roles and cues are instilled in children far prior to any knowledge of the anatomy of the sexes. This knowledge is learned socially, culturally, it is not innate. And these characteristics can vary when the environment one is raised in differs from the norm. Child rearing and cultural factors play a large role in how individuals act and see themselves.
In reality, gender is not based on one’s genetic make-up or their reproductive organs. Expanding on this, an individual does not have any control over their assigned gender, but everyone has a gender identity, which is one’s internal sense of being male or female. From a sociocultural perspective, gender roles have the greatest influence on gender as a social construction. Gender roles are the attitudes, behaviors, rights, and responsibilities that particular cultural groups associate with each sex. In regards to gender, the social construction theory acknowledges the connection the topic has with power and meaning, and states that social interaction, or “language” controls how these things are portrayed to individuals. Similarly, sexuality is socially constructed in a sense that, one’s sexual orientation depends on what they are taught to be “socially acceptable”. For example, a person who is raised by homophobic parents would most likely be taught that every aspect of homosexuality is wrong, and therefore they would be influenced to be heterosexual. While many would like to believe that people are born with their sexual orientation, that is far from the truth. All in all, when looking at the big picture, it is clear that race, gender,
This essay will discuss the ways sexuality is gendered and their impacts towards both men and women by exploring the contemporary heterosexual scripts from a sociological perspective on three main aspects; i.e. sex drive, desire and power. It studies how men are deemed to have a higher sexual edge than women, who acts as the relationship gatekeepers. This essay analyses the theory that women predictably pursuits love and relationships while men are more sexually controlled by lusts and cravings. Sexual dominance and passiveness is another traditional script inspected in this essay, focusing on how men are always expected to be the prevailing initiator thus devouring more power in relationships while women stays being the weaker, submissive receivers.
Many of us have been reflecting on questions about intersex and what it actually is. I’ll be explaining the definition of intersex, how common it is the conditions of intersex and what is basically considered to be intersex. Intersex is when a person is born with a sexual anatomy or reproductive system that doesn’t quite fit the description of male or female. Some examples are, a person could be born with an outer appearance as a female but could have male anatomy on the inside. Also a person can be born with what looks to be as both male and female genitals, such as, a boy can be born with a small penis or a scrotum that’s divided forming what can look like a labia or a girl can be born with a very large clitoris or even not having a vaginal opening. Then there’s the gene mix up. A person can be born with mosaic genetics which means that some of her cells have xx chromosomes and some have XY chromosomes.
Calling homosexuals offensive names is just as offensive as public displays of affection from homosexuals. Of course I for one do not find any kind of this public display offensive, but some might. So if some want the respect to get homosexuals to keep their proclamation of loving one another private, then they have to stop the name calling and violence.
The social construction of gender leads to the creation and sustainment of sex roles that we have been taught to adhere to since birth that results to social doings through the creation of gender – who we talk, how we dress and who we associate with. Men are taught to masculine qualities like not crying and women are taught to do feminine characteristics like playing with dolls and wearing dresses. A prime example of this is in the article written my Diane Reay, that analyzes the construction female behavior, where those who identified as “girlies” care about their appearance and we regarded to as stupid by their classmates. Those who challenged the feminine norms, where referred to as “spice girls” and labeled as bitches or little cows by their teachers because they where thought to be negative influences to the rest of the class. Reay states that, “boys maintain the hierarchy of social superiority of masculinity by devaluing the female world,” (Reay, 2014, pg. 257) by esteeming males over females, it creates gendered expressions that depict once gender more promising that the other in society, where self-declared tomboy Jodie stated that, “Girls can be good, bad or- best of all – they can be boys,” (Reay, 2014, pg. 257) which solidifies the social norm of males being better than
Who’s to say that just because you are male you have to act manly and if you are female you must be girly? Over the years, gender roles have had a dominant place in society, different families emphasizing different roles. Society places certain expectations on men and women, designating particular responsibilities to each.Throughout the years, society 's rules and expectations for men and women have changed, therefore, it 's important to know where gender roles come from and how they affect people because they play an important role in shaping the way we think about others in society.
gender roles, but men do as well. For men, they have to be the bread winner, be completely
Masculinity and femininity are two terms, which have been interpreted differently throughout history. Both the males and the females have responsibilities and duties but these duties differ based on one’s gender. Gender has played a prodigious role in the economy, politics, and the society. Everyone starts making interpretations of the strengths and weaknesses based on one’s gender. These interpretations are not always based on his or her ability but is usually based on his or her gender. Males tend to be judged as extremely strong and unfashionable in terms of appearance. Whereas, females are judged as expensive and very fashionable. Males and females both differ in their abilities and their enjoyments. Fashion, entertainment, and strength are three topics, which are used to define masculinity and femininity in the 21st century.