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Masculinity of men and feminism of women
3 ways gender stereotypes can be influenced
Gender identity and society
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Recommended: Masculinity of men and feminism of women
Women are powerful creatures. Women have to be strong and brave. They have to put on their brave face every morning while they paint their face with their makeup. They face adversity head on and look good doing it. Even when exhausted, they pull through and face not only their own personal challenges every day, but also the challenges of living in a male dominant world. So, it is not a surprise that women have developed a sixth sense, to help protect themselves. Women can notice the dangers of men, but still women feel the need to remain silent about the dangers that they notice. Men are complaining to feminists when they need to be complaining to the men who are making men as a whole look bad. In Andrea Dworkin 's “I Want A Twenty-Four-Hour …show more content…
In “Professions for Women,” by Virginia Woolf, she writes, “ 'My dear, you are a young woman. You are writing about a book that has been written by a man. Be sympathetic; be tender; flatter; deceive; use all the arts and wiles of our sex. Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own. Above all, be pure” (243). This is everything a woman is expected to do and be. Growing up little girls are just clay for the patriarchal society to mold into the perfect woman. Women are raised look pretty and keep their lips together, they are raised to go along with anything that happens. So even though women can see what kind of danger comes with man, she is made to believe that she has no other choose than to marry a man and do what he says to do because who knows what he could do to her if provoked. Women are known to be sympathetic and women are suppose to be tender. If women were rough and acted as a man acts than suddenly these women are labeled as lesbian or not a match for man. Men stay away from women who do not conform to what the ideal woman should be. They have this idea that women are suppose to flatter men and swoon over them. Men have this idea that women are the danger. When women can sense that men are dangerous. It is a circle that just continuously goes round and round. Though when all girls and boy see on television is …show more content…
In Gloria Steinem 's print, “Supremacy Crimes,” she writes, “White males – usually intelligent, middle class, and heterosexual, or trying to desperately to appear so – also account for virtually all the serial, sexually motivated, sadistic killings, those characterized by stalking, imprisoning, torturing and 'owning ' victims in death” (491). Now that all media, especially television news stations, are covering more topics and thanks to the technology of today, are able to hear about murders and other crimes quicker. These media coverage are desensitizing to men who commit crimes. Since news covers just about every little crime anymore, it is giving those influential white, middle class, heterosexual males different ideas on what they could do to a person that they do not necessarily like. Just like it is giving men the different ideas, it is also making women more aware of what could possibly happen if they leave their home with someone of the opposite
...(Bloom, 486). As a class, men exploit them for personal use, both economically and sexually. They do everything they can to keep women in an inferior position. This repression is so pervasive that it is even found in the language of the women themselves. Correcting this problem is not a matter of changing individual relationships within the society. As the manifesto says, "the conflicts between individual men and women are political conflicts that can only be solved collectively"(486). In order for things to improve, there must be some change in society at a base level.
‘Women and men are different. Equal treatment of men and women does not result in equal outcomes.’ (Corsten Report, 16: 2007) According to Covington and Bloom (2003) numerous feminist writers have demonstrated and documented the patriarchal nature of our society and the variety of ways in which the patriarchal values serve masculine needs. ‘Despite claims to the contrary, masculinist epistemologies are built upon values that promote masculine needs and desires, making all others invisible’ (Kaschak, 11: 1992).
In the past century, America has made great leaps in terms of equality. With the efforts made by the civil rights and suffrage movements, all people gained the right to vote. We are even moving forward with marriage equality, and currently fifteen states recognize same-sex marriage. But regardless of all of our progressive institutional movements forward, we continue to socially oppress women. Men’s violence against women has grown to be an internationally recognized epidemic, and will continue to grow unless measures be made to stop it. Domestic violence continues to be prevalent in the lives of many families, and is the primary cause of homelessness in half of cases for women in children. Many women have been forced to alter their behaviors out of fear of being sexually or physically assaulted. One out of every three women is sexually or physically abused in their lifetimes. The first thing that comes to mind is, there are a lot of people abusing women out there. Many people with opposing ideas may claim that men can be victims of violence perpetrated by women, but in instances not used for self-defense, it is rarely part of a systematic pattern of power and control through force or threat of force. In fact, 99% of rape is perpetrated by men, but when confronting men about the issue of violence against women, it is often combated with denial. Jackson Katz writes in his book, The Macho Paradox, “We take comfort in the idea of the aforementioned child-rapist murderer as a horrible aberration. A monster. We’re nothing like him.”(Katz 30). The sad truth is that most women who are raped are raped by men they know, or even men they love. Many men have a hard time believing that saying that most violence is perpetuated by men does not...
In the working environment, there is focus on females having unequal salaries with males or where women are lacking. Sociology Professor of University of British Columbia, Neil Guppy, reveals statistics that point out males are more likely to become engineers; “. . .men with lower mathematics test scores are significantly more likely to enter and graduate from STEM degree fields” (Guppy 248). Additionally, “. . . domestic labor continues to be segregated into blue and pink jobs, with women disproportionately doing routine housework and childcare, and men concentrating most on non-routine domestic labor (e.g. fixing things)” (Guppy 251). Feminists have every right to argue for female inequality in the working environment; if women are able to score higher mathematics scores than males then they should have every right to obtain a STEM degree and enter fields of engineering. If women are able to prove throughout the course of the feminist movement that they are strong, they should be able to perform careers when they fix things. However, the perspective this writing takes doesn’t address how males fall victim to such careers; males are discriminated into performing non-routine domestic labor because they are supposed to be the “breadwinners” or perform physically demanding jobs. Just as females are disproportionately forced into domestic labor, so are males in STEM and engineering fields; if
making public to believe that feminism is a man-hating hate group. In the novel ‘We should all be Feminist’
Critics of feminist studies of men often argue that the politics to change values and behaviour need to come from men themselves, because feminist women’s long efforts against gender discrimination, misogyny, sexual harassment, rape, battering, and male violence have often created backlash and stubborn resistance from men (Lorber, 2012, 274). If men do not fight for what they want they will not see change, it will not be handed to them as many things have already been. Although, the question presumes, why would men want to change something that they feel is just fine? This is where controversy takes place. A change must occur in order for things to be equal. Men do not always have to be the breadwinners; On the other hand, areas that seemed to indicate potential gender equality – fatherhood and men doing “women’s work” – have ironically restored gender inequality. This refers to the racialized glass escalator. Where men who do women’s work have reliable preferences in the working environment, such that even in occupations where men are numerical in minorities they are likely to enjoy higher wages and faster promotions (Lorber, 2012, p.264) In addition, men get daddy bonuses when they become fathers while women workers suffer a motherhood penalty in reduced wages (Lorber, 2012, 274). Limitations such as these reinforce gender
In a society where equality is constantly fought over, there are bound to be disputes. Feminism, the movement to create empowerment and equal rights for women, has been criticized by those who argue who, what, and how feminism should be fought with. Many conservative feminists believe that succumbing to men’s pleasure is never the answer, whereas “lipstick” feminists believe that they should be able to use all of their essence in order to establish equality. However, society needs both women and men equally. Feminism shouldn’t focus on how women reach that equality, but rather to reach that point of equality in the first place; with anything they got.
The sexualization of women in the 21st century has led many to wonder whether or not the feminist movement actually resulted in more harm than good. Although the progress and reform that came out of the feminist movement is indisputable, things such as equal rights under the law, equal status and equal pay, the reality is that the subjugation of female roles in society still exist, and the most surprising part about this is that now women are just as much as at fault for this as men are. Ariel Levy defines female chauvinist pigs as “women who make sex objects of other women and of ourselves” (Levy 11). This raunch culture is mistakenly assumed to be empowering and even liberating to women when it is in fact degrading and corrupting to the modern feminist movement and makes it more difficult for women to be taken seriously in society. The shift in the nature of the feminist movement is in Levy’s opinion attributed to by the massive industry now profiting off of the sexualization of women, the reverse mindset now adopted by post-feminists and women in power roles in our society, and ultimately the women who further their own objectification as sex objects and thus, so by association, deem themselves lesser than man.
...behavior for women and perhaps to masculine. A common misconception about feminism is that women should and only stay home, watch the kids, and support the man. A common phrase would be to “keep the women in the kitchen.” Today, you can find many women getting an education, reaching higher levels beyond college, and working high paying careers and some out producing men, in this case, staying home and becoming a house wife should not be an option. Women today are not only a pretty face. With women having power in our government, control of education and big name corporations. Regardless of gender, no one should follow the influence of something that would promote people to become less than who they are. Hard work and effort would be put to waste if women today allowed themselves to just stay at home instead of doing something with themselves and for the better good.
Throughout history society has been controlled by men, and because of this women were exposed to some very demanding expectations. A woman was expected to be a wife, a mother, a cook, a maid, and sexually obedient to men. As a form of patriarchal silencing, any woman who deviated from these expectations was often a victim of physical, emotional, and social beatings. Creativity and individuality are dirty, sinful and very inappropriate for a respectful woman. By taking away women’s voices, men were able to remove any power that they might have had.
On a daily basis people are exposed to some sort of misrepresentation of gender; in the things individuals watch, and often the things that are purchased. Women are often the main target of this misrepresentation. “Women still experience actual prejudice and discrimination in terms of unequal treatment, unequal pay, and unequal value in real life, then so too do these themes continue to occur in media portraits.”(Byerly, Carolyn, Ross 35) The media has become so perverted, in especially the way it represents women, that a females can be handled and controlled by men, the individual man may not personally feel this way, but that is how men are characterized in American media. Some may say it doesn’t matter because media isn’t real life, but people are influenced by everything around them, surroundings that are part of daily routine start to change an individual’s perspective.
The term “feminism” tends to have a negative connotation in today’s culture. Feminism is now focusing on female dominance and male disrespect. Women are fighting for equality, yet using personal bias to define equality, claiming identical rights for all will produce an equal culture. The mainstream feminist movement is using this corrupted view of equality to force rights of women. Contrary to popular belief, true feminism fights for true equality for women, as well as other people groups. The false view of feminism causes women to distort gender roles, dishonor themselves, and degrade men.
Rich writes, “It is in the tone of a woman almost in touch with her anger, who is determined not to appear angry, who is willing herself to be calm and detached, and even charming in a roomful of men where things have been said which are attacks on her very integrity...she is acutely conscious-as she always was-of being overheard by men” (Rich 20). Rich articulates that Woolf, even while writing about women in fiction, was not able to free herself from male criticism. Her attempts to appeal to women but not displease men lead her essay to be less effective than it could have
The war of gender equality has been in existence throughout history and it is only until recently that it is being taken seriously. It was not until the 19th and 20th centuries that women have pushed to make their rights on the same level as men. Through the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities, Feminism was formed around this time and those involved with it have changed history since they first started. Feminism has been through three waves, each with their own set of goals and ideas they had wished to accomplish throughout those times. In spite of this, there are those who oppose their views and feel as if the feminists have accomplished nothing. Even if discrimination of women still exists, feminists have come close to accomplishing their goal of equal rights between genders through the passing of women’s suffrage, equal education opportunities, and equal pay.
Michael Levin, a professor of philosophy and author of the book Feminism and Freedom, faults feminism for trying to impose an inappropriate equality on men and women that conflicts basic biological differences between the sexes (Levin, Taking Sides, 42). Women are not the same as men, neither physically nor psychologically. In the past, men tended to be the stronger more powerful gender, while women have traditionally been viewed as the weaker, more feeble one. The untrue assumption that men and women are the same in their ways of thinking and physical capabilities leads to the failure of the feminist message. Their agenda of eliminating all observable differences between men and women is doomed to fail and will inflict more pain than gain in the process. Recognizing the differences between the sexes and allowing each to do what they are strongest at will in the long run make society stronger, more efficient, and more effective.