More handpicked essays just for you.
Traditional roles of women in society
Write The Process Of Socialization
Traditional roles of women in society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Traditional roles of women in society
Mighty Girl’s Mask
When I was a little girl, my mother or my aunts always sewed those girlish, adorable baby-doll dresses for me. Every morning, my mother tied my hair into two little braids with pinkish red bow ties. She decorated my ears with those teeny tiny earrings and a pearl necklace. Most people thought that I was an obedient girl since I always wore a floral dress and cute hairstyles when I was a girl. My mother made me look like a typical obedient Chinese girl, like those little girls who are timid and always hold on tightly to their mother’s hands quietly. In fact, I am a very independent and disobedient girl who likes to adventure and take risks. I love climbing up those giant towering trees and jumping around like monkeys and wanting to take my shirt off like my brother on a hot summer day when the sun licked my skin and the sweat beaded down my back. To my misfortune, my mother always told me that girls should cover up their skin and sit there quietly like a gentlelady.
On a breezy cold morning in China, when the sun was just creeping out of the eastern horizon, a golden red beam was penetrating through the white clouds and across the sky. The ground was covered with tender grass, on whose blades dew drops were glistening under the sunshine. My mother woke up early to prepare breakfast for the family and then she went grocery shopping. I always followed her to the crowded nasty marketplace, where the vendors
…show more content…
I learned to live in the dangers of a gender stereotype and learned to accept them. I remember my mother always lectured me on what a girl should do and should not do. Her list of restrictions was even longer than those that I later found in Shakespeare’s plays about girls of my age on her generations back in time. I also didn’t want to be judged by people around me. My Chinese language teacher used to say “Girls should act like girls.” I was absolutely engaged to the culture
I was born on March 08, 1995 at roughly seven pounds. When I was extracted from my mother, I was given the gender of a male with the appearance of my male body parts. My mother used to say to me, growing up as a toddler that I had so much hair like former American Football player, Troy Polamalu. People had always assumed that I was a girl, therefore my mother had to correct them and say, “No, he is a boy”. Growing up a toddler, I was always wearing some type of jeans with a sports shirt and shoes that were mostly colored black or blue. As I grew older, I gained interest in baseball, wrestling, and the military. I always wanted to play with action figures such as GI Joe and wrestling celebrities in addition to imaginary flying in an apache helicopter or taking command in a battle tank. Advancing to my pre-teen years, I wanted to play baseball, which is considered to be mostly a boy sport. It was at this moment, that my gender was a boy. Progressing to my teen years, I started to observe my father and learn my gender on his roles as the man in our family. I noticed that my father was already taking charge in the house and giving me orders that I needed to complete. Going through middle school, most boys had some type of sports backpack while the girls
Of course, at that young age in my life I had no knowledge of the ideology that gender is actually behaviors and attitudes shaped by socially defined roles and ideas because at that time I just saw gender as simply boy or girl. Looking back on gender in middle school through my my adult lense though I notice now how what I have learned about stereotypes and dichotomies in Unit 2: P.O.P was actually very present in my life when I was in middle school. I was always very interested in the sciences but the stereotype that girls can not succeed at science followed me even as a young 10 year old. Through gender socialization at such a young age, different behaviors and attitudes were encouraged and discouraged in boys and girls. Girls were taught to play with their dolls and have desire to cook, none of which I took even the slightest interest
In the twentieth century, the United States of America has transitioned into a more diverse nation. Immigrants arriving from around the globe combined with African Americans to challenge the American identity. As a result, prominent figures including Theodore Roosevelt believed every American should indeed be Americanized. Throughout the twentieth century, Americanization, which means to sacrifice an old culture in favor of American culture, remains an issue amongst authors in particular. Authors in the twentieth century expressed their stance on the battle between cultural heritage and American assimilation. Some authors such as Langston Hughes supported diversity and pride in their culture. On the other end of the spectrum, others like Booker
Our society is dealing with constant changes in gender norms because both, men and women, widen their curiosities and actions. In her article, What it Means to be Gendered Me, Betsy Lucal pointed out how: “It is now widely accepted that gender is a social construction, that sex and gender are distinct, and that gender is something all of us 'do'.” Even though Exchanging and practicing each other’s gender norms is becoming world-widely accepted, certain gender norm violations will remain common. Raised as 'daddies little princes' I never imagined myself violating those typical, socially and culturally ascribed gender norms that I was taught and reminded of too many times throughout my life. However, growing up as a girl, and becoming a mature
Finally, I will now discuss the repercussions of the wife role and the mask of motherhood on Eva’s relationship with Kevin. Ruddick states, “a ‘good mother’ may well be praised for colluding in her own subordination, with destructive consequences to her and her children” (104). Accordingly, the mask of motherhood strips Eva of her authenticity and integrity, and as it becomes her way of life, it diminishes her power (Maushart 463). Her “anger at the conditions of motherhood…become translated into anger at the child,” so that her relationship with Kevin becomes controlled by the wife role and mask of motherhood (Rich 52). Subsequently, even the act of loving him becomes problematic for her. Eva notes, “the harder I tried, the more aware I became
Education is a potent institution used to reinforce gender differences. In our reading we found that children are much more likely to separate themselves at school in gender categories than in their neighborhoods. As Barrie Thorne points out in her book Gender Play, “Apart from age, of all the social categories of the students, gender was the most formally, and informally, highlighted in the course of each school day” (pg 34). I feel that many experiences in elementary school have reinforced my gender outlook. I spent much of my time in elementary school racing the boys and biting my nails to show I wasn’t scared to “break a nail” and never wearing a dress. Recess was a fight for me half the time. I didn’t like the connotation of being called a “girl.” Now I realize that I was trying to oppose the gender role I was expected to perform, yet eventually I grew out of that “phase” of fighting against the norm and joined the ranks of the girls. I moved from the field, to the bars and jump rope. I see now that the change I went through was just giving in to the reinforcement around me to be feminine. Instead of fighting against the grain, I chose the easy road by...
Among other things, girls were less likely to feel good about themselves, to like how they looked, and more likely to feel down and experience difficulty making decisions. This statement applies all over the world in every society because people who are different are not considered the norm because they are the minority of the basis on what society teaches us while growing up. I am not the only one in this world that disagrees with this theory of gender. Unfortunately it has been going on for centuries and we are now just starting to scratch the surface on why gender differences cause so many issues and assumptions. These gender issues that exist in our social environment whether at school or in public cause depression, low self-esteem and to the highest of all issues taking ones’ own life to deal
Norms in society do not just come about randomly in one’s life, they start once a child is born. To emphasize, directly from infancy, children are being guided to norms due to their parents’ preferences and choices they create for them, whether it is playing with legos, or a doll house; gender classification begins in the womb. A prime example comes from a female author, Ev’Yan, of the book “Sex, love,Liberation,” who strongly expresses her feelings for feminism and the constant pressure to conform to gender. She stated that “From a very young age, I was taught consistently & subliminally about what it means to be a girl, to the point where it became second nature. The Disney films, fairy tales, & depictions of women in the media gave me a good definition of what femininity was. It also showed me what femininity wasn’t (Ev’Yan).She felt that society puts so much pressure on ourselves to be as close to our gender identities as possible, with no confusion; to prevent confusion, her mother always forced her to wear dresses. In her book, she expressed her opinion that her parents already knew her gender before she was born, allowing them t...
Through halfway of the adolescent stage, my knowledge of genders started to widen as my social network and ties expanded through school. I met several people of my age who associated themselves other than the gender of man and woman. As time passed by and my connection with an individual who considers themselves as non-binary deepened. Through the experiences told and the changes that have occurred, it has made me more aware of the fact that gender does not matter. People are equal and it should not matter if someone is a boy, girl, or neither. Everyone has the same ability to work towards a certain goal or dream that they want to achieve regardless of
Modern society is typically split into a strict gender dichotomy of males and females. Each gender has a set of socially constructed roles and stereotypes that determine how each individual is viewed and treated in society. As I have progressed through school, I have noticed that expectations for females differed from their male counterparts. In school and at home, girls are typically expected to be more well-behaved and studious than boys. Since girls are beginning to attend college more than boys, society expects more girls than boys to pursue a college education. I have probably internalized these expectations and inadvertently used them as motivation for success. In some ways, my gender has also put me at a disadvantage in school. From a young age, many girls are coddled and encouraged to act nicely (Conley 130). They are expected to be caring, loving, and quiet. Being raised as a female has ingrained these tendencies into my personality and behavior patterns. Therefore, in
I was criticized for minor things like getting my clothes dirty or refusing to stay still to get my hair done. These comments grew more and more frustrating as I got older and eventually became far more critical with references to how I played, the clothes I chose to wear, and even being told I was too loud and that my interests weren’t normal. When me and my grandmother went to visit other family member’s I would always be asked questions that seemed entirely inappropriate to me as a small child like whether or not I had a crush or a boyfriend but I noticed no one ever asked my male cousins these questions as though their value wasn’t based solely on their ability to attract the opposite sex. My disinterest in things like hair and make-up led to me falling behind my peers when it came to matters of appearance. While other girls were discussing their extensive morning routines I was showering and shoving my unruly hair up into a ponytail. This also meant that I was falling behind when it came to personal relationships as my female friends were discovering boys, boys were treating me like an anomaly. I was consistently asked if I was a lesbian
It isn’t hard for me to think back to my gendered socialization, strictly because me being a man was drilled into my head since the day that I was born. I was born on January 6th 1985 in a suburb of Olathe Kansas, and In Olathe high school sports are everything. I have pictures of me when I was five months old with cowboy outfits, and football uniforms. As I became old enough to walk I was thrown into every sport possible. I played football, baseball, soccer, and basketball. I had practice year round sometimes everyday, and no matter how much complaining I did I was at every practice everyday. My father wanted me to be the best at everything I did; therefore I spent many nights after practice practicing with him. When I was that young I enjoyed every second of practice with my father. Being the best was so deeply instilled in me that anytime I failed it was a catastrophe to me. For example in baseball I would probably only strike out three to four times a season, which is great looking back now, but when I did strike out I became irate. I would be kicked out of those three or fo...
Everyone who was a male in my family was kinda on the same boat when it came to acting like a man. We learned from each other the ways of manhood. But as i recall the times i came close to to those contradictory influences was out of pure curiosity. I am a curious kid by nature. I am interested in the world around, in anything and everything. So, when my cousins who were females would come around, I would engage in some of their girly activities not knowing it was frown upon for boys to do that. One event that marked a significant transition in my gender identity happened about a few months ago. Well lets say I wasn 't the most ideal figure of man. I was really quiet, I spoke as if i was whispering and I was antisocial. I would also complain a lot if things didn 't go my way. It wasn 't till that fateful night of me almost giving up volleyball, two weeks of completing over life and an influential speech from my good friend Greg Scott that i realize that all the stuff I am doing is not going to fly past in the real world. So I pledge to make a change to myself. I pledge to be stronger, talk more, be more confident and more social and here we are
Gender is a large part of our identity. Those differences are reflected in many gender stereotypes (Iowa 2015). People are expected to act according to their gender. Most aspects of our lives are based on these specific gender stereotypes and can mold our futures. Gender stereotypes make us believe that we all have to follow a specific role in life. These stereotypes make us believe that we have to fit into a certain mold. It starts from an early age and is pushed onto us throughout the years. Culture does have some impact on the stereotypes also. Certain cultures still believe that women need to stay home and take care of the children while the men work and pay the bills.
The sunset was not spectacular that day. The vivid ruby and tangerine streaks that so often caressed the blue brow of the sky were sleeping, hidden behind the heavy mists. There are some days when the sunlight seems to dance, to weave and frolic with tongues of fire between the blades of grass. Not on that day. That evening, the yellow light was sickly. It diffused softly through the gray curtains with a shrouded light that just failed to illuminate. High up in the treetops, the leaves swayed, but on the ground, the grass was silent, limp and unmoving. The sun set and the earth waited.