You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘Gender Roles’ tag.
Tatsuya Ishida creates the internet comic Sinfest. Sometimes his insight hits the proverbial nail on the head.
Dale Spender provides some sociological insight into the roles of women and men.
– Dale Spender, Women of Ideas and What Men Have Done to Them (1982)
Another concept is relevant here *thinks hard*now what could that be? Oh yes! Patriarchy. That ‘wispy-diaphonous’ notion that so many dudebros can’t seem to get a handle on. :/
JSTOR Daily – News with a scholarly slant. Damn Son, I’m going to be all over that site. :)
From the article on Gender and Family Farms:
“Scott writes that all 23 women interviewed for the paper described doing both male and female chores. Men, on the other hand, talked mostly about male labor. Unless specifically asked, only a third of the men interviewed mentioned any work traditionally done by women. One apple grower described his orchard as a one-man business that his son would eventually inherit, with his wife and daughter only minimally involved. But, in a separate interview, his wife said that while her husband and son took care of the trees, she handled seedlings in the nursery, coordinated sales, hired seasonal labor, kept the books, and helped make decisions. She also mentioned that their daughter ran the farm’s fruit stand.
The men were also more likely to emphasize male ownership of family enterprises—“my grandfather’s farm” or “my tractor.” In contrast, the women usually referred to “my grandmother and grandfather’s farm” or “our tractor.”
Yet more evidence that male socialization is has a strong overlay of patriarchal bullshit. The best part is that until you take the time to read and think about it, patriarchy remains invisible, the monster in the tall reeds and bushes who influences everything and everyone yet, cannot be named or described to the uninitiated.
“Perpetrators of SA [Sexual Assault] tend to adhere to traditional gender-role stereotypes, especially with respect to the acceptance of male dominance, acceptance of rape-supportive myths, acceptance of interpersonal violence as a means of conflict resolution, and hostility toward women. These beliefs develop at an early age and come from many sources, usually other men. The extent to which men adhere to such beliefs is sometimes termed the hyper-masculinity factor.”
—Edited by Paula K. Lunderberg-Love & Shelly L. Marmion, “Intimate Violence Against Women: When Spouses, Partners or Lovers Attack.” Praeger Publishers, 2008. (p. 62)
Hmm, Male dominance, rape supportive myths, violent conflict resolution and hostility toward women – it is like the authors just defined the Man-o-sphere.
*Bonus update*
Oh hey, another shining example of “MRA activism”. Keep in mind, it makes perfect sense to them.
Our noble human rights warriors recently decided that they would spam Occidental College with false rape reports.
Indeed, a host of Men’s Rights Redditors were so convinced of the innate evil of the online form they all had the same bright idea: let’s flood the school with false reports of rape and break the form.
Wait, aren’t these the same dudes who are outraged by false rape accusations?
Oh right, they only think it’s an issue when hypothetical women make false rape accusations.
When it’s a hate group full of straight white men actually making the false rape accusations, that’s men’s rights activism.
MRAs do not care about helping men. They only care about hurting women.
Behold dear readers the dark swirling maw of MRA stupidity. :Let it be known that the only constant you can count on is misogyny.
Another bit of well crafted insight into some of the subtle rules that govern our society.
The binary view of gender is a regressive patriarchal notion that needs to be abolished and the sooner the better. The gender binary hurts women and men as people are shoehorned into roles that they are not suited for and then judged as being deficient by society according to these normative values. Gender, in fact, lies along a continuum rather than any artificial divide.
So, what explains actions like this?
“Today’s award for bigotry and intolerance goes to one Richard Floyd, a GOP State Rep. from Tennessee who has introduced legislation that would ban transgender individuals from using public restrooms and dressing rooms that are not designated for the gender listed on their birth certificates. What’s more, Rep. Floyd said in a recent interview that if he “was standing at a dressing room and my wife or one of my daughters was in the dressing room and a man tried to go in there” (by which he means a transgender person), he would “stomp a mudhole” in that person.”
Ah, here is where what sociologists and psychologists talk about when they say that gender roles are enforced by society. Here we have a supposedly sane elected individual saying on public record that he would beat someone up if they dared use the bathroom that did not match the meat-parts they were born with.
It gets worse… Richard Floyd the lawmaker in question continues with this (emphasis mine):
“Don’t ask me to adjust to their perverted way of thinking and put my family at risk. We cannot continue to let these people dominate how society acts and reacts.”
Respecting the gender your brain is programmed with is a perversion? Really? Dick, what makes you think that your conception of gender is the correct one? I mean, did someone make you president/godhead of the gender division institute and that your word IS the law? Oh wait, he is a white male and thus what he spake can only be considered “truth“.
Traditional conceptions of gender have a corrosive effect in our society with regards to tolerance and understanding people who are different than ourselves. Gender norms are in desperate need of a overhaul.
I’ve researched a little into the topic of Heteronormativity in our culture. It is a big word, but really it just means the structural framework of how we view women and men in our culture and the roles and expectations we define as normal and how these roles should be performed. All fine and dandy right? In reality, not so much. It does not take much to transform gender roles into gender stereotypes and beginning the process of ordering people into their “proper” gender identities based on their actions and appearance.
Being an outlier on the hetronormative scale invites a variety of negative responses ranging from quizzical looks and questions all the way to profane gendered slurs. Concepts like heteronormativity and Patriarchy, if you are part of the dominant majority, are sometimes very hard to see or even conceptualize. It is only until you breach a perceived norm (as a member of the privileged class, if you’re in the underclass you get oppressed by default 24/7) do things start to go sideways. I came to this little discovery point about twenty some years ago for something as basic as choice of adornment.
The cause of some controversy? :>
Having worn a gold rings on my index toes for some twenty years now let me assure you that I have received compliments all the way to outright hostility for a simple choice of jewelry. One of the most common responses I get is “Hey, aren’t toe rings for girls?” to which I usually reply to my (almost always) male questioner, “Hey aren’t earrings for girls?”. Which usually makes them stop and think for a bit as the realization that the cultural validity of gendered practices is not static, but rather quite fluid in nature. Okay, well I hope they realize this, but most of the time they, just repeat their first comment again (they having just passed a heteronormative judgment), to which I reply, “I think they look cool, and thanks for asking,” and politely steer the conversation elsewhere.
Less judicious or enlightened individuals have often questioned my sexuality dropping the familiar hetro-bomb, “Are you gay?” with the word gay dripping with scorn and derision. Does wearing toe rings make you gay? It has not worked yet, and I would not be particularly worried if it did because like most decisions of this nature, first and foremost it is my choice. And I choose the gendered slurs and disapprobation from various sources because when it comes down to it, it is their problem, not mine. I can come to this conclusion precisely because I am a member of the dominant class and still retain enough of my privilege so that my outlier choices do not negatively effect my social status much over all.
Still think that patriarchy and privilege are not integral parts of our society? Push your “normal” gender role a bit just to see, as an experiment, how closely heteronormative norms are enforced, I dare ya. :)
Men are not supposed to do nail polish either. I say bollocks to heternomativity. :)
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