I just finished reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and my English class has been discussing it.
Today, a girl stated, “people are born with natural gender roles. Nurse Ratched (the controlling of society) removes those gender roles, and that's how society controls us.”
Now, I don't really want to debate whether or not Nurse Ratched represents a genderless ideal, but I do want to talk about the concept of being born into gender roles.
I accept the concept that the sexes are biologically different. Men are naturally stronger, and there are even some documented difference between the brains of men and women. However, do these constitute gender roles?
I believe that gender roles are social constructs more than anything. It's social gender roles that are the birthplace for many homosexual stereotypes. Namely, gays are promiscuous, gays act like women, gays are weak and bad at sports, the list goes on.
Gender roles are social norms of how someone of a particular sex should act. That is men should be good with power tools, love sports, drink beer, grow a beard, and chase after women. On the other hand, women should be docile (who likes a bitch?), cook well (but never professionally. That's for men), maintain an organized life, and raise children.
So, I have two questions for you:
1) Are there inherent (biological) gender roles?
2) What are positive and negative effects of gender roles in our society?
10 comments:
Ooooh. I like this.
It's indisputable that gender is a social construct. Gender doesn't equal sex and sex isn't as simple as most people think. You should tell your friend to take a Gender Studies or Sociology course. Better yet, tell her to read Middlesex.
A corollary question is if you actively combat gender roles are you reifying them? How about if you define your gender role?
Me gusta your blog. ;)
Gender roles are socially constructed. But at the root of it are biological differences. These don't determine gender roles, but certainly have influenced how they developed in our culture. In Western Christian societies gender roles have served to control how people should behave, however in the last few decades these have begun to be challenged. We need to redefine gender, but it is pointless denying that there is a biological aspect to it.
1) ya... i think so
2).hmm.....*head explodes*
Of course there are inherent gender roles. Only women get pregnant and have babies, and are intrinsically equipped with the means of feeding their young. I do think they have an advantage in the child nurturing process.
One could argue that male upper body strength makes them better equipped to fight and hunt, but that hasn't been that important since the advent of agriculture. I do think that there are quite a few subtle differences between the sexes. Women have more fine motor skills, are better at repetitive tasks, and bring different perspectives to situations than do men. Psychologists tell us they are much more invested in the perpetration of the family unit, and will endure spousal abuse much more than men do. And then, again, there's all that testosterone. At the risk of incurring disapproval, I do believe gay men are more promiscuous than straights. After all, they only relate to other guys and almost all guys are hot to get laid. Straight women are more reticent. I honestly don't know how lesbians think about this.
J, you identified several biological differences, but are any of them gender roles?
I think I saw a study on the sexual patterns of gay men versus straight men, and it basically found that gays do have more sex. I think it might have said gays have the same number of sex partners, but I can't remember.
The study concluded that gay men have as much sex as straight men wish they could have.
So, it appears men are more lustful, but is this a gender role?
Hmm, I think you need a more specific definition of "gender roles." It's easy to interpret it as being in part biological.
1. Gender roles in a very broad sense do have a biological component. Each gender has distinct biological roles. Women and childbirth/motherhood. Men and fatherhood. These are (so far) immutable.
2. That said, gender roles are also overwhelmingly influenced/determined by societal pressures. You'd probably find a cultural anthropology course fascinating in undergrad and I do urge you to take one. They often discuss gender roles and how it differs from culture to culture and even from various time periods to the next.
As for positives and negatives, that's subjective to one's opinions. I think gender roles are becoming more "equal" and unisex, on the whole. More men are taking a greater share of child-rearing, and the "advent" of the stay-at-home dads. More women are pursuing professional careers (in fact, about 60% of med students are women).
Interestingly, in ancient China (and to an extent still today) women had a more subservient role unless they were highly educated. In that case they were critical in the care, upbringing, and education of children - and in that, they had some power, even over men. BUT when women become old and become the matriarch of the family, they gain ultimate power over all in the household.
I agree with Billy that since there are biological differences (and not just in childbearing and feeding but also, as you point out, in brains, strength, etc.), gender differences are natural. There are also differences between members of the same sex. But while gender differences may differ somewhat from culture to culture and from time to time, I think trying to eliminate them or pretend they are purely a matter of convention is unhelpful. Let girls be girls and boys be boys. Don't make girls play war games or prevent boys from doing it. And if some boys want to play with dolls and some girls want to go hunting, that's okay too.
What you might also find interesting is the story of David Reimer. You can read about it briefly on wikipedia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Reimer
It's a tragic story and hopefully something like that never happens again (but similar situations crop up once every few years, unfortunately). I believe there was a book written about it. But the point here for this comment is that some of gender role IS indeed biological.
Boys, I think we're confusing Gender with Sex.
If you ever been in a Nicu Newborn intensive care unit ... you would know there are some traits we are born with ... funny they are backwards with society. Males seem to give up on life a lot easier , and need more constane attention to survive or to fight ... Females fight and dont' give up as much with a lot less attention. So yeah have to say some are social constituted .. but not all ... and like everthing in nature there are always exceptions ... know there was big differances in my kids too .. that we didnt' influence that they were born with from birth .. that later play into gender roles. Now for the postive affects I think some thing are being more accepted , more now days. More acceptable for a male to show emotions for example .. for the negatives ... on both parts now .. is thinking we have to look a certain way ( image ) that is not healthy ... and induces eatting disorders ... sterotypes ...
Post a Comment