Gender Roles and Associated Stereotypes - Assignment Example

One culture will define an actual man who beats up his wife; while another culture will consider a person a man considering his height and voice. Some cultures define a woman as a person bearing children; while, others will define a woman as individuals with delicate stature. These are all the gender roles that every culture assigns to men and women, thus associating these roles with one gender. Feminist theories have arisen because of distinction in gender because “most feminists differentiate sex from gender” (Nfah-Abbenyi, 1997, p.16). Generally speaking as in all cultures, male gender is associated with roles like going out for jobs, playing games, joining clubs, and becoming politicians; while, female gender is associated with roles like running a house, bearing children, raising them up, doing grocery, serving the family, and the like.

Thus, we assign specific roles to one gender and call it man or woman. Important point here is that gender roles are taught to us since birth, since brain is “cerebral hard drive that receives the culture’s software” (Myers, 2006, p.158, para.5). Biologists talk about gamete size when defining sex; but, culture talks about power and freedom while talking about men; and, about frailty, sex and cowardliness while taking about women. This distinction of gender is defined by the society depending upon the societal roles (Powell, 2010, p.4). With this description of societal gender roles, we come to know that female gender is more restricted due to the stereotype associated with it.

This is why feminism came into existence. Feminists are of the view that females are restricted inside the premises of their homes. They are supposed to bear kids, look after them, prepare meals and do house chores. They do not find time to socialize in many cultures. They do not get the opportunity to do jobs like men. This is not the case with all cultures but most of the cultures expect females to stay at homes. This limits their thought and makes them rigid and frustrated. We grow up with this kind of mentality.

Our elders inculcate in us that- if you are a female, you have to play with dolls; you cannot go out and participate in sports like your male counterparts; you should learn cooking; you must know how to mop; and, you are not supposed to have many friends. This kind of mentality proves that females are the gender who is restricted due to their gender roles. Feminism talks about women being treated differently than men. This gives rise to gender discrimination that is favored basically by male domination.

There are some feminists who characterize women as slaves in houses doing work for their families without getting paid, and thus their houses become a sort of prison for them. This is often referred to as domesticity. This domesticity, according to feminists, has to be ruled out from women’s lives if they want themselves to be treated at an equal status with men and considered as modern. According to Tuchman (as cited in Gillis & Hollows, 2009, p. 1), “many early second wave feminists focused on how ‘false’ images of women were created within popular culture, socializing girls into restricted definitions of femininity that were based around ‘hearth and home’”.

This imagery of women was very well shown through advertisements, movies, TV shows, magazines, literature, and etcetera, and this is what defines the point of view