gender roles
A look at the evolution of gender roles, from Leave It to Beaver, paternity leave, female breadwinners and more.
Thank You, Sir
I watched an interview on the morning news today. The subject of the interview was a “friend” of mine. He’s not someone I’d ever meet to catch up over coffee but he would offer me something to drink if we happened to be somewhere at the same time. And he would absolutely saddle up to rescue me from a creeper if the need arose.
By D. Gabrielle Jensen6 years ago in Viva
Just Another Monday
It is just another Monday in Mrs. Smith’s class. I sit, three desks from the left in the farthest back row, spinning my dull ring around my finger in a sort of habitual motion. I like to sit in the back. I don’t like it because I can goof off like the other kids, but because I can’t stand the idea of someone constantly watching me. I don’t want my back to be on display to those behind me. I don’t want to worry if I’m sitting up straight or if my hair looks okay. I don’t want anyone to notice what I’m wearing or even have a thought about what I’m doing. I want to just sit in peace, and do my work. In the back, it’s almost as if I’m not there. I go unnoticed. High school is not how I expected it to be. I always imagined a place of freedom and of higher intelligence that encouraged free thought and individuality. Now, sitting in the back observing the classmates around me, I know I was wrong. The girls in the front of the room are passing notes and laughing, their low cut shirts falling lower with each giggle, each of them modeled in the image of their favorite celebrities. Each one trying harder and harder to be someone else. The boys to my right are throwing balled up paper at each other and the kid to my left is asleep. It seems as if I am the only one paying attention. Here, it seems less like a school and more like a prison. We can’t speak our minds or use creative thought, but instead are taught to be more like the standard, turning each of us into boring and lifeless replicas of the system. Instead of being known by our names or hobbies, we are labeled by numbers: our test scores, our class rank, our GPA. They police how we dress, how we talk, how we sit, how we think, and even when we pee, yet tell us to act more mature. Every day is a sick repetition of the day before until summer, which only leads us to another year of this lifeless facilitated learning. My eyes draw to the faded diamonds on my ring. There was a time when this ring wasn’t so dull. When my mom first gave it to me, it was beautiful and sparkling. Throughout the years it seemed to grow with me, becoming older as I did, and losing some of its shine as a result of the usual wear and tear. Now it just seemed to be a depressing reminder of what once was.
By Scarlett Elizabeth6 years ago in Viva
Why Must We Be Kind to Creepy Men Just to Feel Safe?
It's the late afternoon, and you've just finished up at the office for the day. You're heading to the subway to catch the train home, picking a seat that tucks you away for the half hour it takes to get to your stop. With a sigh, you pull a book out of your bag and start to read. Your attention is pulled away from your book when you sense that someone is talking to you. A "friendly" man has just made a comment about your legs (wrapped in jeans and tucked into black polka dotted rain boots), mentions he's seen you on the train before and asks if you have a boyfriend. He has one hand in his pants and he smells like the tuna sandwich science project you found in the office refrigerator two days ago, but three of them, stacked on top of one another and jammed crazy far up your nostrils. You don't want to be rude, so you take a moment to consider your options before offering it to him. You feel a huge wave of relief when you realize he's heard you wrong. Other commuters give you quick-but-awkward sideways glances, the looks on their faces clearly glad that they chose not to sit where you're sitting right now. By the time you get home, you've already considered three alternate routes home from the office for the rest of the week.
By Delilah Jayde6 years ago in Viva
Men in Suits
"… I was sacked (without explanation) by a man in a suit. Men in suits missold me pensions and endowments, costing me thousands of pounds. A man in a suit led us on a disastrous and illegal war. Men in suits led the banks and crashed the world economy. Other men in suits then increased the misery to millions through austerity…."
By Katy Preen6 years ago in Viva
I'm Not, "Too Much"
My whole life I've been told I'm too loud. Too opinionated. Too expressive with my thoughts. You're so bossy! Quiet down. Stop being so honest. People don't like you because your personality is so strong. Well excuse the fuck out of me. Maybe I should just quiet down, stop being truthful, and turn into the little demure flower society obviously expects me to be.
By Shana Nizeul6 years ago in Viva
Messages Portrayed About Women in Television
When watching television, we hardly stop to analyze what subliminal messages the ads and shows are portraying. We usually just pick up the obvious messages and the rest is placed somewhere in the back of our minds. After thoroughly analyzing one television channel for 2 hours, I began to realize that a lot more ideas and messages are entering our minds than what we may see on the surface. In my writing I am going to be analyzing the ideas portrayed in the shows and commercials presented on the television station “Nick at Nite” and examine the way they they depict beauty images and how they represent the beauty norms of our society.
By Vanessa Solorzano6 years ago in Viva
Socially Constructed Gender Roles
Once when I was 6 years old, I recall a day when my brother and I were playing with our toys while we waited for our mom to finish preparing dinner. My brother was playing with his toy cars and I was playing with my baby dolls. We decided to play with our toys together so I put one of my baby dolls in his toy monster truck and we took turns pushing it around. My brother decided to take the baby doll out of the monster truck toy to put it into another car. However, as soon as my brother picked up the doll, my mom had just walked in the room to check on us. She noticed that my brother was holding the baby doll and exclaimed how cute he looked holding it. This caught the attention of my dad who, unlike my mom, was not amused. My dad snatched the doll from him, “Babies are for girls! You’re a man son so you play with boy toys...Here.” he said sternly as he handed him a G.I. Joe action figure. As a 6 year old girl, I was very confused. I had seen my father hold my brother as a baby and feed him and care for him and show him affection, so why then were “babies for girls” only? This is just one example of how I was exposed to situations in which I was told that one had to be a certain gender in order to do certain things or act a certain way. In this essay I’m going to share with you the concept of the social construction of gender and how this applied to my life growing up, shaping me to be who I am today.
By Vanessa Solorzano6 years ago in Viva