Perceived Gender Roles and Society Expectations
Introduction
In the world, gender lore and craze, surround each person from the time of birth, through adulthood, and up to the time, one dies. Gender is pervasive in every life aspect, from people’s conversation, interactions, humor, and conflict. It often comes into play and called upon to define everything people pursue, from doing simple things as driving to food choices. In other words, gender resides in all human institutions, actions, desires, and beliefs. It is also true that the world today swarms with concepts about gender, ideas that remain conventional that everyone takes them for granted that they are factual. Besides, various scholars, experts, and researchers have looked into what appears to be ordinary to establish facts behind it. Part of the reasons for these scholarships is because gender and related notions seem natural and apparent truths. Bornstein describes gender as something people are not born with, have, but what they do. In short, gender, like other human processes, has biological elements. Yet, cultures, with time, have created compound and intricate edifices around it, forming systems of meanings that usually have a resemblance to what is natural and intrinsic. People often experience gender through the prism of cultures facing them. Specifically, it explains perceived gender roles and the degree to which society expects people to live up to these roles. By utilizing the assigned and outside texts, this essay determines whether perceived gender is problematic, how the authors’ understandings of gender vary or overlap, and how it compares with my knowledge of gender roles.
Perceived Gender Roles and Society Expectations
The society where individuals live has a set of concepts, notions, and expectations of how women and men should behave, work, dress, and present themselves. As such, gender roles in the society imply how people should speak, clean, act, as well as to conduct themselves based on the various assigned activities. For instance, society expects women and girls to dress in feminine ways and exhibit characteristics such as politeness, nurturing, and loving. Men, on their part, require showing masculine traits such as being bold, robust, and aggressive. Each society has its culture and gender role expectations. Butler argues that culture often impacts on people’s acts, thinking, and demeanor. He further argues that the social setting where people live shapes their actions, attitudes, feelings, and insights into what happens around them. In the same manner, he argues that the same applies to assigned or perceived roles in society based on one’s gender.
In her illuminating article, Cunningham talks about factors that often surround women’s smiles. She describes how social pressure compels women to smile all the time. For her, this level of stress makes women to ‘wear’ smiles rather than showing them spontaneously. In her arguments, she has supported her claims and has established logos by integrating proven facts on natural tendencies of women’s expressions, giving cases of societal expectations on women. She has also used ethos throughout her arguments by quoting authentic historians and researchers as she also appeals to pathos by deliberating on real examples of women’s everyday situations. Her purpose for writing this article is to show that society has unjustly judged women and expected that women must wear smiles. Cunningham believes that the only way women can openly show their happiness is smiling instinctively and not when instructed to do so. While she writes with a cynical tone, she also offers several explanations to win the acceptance of her fellow mistreated female listeners.
In a sense, Cunningham challenges the status-quo on perceived gender roles and societal expectations, arguing that women do what they do because of social obligations. She continues to say that women often smile out of dread and nervousness. Cunningham equally argues that what usually lies behind their smiles is much nuanced than individuals expect. While in the American smile is regarded as a friendly gesture or feeling, other societies perceive it as a form of respect. In some cultures, a smile is a tool that helps to build or repair broken relationships. For instance, Cunningham says that in Japan, smiling is wrong because society values humility and expects people to suppress their feelings. A similar situation happens in Russia, where people reserve smiles for their close friends. Thus, smiling to strangers in Russia is perceived as insincere (Cunningham). For her, other societies keep women smiling on autopilot (Cunningham 348). By and large, she asserts that though by nature, women are less ill-tempered than males, and are more likely to smile, societies have had huge influences on the ways they smile (Cunningham 348). According to Cunningham, this is an excellent case of nature vs. nurture and what it means to be female or male in societies. She sees how cultures and societies force women to act in particular ways. Hence, she holds that women smile way too much and for the ill reasons: wearing fake smiles that conceal mistreatments.
In his essay, Sanders asks many interesting questions regarding the association between males and females in society. He looks at how men look at women in society. For the most part, his views and perceptions about women shaped due to his surroundings. Norma’s mother also plays a central role in shaping Sanders’s perceptions of women and their sexuality. For instance, she teaches him to think about the feelings of others in addition to considering their emotional states as well. She predominantly challenges Sanders to envision how females would feel, a conversation that strikes Sanders and changing his life. Thus, while he is of the same gender, Sanders defies how his society looks and treats women. In a way, he holds that men must not consider women as objects but treat them with the utmost respect which they deserve. He also condemns how men ascribe negative things to women. He does not like the ways what he calls ‘construction men’ perceive women in society. For Sanders, the society has to treat women with dignity because they play equally important roles as men. Frequently, Sanders proposes that adolescent men perceive women as sexual objects and often think of them as sources of sexual pleasure and satisfaction. Besides, Sanders also rejects his roommate’s view that women form vital sources of entertainment for men. He equally describes how females feel when their male counterparts look at them and clumsily convey signals. He says that women do not like it when men always stare at them.
In the ‘end of men,’ the author presents a new shift that can take women above societal prescriptions of women and endless gender wars. Here, Rosin feels relief and argues that time has come for women to rise and fly high as winners and not losers. Throughout her article, it is apparent that her vision is filled with hope, creativity, and enthusiasm towards a new paradigm and state of affairs. In her world, Rosin envisions an environment that allows both sexes to attain and become what they can, live more authentic lives, and work as equal partners. She declares that, for a prolonged period, men have held a central position in society. At this strange time, she argues that women no longer depend on men and have pulled assertively towards a future with possibilities. She says that the new order has removed the societal restriction on what women can do and achieve and shifted dynamics in all areas of society. Rosin says that the enlightened period has severe implications for marriage, work, sex, and much more. Besides, she argues that today, men and women contribute to the family basket of goods because all earn, learn, and work. In a way, Rosin confirms that women today fill every other position men have traditionally occupied, including killing. Thus, in her’ end of men’ article, she reveals how men and women can adjust to the realism of the new reality and transform it for a better future.
If the above-Perceived Gender Roles are Problematic
Indeed, gender roles remain problematic in society because they cause gender stereotyping in addition to discrimination. Cunningham says perceived gender roles make one group lesser than another in the community. For instance, she says that these roles have also kept women on the lower ladder, forcing them to act and behave in ways that society expects them. She believes that such functions make women suffer silently and severely. She also believes that gender discrimination against women is entrenched in many communities despite many of the laws, regulations, and other legal documentations curtailing such practices. She argues that societies have traditionally failed to protect women from different types of mistreatments, including sexual discrimination. Besides, she also states that systemic detriments often exist well beyond these areas to include how women smile, act, and function. Many of the women who try to speak against or question these injustices often find themselves on the receiving ends because societies have placed many limitations. What Cunningham shows, then, is ‘practices of gendered roles’ that confine women to specific functions and arenas.
Sanders also shares similar sentiments that perceived gender roles disadvantage women in all societies. With first-hand experiences, he admits that such roles usually place women in awkward places while pushing them away from their male counterparts. For Sanders, treating women as second-class citizens only works to cultivate discrimination and suffering on their part because men would most likely take advantage. Because gender labeling kills women’s sense of confidence, role classification based on sex should cease to allow all people to grow and excel. As such, Sanders calls upon men to treat women as their mothers and sisters. Other authors, such as Rosin, also perceive gender roles as oppressive. She believes that such functions hold women back and deny them the chance to attain their full potentials. In her article, she elucidates how events have turned, allowing women to take seats on the high table as men. She writes that a new shift has allowed women to occupy different positions that have traditionally featured men. As the end of men’s dominance ceases, she asks men to find new ways of adapting to the prevailing status quo.
From these authors, societies have traditionally placed several differences between men as well as women. In essence, ‘gender roles’ is a phrase that has always conveyed observed differences in the ways men and women act, feel, as well as think. It suggests that men and women are inherently different. Though there is no denying that biological differences exist between these people, the real question should involve the extent to which these variations reflect how men and women are and how each can complement one another. Even when men and women show common traits, including ambitions and preferences, societies have always tended to sideline women.
How Authors’ Understanding Differ or Overlap
From the above authors, there is a convergence of understanding of gendered roles in human society. They argue that such practices negatively affect women in society. They all agree that most of the conventions, traditions, and practices around femininity and masculinity lead to continued discriminations on women. Given the nature issue, they also agree that empowering, respecting, and valuing women is the solution. Looking above the limitations that societies place on women, Rosin appeals to what one might refer to as ‘awareness-raising.’ She agrees that modern society has embraced this concept and allowed its women to take high places as men. For Rosin, there is power in solving traditional injustices against women and creating an equal environment where everyone can thrive. For Sanders, a gender gap between women and men construes mistreatments of unprecedented magnitudes. As such, they assert that women can also achieve and succeed in life just as men. They also affirm that gender roles reflect the general expectations of members of a given social group.
How Authors’ Understanding Compare with Mine
Like the authors described above, I also share similar feelings that gender roles often work best to the disadvantage of women in society. When gender roles get attached to jobs, it usually biases what other people can contribute to the position. Often, it is women who face negative bias whenever there are gendered roles. In light of the above visible evidence, mainly from Robin’s article, men and women can realize great things when given the opportunity. As for Bornstein, it is morally wrong to force people into identifying themselves as either men or female. I also agree with Dacumos that subjecting women into rules of gender as well as conformity is wrong. For him, ‘cultures should not expect people to fit into neat categories (Dacumos).’
Works Cited
Cunningham, Amy, “Why Women Smile.” The Norton Reader, Shorter Eleventh Edition. Ed. Linda H. Peterson and John C. Brereton. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 2004. 160-165.
Dacumos, Nico. Nobody passes: Rejecting the rules of gender and conformity. Seal Press, 2006.
Bornstein, Kate, and S. Bear Bergman. Gender outlaws: The next generation. Seal Press, 2010.
Butler, Judith. “Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity GT.” Political Theory 4 (2005): 4-24.
Rosin, Hanna. “The end of men.” The Atlantic 306.1 (2010): 56-72.
Sanders, Scott Russell. “Looking at Women.” The Georgia Review 43.1 (1989): 80-91.