An Overview of Gender Roles in Society Today

Gender Roles in Our Society

In a Ted Talk by Chris Bell he talks about how there is not enough merchandise for female superheroes. Girls are not supposed to like typically masculine things like superheroes and are not expected to want toys with female superheroes on them so there is less of it. Boys are not supposed to like female character because they would seem to girly; they are not supposed to want merchandise of female characters either. Sometimes these female heroes are even replaced by another male character in their series. “Raising children in societies that adhere to rigid gender roles… can actually be detrimental to their physical and mental health” (Culp-Ressler). “To be born a man or woman in any society is more than a simple biological fact” (Farberas). From when babies are born, they are usually wrapped in either a pink blanket or a blue blanket. From then on they have certain expectations forced on them. Girls should like pink, play with dolls, have long hair. Boys should like blue, play sports or video games, and have short hair. Before Adolf Hitler became powerful in Germany it was the opposite. Blue was considered feminine and pink was masculine. After Hitler made gay men wear pink badges, pink was considered too feminine a color for men to wear and the symbolism of pink and blue switched. Girls and boys are both expected to like different things. This is decided by having either two X chromosomes or an X and Y chromosome. Many people believe that your gender is different from your sex. The sex of someone should be determined by what chromosomes they have; Gender should be a way to relate to yourself and a way to express yourself. Women are still seen as unequal in many aspects of our society.

Only ninety six years ago women gained the right to vote when the nineteenth amendment was ratified. “Beginning in the 1800s, women organized, petitioned, and picketed to win the right to vote, but it took them decades to accomplish their purpose” (19th amendment). Still today women are seen as weaker, and are expected to stay home and do housework and take care of children. Even though 50% of the world population are women they are still treated as less than men. If over ninety eight percent of terrorist acts were committed by woman everyone would be talking about it. People would be wondering what it is about women that makes them kill other people. They might wonder if it was biological, or hormones, or what media is affecting them and compelling them to commit acts of terrorism. But because it is over ninety eight percent of men who are terrorist no one cares. We do not question how their gender affects what they do. Because violence committed by men is more normalized. Many of these problems could be solved if there was more education for children about these issues. Boys and girls should be allowed to like whatever they want to like with being called girly or tomboys. Everyone should be considered equal regardless of gender. There should be more laws in place to make sure that women and men are given the same opportunities and treated equally regardless of any biological thing they cannot control. “We’re never going to be able to fly as high if we’re not in support of each other’. Emma Watson said this on International women’s day in 2015. If all genders do not work together for equality no change will ever be made.