gender roles
A look at the evolution of gender roles, from Leave It to Beaver, paternity leave, female breadwinners and more.
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 Jayde8 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 Preen8 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 Nizeul8 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 Solorzano8 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 Solorzano8 years ago in Viva
Gender in the Fashion Industry
For so long, it wasn’t socially acceptable for girls to wear jeans. That seems ridiculous, does it not? The fashion industry and societal standards push these rules on us. Why is it that people who identify as male cannot wear a skirt or a dress?
By Madeline Kimble8 years ago in Viva
Thinking a Few Steps Ahead
There’s been so much talk about sexual offenders in the celebrity circuit, I felt the need to address the issue. As a woman who is against the horrors of rape, I also believe that there are so many levels to these accusations and while “no means no,” we do have to start to implement some solutions to help each other. With the recent story of Aziz Ansari hitting the press, I found myself engaged in a debate on Facebook over a friend’s thread. We were clearly not going to agree on our stance in the matter. My opinion was very general, we as women need to work towards preventative measures and start thinking a few steps ahead of ourselves in situations that could prove to be threatening. A little preventative maintenance could go a long way and while it might not save us all, it could definitely help improve our current status with this disturbing growing culture of sexual assault and rape.
By Karina Nistal8 years ago in Viva
Relationship Red Flag—Too Much, Too Soon
I’ve been thinking a lot about my experiences using dating websites and dating men in general, and I’ve reflected on my own behaviour and that which I encountered from my potential partners. Soul-searching is great for helping you to grow in general, and specifically for helping you to avoid the same mistakes again. I don’t recall exactly what it was that triggered this thought, probably something I read on Twitter—I spend an unhealthy portion of my waking hours on Twitter, but hey, at least it’s not crack, amirite?
By Katy Preen8 years ago in Viva
Unexpected Friendship Part 3
I left off going on about the first of many times my trust was destroyed completely. Thinking back on it now, maybe this was just another one of his games. My intuition was never wrong. Something in my gut would just tell me something was off and I was always right. Yet, I still stuck around, believing all his lies. Two months after married-with-three-kids-and-a-fourth-on-the-way was inappropriately talking to _____, on his birthday, I found more text messages between him and another married woman, him asking her to sneak out, and her saying she said a special "gift" just for him. Once again my heart dropped, my blood boiled, and I again confronted him. This began a vicious cycle that soon turned violent.
By RaeAnna Mercado8 years ago in Viva
