Differences In American Family

When observing a Family in America today, one would be able to observe many aspects of how they function together. They would also be able to observe some differences that the family faces on a daily basis. Some of these differences occur from gender-related issues. One specific issue that the typical family faces is how children are treated and raised differently based on their gender. For example, based on the works of Seccombe from our textbook, parents may assign rules, toys, chores, and expected behaviors differently to their children of the opposite gender. It is found that parents, parent this way subconsciously and it becomes a natural event that continues to get reinforced. This affects family life for many reasons, including that …show more content…
Social scripts, based on the text by Seccombe, provide norms or rules in regard to sexual behavior. In the United States, some of these norms for men include always wanting and being ready for sex, being in charge, and not stopping himself when he is turned on. On the other hand, some female sexual scripts include: making them attractive to their male partner, not being too knowledgeable or experienced with sex, and not initiating the sex. These roles are quite different for males versus females and create a dominating role towards sex in males. Some issues that arise from the gender differentiated scripts, include a lack of knowledge of women’s bodies and that women’s sexual needs are less important. It also gives rise to male sexuality being the baseline for sexual activity. This gives males the upper hand and can make women seem submissive and with a lack of control of their own …show more content…
We not only have seen it in a legal sense, but we also saw it discussed in church settings and even got to vote on if it should be legalized in our country. Learning more about this topic through this course encouraged me to connect this topic with our Benedictine Value of Respect. This value highlights how we should cherish the worth of all human life, and should treat all persons with dignity and reverences without regard to sexual preference. Also included is promoting participation of everyone in the decision that affect their lives. When tying this in with the topic of gays and their rights to marry, our Benedictine value would suggest that we treat everyone as equals and should cherish them equally. Thanks to this class I learned that not only are gay couples virtually identical to lesbian couples, but these couples also have few differences in comparison with heterosexual couples. This observation was established from the works of Lawrence Kurdek when looking at relationship quality, level of commitment, level of satisfaction in the relationship, and conflict and its resolution (Seccombe 2008). From these results he concluded that heterosexual and homosexual relationships are virtually similar. The differences that he did find were minimal, and that they are more alike than they are