Gender Roles
The post World War II era was the golden age for traditional gender roles. The majority of the population wanted the same family dynamic of a breadwinning father, nurturing stay at home mother, mild mannered daughter, athletic son, and dog all held within a white picket fence. In this dynamic, everyone fit their gender roles like a glove. The glove fit comfortably until the late 1960 's when the feminist movement began to sweep the country. It was at this time that people began to question if gender roles were a result of genetics or just a social construct, and it is something people are debating to this day. The three most widespread viewpoints on gender roles are that gender roles are a direct result of cultural and social environment, …show more content…
Starting at around the age of two they are seemingly inherently drawn to pink, and in her blog post "The Socio-Aesthetics of Pink" mother and philosopher Liz Camp examines "[...]her 2 year-old daughters deep love of pink[...] [through] part parental reflections, part hard-core philosophy and part cultural commentary." (Is It Time To). Camp strongly believes that her daughters infatuation with pink was not something she was born with, but rather something she picked up from playmates who have taught her that pink is what it means to be a girl. Those who believe that gender roles are a social construct think that society boxes girls into a feeling of unimportance from a young age through their forced association to all things pink and frivolous. Yael Kohen writes, "If we 've made pink the most visible representation of girl culture, and also treat it as a symbol of frivolity, then we 're unwittingly telling girls (and boys) that the girl world isn 't important." in her article "What 's the problem with pink, anyway?". In telling girls and boys that all things girl aren 't serious, it may instill the idea that women are not serious enough to establish real careers. People such as Jessica Valenti, author of "It Is Wrongly Assumed That All Women Desire Motherhood", strongly believe that women and girls are taught from a young age to want nothing other than to be a mother. In her article she states that the …show more content…
In Blum 's article she quotes an endocrinologist, Marc Breedlove, who states that the differences in behavior between boys and girls are malleable enough to be formed and manipulated by society, but far too complex to be created only from social pressures and stereotypes (Both Biology and Culture). Blum states that males are inherently more aggressive than females, as evidenced by copious amounts of crime statistics, and "[...] thus the issue becomes not whether there is a biologically influenced sex difference in aggression-- the answer being a sold, technical "You betcha"-- but rather how rigid the difference is." (Both Biology and Culture). Blum believes that how much value people place on the emotional and physical differences between boy and girl is directly proportionate to how society shapes the child 's relationship with gender roles. Blum found that while girls with congenital adrenal hypoplasia, a genetic disorder where female fetuses are exposed to more male hormones than the average female fetus, are more naturally drawn to the rough play of boys, the influence of female friends mutes their inherent desire for boyish games and steers them towards more typically female play. Blum then reverts to her original point and states that "...there is indeed a
The post World War II era was the golden age for traditional gender roles. The majority of the population wanted the same family dynamic of a breadwinning father, nurturing stay at home mother, mild mannered daughter, athletic son, and dog all held within a white picket fence. In this dynamic, everyone fit their gender roles like a glove. The glove fit comfortably until the late 1960 's when the feminist movement began to sweep the country. It was at this time that people began to question if gender roles were a result of genetics or just a social construct, and it is something people are debating to this day. The three most widespread viewpoints on gender roles are that gender roles are a direct result of cultural and social environment, …show more content…
Starting at around the age of two they are seemingly inherently drawn to pink, and in her blog post "The Socio-Aesthetics of Pink" mother and philosopher Liz Camp examines "[...]her 2 year-old daughters deep love of pink[...] [through] part parental reflections, part hard-core philosophy and part cultural commentary." (Is It Time To). Camp strongly believes that her daughters infatuation with pink was not something she was born with, but rather something she picked up from playmates who have taught her that pink is what it means to be a girl. Those who believe that gender roles are a social construct think that society boxes girls into a feeling of unimportance from a young age through their forced association to all things pink and frivolous. Yael Kohen writes, "If we 've made pink the most visible representation of girl culture, and also treat it as a symbol of frivolity, then we 're unwittingly telling girls (and boys) that the girl world isn 't important." in her article "What 's the problem with pink, anyway?". In telling girls and boys that all things girl aren 't serious, it may instill the idea that women are not serious enough to establish real careers. People such as Jessica Valenti, author of "It Is Wrongly Assumed That All Women Desire Motherhood", strongly believe that women and girls are taught from a young age to want nothing other than to be a mother. In her article she states that the …show more content…
In Blum 's article she quotes an endocrinologist, Marc Breedlove, who states that the differences in behavior between boys and girls are malleable enough to be formed and manipulated by society, but far too complex to be created only from social pressures and stereotypes (Both Biology and Culture). Blum states that males are inherently more aggressive than females, as evidenced by copious amounts of crime statistics, and "[...] thus the issue becomes not whether there is a biologically influenced sex difference in aggression-- the answer being a sold, technical "You betcha"-- but rather how rigid the difference is." (Both Biology and Culture). Blum believes that how much value people place on the emotional and physical differences between boy and girl is directly proportionate to how society shapes the child 's relationship with gender roles. Blum found that while girls with congenital adrenal hypoplasia, a genetic disorder where female fetuses are exposed to more male hormones than the average female fetus, are more naturally drawn to the rough play of boys, the influence of female friends mutes their inherent desire for boyish games and steers them towards more typically female play. Blum then reverts to her original point and states that "...there is indeed a