Masculinity And Femininity In The Color Guard

Great Essays
While growing up I never really understood the meaning of masculinity or femininity. It was mind blowing after reading and analyzing advertisements about femininity and masculinity. Then when I looked around and saw how different each person looked, it gave me a different perspective. After entering High school, I noticed that the gender roles have started to change. Freshmen year I noticed that there was only girls in the color guard team. By senior year, I saw a few boys doing color guard. Now that I am the second year in college, I noticed at the local Tournament of Band parade there are more boys on color guard than there was my senior year. Over time boys overcome these “ideas of masculinity” and gender roles and take part in activities that are outside …show more content…
When I saw the advertisements I knew the ideals of masculinity and femininity are even more prominent than before. I was shocked after I looked into the topic of masculinity and femininity. I think that everyone has their own choice whether or not to follow society’s view on these two topics or they can follow their own path and do what they want to. After entering High School, I learned of our school tradition of Powerpuff. This tradition is flag football only one difference the girls are the players and the boys are the cheerleaders. I had the honor of playing senior year. From this experience, I learned that even boys can do cheerleading and that they do not follow the ‘gender roles’ of men which are that they are the players while girls are cheering. After this experience I have always thought about, Should young men and women destroy their own bodies just to fit the society's ideals of masculinity and femininity? Have you ever wondered that since that masculinity and femininity are prominent what can we do as a society to help lessen the effects on young men and women in following these

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Masculinity In America

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Dearest reader, welcome to an article where we let one high schooler a week write about issues that are important to them. ____________________________________ ___________________________________ The problem with our society at the moment, along with many other problems, has to do with gender roles. The pressure of being ‘too feminine’ or ‘not feminine enough’ as well as the pressure of masculinity is an impending problem in America, as well as around the rest of the globe.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Unity can only be manifested by the Binary. Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two.” These words quoted by Buddha, depict the reason why social binaries are such a damaging thing to our society. The word binary is defined as a system in which two sets of things are split into groups, specifically opposites. All sorts of binaries can be created, such as: gender, class, and racial.…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mariah Inghram ENG 3060J Ms. Berta December 1, 2016 Reader Response Five Rebecca Solnit’s book, Men Explain Things to Me, is atypical of others in that it is made up of various essays in which Solnit addresses different areas of feminist thought regarding womens’ oppression. Though the entirety of Solnit’s work in Men Explain Things to Me could be analyzed in terms of theorist Bell Hook’s ideas in the “Feminist Masculinity” chapter of her analytical work, Feminism is for Everybody, this essay will serve to examine only the overarching idea presented in the “Men Explain Things to Me” essay portion of the Solnit’s work. The central idea of this essay is that the patriarchal practice of silencing of women through society’s tendency to value men’s word over women’s is problematic because it works to discount experiences, such as domestic abuse or rape (Solnit). However, it is Solnit’s disconcertment with female silencing that Bell Hook’s assertion builds on in the “Feminist Masculinity” chapter of her book by suggesting that patriarchal values and/or ideas are not only harmful to women, but they are also harmful to men in that they too can work to silence male experiences (Hook).…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gender In Children

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Most children grow up in a world dominated either by their parents, social media, or their peers. All of these have a tremendous influence on a person and can determine the kind of person they become. When it comes to the ideas of gender, most children influenced are explained in the social cognitive theory of gender which is described as the idea that the children’s gender development occurs through observation and imitation of gender behavior, as well as through rewards and punishments children experience for behaviors believed to be appropriate or inappropriate for their gender (Santrock, 2016). Basically, what the children see from the models throughout their life is most likely how they are going to act when they are adults. Some of these men on the soccer team probably grew up in a home where the objectification of women was deemed appropriate behavior and they were either encouraged or rewarded most likely by the father figure with a pat on the back or a high five.…

    • 1120 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Identity and masculinity are broad terms that can capture someone 's entire being or only focus on one facet of the person. Society has a list of norms for what it means to be a man and a woman, gay or straight, black or white. However, humans are complex creatures, each unique with their own thoughts and behaviors. Can masculinity really be simplified into a standardized list of this or that? I concluded that personal experiences contrary to previously established social norms, have caused people to reevaluate definitions of masculinity.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Society has a way of thinking and an expectation of gender roles, these roles have been inserted into society for so long that it what at some pint abnormal to see otherwise. These roles have been labeled as “masculinity” and “femininity.” The fact that the word masculinity is placed before femininity is an example of male dominance. It has become so normal for males to be placed in a superior standard. In “Thank Heaven for Little Boys,” “Women are Just Better,” Twilight , and the Netflix series Being Marry Jane, Men and Women violate as well as uphold the concepts of masculinity and femininity.…

    • 858 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Masculinity in The Kite Runner Gender roles have been the perforated lines within our society for centuries, holding us together while simultaneously possessing the ability to tear us apart. We’ve had these ideas of what it means to be masculine and feminine so engrained into our society for such a long period of time that even as we enter a much more progressive era they still seep into the way we raise our children. Traditionally, masculinity can be seen as a combination of three common attributes: strength, honor, and action. Strength is generally referring to emotional toughness and independence, honor to loyalty and generosity, and action to competitiveness and risk-taking.…

    • 1326 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Girls are expected to be submissive, less aggressive, popular, beautiful, and take on traditional nurturing roles; while boys are expected to be active, dominate, aggressive, and more independent. My school, friends, and community also emphasized appropriate gendered behavior. As mentioned in a previous assignment, I learned from my friends that having stuffed animals was not considered masculine, and when we were having recess at school, I learned the socially acceptable ways for boys to behave. The youth sports I participated in also taught me acceptable gender behavior. They were structured in the same way as the soccer league described by Michael Messner.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Gender Blur

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Aaron Devor, the author of the essay “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes”, states that gender is a social construct that has very little to do with biology. On the other hand, Deborah Blum, in her essay “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End And Society Take Over”, claims that while society has an effect on gender, so does biology. In this essay, I plan to present the argument that biology and society both have an effect on gender. I, like Blum, noticed biological gender differences in my children (two boys and a girl). As a father who has raised his children to believe that, men and women both do the housework, I noticed that my boys were much more aggressive than my daughter ever was even before pre-school.…

    • 1411 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Masculinity’s Crossroads The article “Guys vs. Men,” Dave Barry uses satire to explain the problems with masculinity and a new approach to how males should be classified and judged. The article “The Crisis of American Masculinity” by Eric Garland discusses his view of how the traditional image of manhood is dying in today’s society. Each of them give their opinions on what manhood is; the manner that society should treat males with, the importance of masculinity in males, and their opinion of the necessity of these masculine characteristics.…

    • 2174 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Sex Roles 58.11-12 (2008): 864-874. Spence, Janet T., and Robert L. Helmreich. Masculinity and femininity: Their psychological dimensions, correlates, and antecedents. University of Texas Press,…

    • 1717 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Gender is learnt through socialisation as part of the rules and conventions shared by a culture to generate meaning. Many of the rules and conventions that dominate Western society emphasis dichotomies, good or bad, black or white, and gender: masculinity or femininity (Beck, 1998). Masculinity and femininity as separate and distinct gender identities are constructed through the performance of and repetition of ‘gendered’ acts. Over time gendered performances have become embedded in the structural arrangements and preferences of society (Fahey, 2007). Masculinity defines itself in its opposition to femininity, as part of the dichotomy of gender this is reflected in the rules and conventions that structure society.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Masculine Identity Essay

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For boys, gender role norms are more focused on highlighting traditionally masculine behaviors, which are rigidly enforced by both peers and parents. They are taught that a “masculine” man is the idealistic man. In other words they utilize their agency to reproduce masculinity. For example, the social construction adopted within a society, engrains the population with the accepted utilization of guns, fighting, sexual practices, daredevil behavior, physical strength , and financial wealth; all which are means of portraying ones masculinity. This can be very daunting for males because it is a façade, which must be illustrated…

    • 1347 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is simply naïve to disregard the overwhelming influence that the media and literature has had over the public over the past century and more precisely, in our youth. As a society, we constantly twist ourselves to fit the mold presented to us through various media outlets (e.g. TV, movies, magazines, advertisements, etc.) and in literature we encounter in our lives for a multitude of reasons. Throughout time, men have been presented to fit very traditionally masculine traits based on a preconceived narrative as to what it means to be a man and how to present oneself in order to be perceived as manly by others. Media and literature have branded a hyper-masculine image of men that has in time become what is expected for young boys to follow––be it relayed to them or not.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    parents are worried to see their sons playing dolls or dressing like a princess, scolding them that only girls will do such things, and this is considered girlish to play with dolls. Gradually, it will not only make the boys think that they should not do things freely as long as it is considered girly, it will also give them an idea that playing with dolls is girlish and weak, and when they see girls playing with dolls they begin to see girls as a weaker group, that’s how stereotypes forms. So we can see gender inequality is not an issue that affects women alone. Men should participate in advocating for equal rights and privileges, as well as representation, discrimination and illogical treatment initiated by gender disparity. Proper early…

    • 1115 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays