It’s no secret that stereotypical gender roles are continuously used today. We’ve come a long way with the women civil rights movements, but certain gender norms are still socially accepted because of the long ingrained habits; Women are still interpreted as submissive and men are portrayed as dominate. Language and Gender by Penelope Eckert and Sally Mcdonnell-Genet explore the concept of gender roles, and how as a society we 've conditioned ourselves to automatically accept these roles. Men automatically lean towards being aggressive and asserting dominance, while woman are pushed to the opposite side of the spectrum. “Gender is a set of practices through which people construct and claim identities.”(47) The problem lies within the practices
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“men are strong, woman are week; men are brave, woman are timid, men are aggressive, woman are passive.”(23). Gender roles work both ways, one does not exist without the other. The female gender is considered weak, submissive beings in need of a strong, dominant male counter to take care of them. In reverse the dominant male requires a submissive female to validate masculinity by being able to take care of her. Stepping outside of these gender oppositions is cause for great discussion. Although diversity in sexuality is becoming a topic of discussion, there is still a long way to go before genders are free of judgment when breaking boundaries against gender oppositions. The media plays a large part in maintaining gender oppositions by allowing advertisements that blatantly explode woman as submissive sex objects. The 2007 Dolce and Gabbana clothing advertisement not only represents females as submissive, but also their male counterparts as being dominant. The advertisement was published back in 2007 and although banned from both Italian and Spanish media, the controversy surrounding this advertisement was not brought to the attention of everyone until March 2015 when the two designees receives back lash for comments made on gay couples having
“men are strong, woman are week; men are brave, woman are timid, men are aggressive, woman are passive.”(23). Gender roles work both ways, one does not exist without the other. The female gender is considered weak, submissive beings in need of a strong, dominant male counter to take care of them. In reverse the dominant male requires a submissive female to validate masculinity by being able to take care of her. Stepping outside of these gender oppositions is cause for great discussion. Although diversity in sexuality is becoming a topic of discussion, there is still a long way to go before genders are free of judgment when breaking boundaries against gender oppositions. The media plays a large part in maintaining gender oppositions by allowing advertisements that blatantly explode woman as submissive sex objects. The 2007 Dolce and Gabbana clothing advertisement not only represents females as submissive, but also their male counterparts as being dominant. The advertisement was published back in 2007 and although banned from both Italian and Spanish media, the controversy surrounding this advertisement was not brought to the attention of everyone until March 2015 when the two designees receives back lash for comments made on gay couples having