The T-Shirt sure did make a statement. You would typically expect a male to be wearing such a shirt. I got a mixed set of reactions to the shirt. I either got some sort of a 'thumbs up' or the look (yeah, the stink eye)
Why in the world would a women be asking a man to make her a sandwich, now that is just insulting.
Despite the successes in empowering women throughout the years, many issues still exist within gender roles. Some may argue that it is more accepted now for women to be out of the kitchen and in the work force. Even though that is true, gender roles are still in place and are still being implemented in certain circumstances.
If a women ever asked a man to make her a sandwich, it would be awkward for the man because that is not the norm. It has always been expected for the men to ask for a sandwich and for the women to comply because nothing has been thought of it. Even though gender roles have become more neutral in some cases, there still the small things that are not socially acceptable for women, like the example I have been using; women do not usually ask men to make them sandwiches. The battle still isn't over.
An article that was shared with our Political theory class about gender roles would be another example of gender expectations. In The New York Times, the article "To The Boys, Her Role Is Simple: Teammate," talks about how a 17 year old female was on the boys varsity football team. A female playing a males sport is so out of the norm that there was an article written about it. Females aren't envisioned to play such a rough sport like football because of differences in physical capability. That wouldn't be circumstance if at a young age, girls grew up participating in male dominated activities. Women's physical capbaility have been limited since they have not been exposed to the same 'roughness' in activities as men have.
In elementary school, when it was football week in my gym class, the boys and girls were separated. The girls had to play flag football while the boys got to play the 'normal' type of football. I always hated that. I wanted to be part of the action, too.
It all starts at a young age. Gender roles have to start diminishing at day one.
Ladies, let's prevail through societies stereotype. Next time, we ask the men to make US a sandwich.
Aya,
ReplyDeleteI think your post brings up the importance of gender roles in a unique way by using modern phrases that our generation uses. I don’t think the gender roles of the past are as prevalent as you believe they are—I would say that women (and working mothers) in the work force are very common today and are becoming more of the norm. I don’t think it would be awkward for a wife to ask her husband to make her a sandwich, it just isn’t something that is done. I think as time goes on, the duties of cooking for one’s family becomes less and less of a female-dominated thing. I like that you used the “To the Boys Her Role is Simple: Teammate” article, but I think you could have elaborated more, and used the “Throwing Like a Girl” article to explain the feminine bodily comportment better. It’s not that women’s physical capabilities have been limited—women who grow up playing house and not using their physical strength still have the capacity to do so. It’s that girls learn from a young age that they aren’t supposed to play rough or use their strength, which leads them to never do so, or do so with timidity. I like how you related your personal story to the gender role problem, but elaborate more!
I am going to have to agree with Linda on this one. I don’t think it’s uncommon for a man to make a woman a sandwich. The whole “Hey woman, make me a sandwich” is a joke. Degrading? Maybe. But it’s a joke. And you also touched on article about Erin DiMeglio, which shows that woman are challenging the presumed gender roles. But your analysis could have been stronger. I liked how Linda brought up the “Throwing Like a Girl” article. The existence of gender roles is not the only reason as to why women are degraded or looked at as being less-capable, the effects of the gender roles matter. Young explained that due to these gender roles, three modalities of feminine bodily existence emerge. If you discussed ambiguous transcendence, inhibited intentionality, and discontinuous unity in your blog post, your post would have been much stronger.
ReplyDeleteAya,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your post and your take on the "make me a sanwich" phenomenon. However, I have to disagree with your view that gender roles should be eliminated altogether. While I whole-heartedly agree that gender stereotypes like "women must cook and clean" aren't valid and have no value, I think that some amount of gender role consistency is needed in society.
I think that simple gender roles, ones which do not oppress one gender or the other, may be useful to guide children in their development and allow for functioning society. For example, I do not think that girls who grow up and want to emulate their mother's role as housekeeper is necessarily a bad thing, so long as the girl is not expected to do so.
In short, I agree that oppressive, "make me a sandwich", "stay at home", gender roles have no place in modern society, but i think that many gender roles are unavoidable and aren't necessarily a bad thing so long as they are not oppressive.
I was very interested in your blog. I agree with Mack, saying that the stereo type of “women being in the kitchen” is not valid but I believe that there is still a need for gender separation. Women and men are so different and that is makes it hard to treat them the same. The idea of a women in the kitchen has been going on for so many years and the idea of a women telling a man to make her a sandwich is very out of the norm, as you stated above, and that would explain the “stank eye” that you were receiving.
ReplyDeleteI found it interesting how you brought up the article about the girl playing on the football team. I thought that it complimented your blog very well. The idea of a women, or girl, playing a men’s football team is out of the norm. just like the man making the women a sandwich. In todays world there are so many women doing things that were originally “mens jobs”, and the society is going to have to accept that. I still don’t like the idea of a girl playing football because I don’t think that it is fair to the team that has to go against her. Boys have always been raised to not “hit a woman” and always be kind, so how do you expect a boy to tackle a girl? There are still things in society that have to be left gender separated.
I agree with Mack and his idea that gender roles should not disappear altogether. Gender roles are important in guiding people in their development. When girls grow up and see other girls playing with Barbies, for example, often they want to play with Barbies as well. It gives these girls something to do together, something in common, a topic for discussion. The same goes for boys, who often like race cars and action figures.Though one can argue against this, one has to keep in mind that this is a great platform for friendships and, more importantly, a great platform for identities to form. Gender roles are not rigid molds that all girls or all boys have to fit in; gender roles are guides, they are there to help enforce a standardization of society. Without gender roles I think society would be confusing without a direction or a code of behavior that people could follow. There are positive gender roles and pointing only to derogatory ones is unfair and it is not very conducive in developing your argument against them. I am clearly not a proponent for negative gender roles—no gender should have to make sandwiches for the other, for starters. Otherwise, if gender roles can be put in a positive light, I think this will reflect that they are a guiding light for all.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there can definitely be some offensive stereotypes out there (like the make me a sandwich meme, which is clearly not to be taken seriously as it is pretty offensive) I feel like most gender roles prevalent in society are usually not too harmful. I mean, yes it is standard for women to be the housekeepers, but society is definitely progressing. As of now, about 40% of women are the breadwinners for their families - meaning they make a higher salary than their husbands. I think this definitely shows that females nowadays certainly are not hindered in any way shape or form by any socially dictated gender roles. Plus, gender roles such as females being interested in shopping and makeup and such are usually positive in most respects, most girls find those kind of things fun and there doesn't seem to be any problems branching from them.
ReplyDeleteAlso, with your point on girls playing football - there are certainly other things you must consider, especially some of them being legal concerns. If a girl was hurt during play because she played football with the boys, causing a lawsuit in a serious case, and it was asked why it was so and the school answered "Because we had the girls and boys play football together" I'm sure no one would be very impressed with that answer. So basically what I'm trying to say is that having the girls and the boys be separate is more a safety issue than anything.