First off I must say that I really enjoyed class today, it was nice to all look at each other as well as hear all of our very educated opinions. Yay for us :)
All this gender talk really got me thinking about how we ourselves may make our own gender classifications without even realizing it. As I was walking out of the building I held the door open for someone walking out...does this make me masculine(I'm a female) or polite? As I was walking to the car with my boyfriend I had to stop and fix my shoe and as a result I was behind for about 30 second walking...does this mean that he is dominate and I'm submissive because I'm walking behind my man? I know this was something brought up in our circle discussion today, and after having it applied to a situation that happens every day, if not multiple times a day really got me thinking about definitions.
I came to the conclusion that definitions really don't matter, and I will even venture out on a limb and say that our hang ups about gender and the differences between men and women have ceased to become important because our definitions are so centered around differences and even sometimes who is better. I feel like its more important to focus on the fact that were all humans and should treat each other as such, not everything has to be put into the boxes we are so fond of defining our lives with.
Whew just a bit of fresh air for the topic ...comments welcome :)
understand that some customs come from a time when woman was "the weaker sex" - and also understand that they 1. do not mean that now and 2. can be broken. Send a guy a yellow rose: he'll like it. let a girl pay: she'll like it. listen while a man speaks of his feelings: you'll both like it.
ReplyDeleteWe are so consumed with our everyday gender roles that we forget we are all humans after all and not realizing that no matter what are our expected roles we all like to break them (you are so right Maskfem, never thought about it that way).
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ReplyDeleteGregoryandthehawk: that is true some of the time. But there are still people who are not just very masculine but very dominant. Yes, we know we should not focus on trivial things but it is not the trivial things that we look at. It is those little things that the statistics show affect the population as a whole. As was discussed women earn less than a man for the same position and in the majority of families women not only have to work but also are expected to cook, clean and take care of the kids when they get home. I commend you for thinking outside the box but unfortunately the whole world does not think that way. This is a law from Jordan and there is a similar one in Syria: Part of article 340 of the Penal Code of Jordan states that "he who discovers his wife or one of his female relatives committing adultery and kills, wounds, or injures one of them, is exempted from any penalty."
ReplyDeleteThe law was made to protect the man. There is no equivalent for men caught cheating. Those little things are definite remnants of our past and when people do what is most convenient for them then and only then will we be over the oppression. But as long as women expect and have dreams of prince charming sweeping them of their feet and them being helpless damsels in distress then it is definitely obvious the power role of the genders.
I think the whole gender studies field is so blown out in America. In Europe women and men are more equal yet their is less emphasis on equality. Like all things Americans love to make blow everything out of proportion. I realized that even more with the circle.
ReplyDeleteClips: Im not too sure about how equal it is in Europe. Greece is a part of Europe and i had to have a talk to a young individual from Greece about beating a woman and treating her like a slave. This was in 2005. He said in his country it is acceptable. he would explain problems his parents had and said they were always his mothers fault because she needs to know her place and the man is always right. The statment that it is blownout of proportion maybe right or it may just be a matter of perspective.
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