Gender roles, I think, aren’t that restricted as much as they used to be. The lines between women and men stereotypes are still clearly defined, but many people don’t follow or expect others to follow them as closely as people did in the 19th century. Woman can dress and act as they like now, as well as men without fear or punishment. Well, that’s somewhat of a lie. Although they may not receive physical punishment, or go to jail, they can be sometimes socially outcast. Its more of a psychological and social punishment. A social taboo; something that people look at and ignore it because they don’t know how to respond, or how to deal with the situation.
If a woman were to dress a shirt and pants, (something that would be shocking in the 19th century), no one would care. But if a man were to wear a dress or skirt, he would be almost ignored and labeled as gay. This is where the ‘loose restrictions’ come in. People are able to tell how woman and men should act, but there are only some lines that are acceptable to cross, like changing hobbies that are usually a stereotype for one gender. Other lines will gain the biggest shock factor of the universe, like a man breastfeeding. (It is possible.)
But, we have improved! In the 19th century, woman were to keep the houses, raise the children, follow their husband like a dog waiting on a command. They weren’t allowed to get an education, get jobs or even keep the money if they were to become employed. Men had restrictions as well. They weren’t suppose to help with children or cooking. They had to go out and make a living for their family, make all the decisions and be forced to work. Now, this may not sound like ‘bad treatment’ but it does have its own pressures and stress. Imagine having to make a decision for EVERYTHING in the house, at your work, etc. And if you were to be fired from your job, it was YOU’RE responsibility to keep the finances up and get a new one.
I’m also not trying to say the men had it harder. I’m just trying to level the playing field. I must admit that because men did all this, that they did get more privileges than women, but I just felt the need to show how it was for them too.
All in all, we have changed greatly from then that picture on blackboard was drawn. You don’t see all the woman parading in large dresses at home, only cooking cleaning and taking care of the children (Unless they are stay at home mothers, and even then they can go and pick up a job at will). Nor do you see men ignoring their children because that’s the mother’s job, or not doing housework. Society has grown into a much more accepting place than the 19th century, as long as we stay within the right boundaries.
On your point of both men and women being able to dress as they want, I like that you first give a lax view of acceptability and taboos, and then go on to explain the exceptions to both. While a woman may be considered a butch, depending on how “masculine” she dresses, the acceptability Is substantially higher. Pants and non-frilly shirts were most definitely considered to be male attire, and now it’s almost expected of both sexes, especially in frigid weather. Men, however, are still restricted to formal and informal “male” clothing.
ReplyDeleteI also like that you didn’t push all the weight of oppression on women in latter years. They were quite socially oppressed, and I’m not being dismissive of that in any way, but men are constantly discredited for their roles as well. Especially when seeing the “bread winner” and “child rearer” roles. If switched, men and women could attest to them being equally hard, depending on the job and amount of children and income. While women couldn’t touch work and education, men were practically deprived of their families. Their home was mostly where they worked, and the arms of their exhausted wives, who they may or may not have even liked.
It’s refreshing that you end on a hopeful note. We can all rant about how “life is so unfair wah wah wah,” and forget how much progression is going on. It’s good to be reminded that society is moving, regardless of how slow, and it’s for the better.
I have the same opinion overall with you. Throughout history there were always lines that divided us, that distinguish men from women thus creating our gender roles. Over time these lines have simply been reshaped and placed at different locations. Women in the past were only allowed to wear dresses and men only pants. Now women have a large variety of wardrobe options while men have been limited to only pants and shorts. Likewise women have the option of wearing any shirt or attire they want, whether masculine or feminine in appearance without any turned heads, or smug remarks in most cases. If a man were to cross the lines and wear skirts and dresses or even a feminine blouse with jeans there would be many stares, smug remarks, head turns and the whole nine yards of shock. Unless you happened to be in Scotland where wearing a kilt is acceptable or in a Muslim, Hindu or other eastern location wearing attire similar to dress like clothing is customary.
ReplyDeleteArguably men can be said to have had it hard as well because they had to go and be the sole breadwinner while insure that his property, house, land, business, wife and all, were in proper order. For both men and women, in order to live you must be willing to do whatever you need to for the survival of you and your children. Life is not as easy as some people may think. With all this said, arguably women still had it harder in the past, even when viewing it from the simple stand point that both men and women worked equally hard at their “careers” (breadwinner and housewife respectively), however men received more praise for what they did over a women keeping a good house.
I agree with you when you say that gender roles are not as strict as they used to be. Women are now aloud to get jobs, go to school and be educated, wear pants (like you said) and do as many if not more things then men can. It’s not just women’s gender roles that have changed either, it’s also the males. It is now socially accepted for males to take on a part of the role of the woman, which would include helping with the house and kids. “I’m also not trying to say the men had it harder. I’m just trying to level the playing field. I must admit that because men did all this, that they did get more privileges than women, but I just felt the need to show how it was for them too.” I like how you said this because I would of said the same thing, Overall though things are starting to progress slowly but surely, women now have rights and don’t have the pressure to be a housewife and to tend to their husbands needs, they now can make their own decisions on what they want and now (some of them) may have a husband to help them.
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