gender roles
A look at the evolution of gender roles, from Leave It to Beaver, paternity leave, female breadwinners and more.
Girls Please Read
I am writing this because I am tried of seeing young, beautiful girls striving endlessly to fulfill society's modern day expectations and almost kill themselves in the process. Instagram feeds and the far-too-easy accessibility to anything and everything on the internet puts so much unnecessary pressure on young females (and has shown to have detrimental effects on mental health... unsurprisingly). So although I realise one post isn't going to end the pandemic, I thought that there needed to be one more nugget of realistic advice and perspective, so here it is.
Aurora CassidyPublished 7 years ago in VivaScream
She brings her hand to her mouth to muffle her scream. She hears his footsteps pierce the silence of the warm summer night. She hears him pause to slip his shoes off half way down the hall. She hears his sock covered feet shuffle along the wood floor, knowing when he passes her brother’s door, then her sister’s door. Her brother and sister are never bothered because they are his. She is not. She belongs to her mother. She belongs to another man, a man who had left long ago and never returned. She had never cared. She knew he was never coming back.
Elisa BrooksPublished 7 years ago in VivaOf Course Men and Women Can Be 'Just Friends'
“Can men and women really be 'just friends?' Asking for a friend...” The Facebook page for the website SoulPancake.com decided to throw some chum in the water of the ongoing gender conversation by sarcastically asking if men and women can really be ‘Just Friends.’ I get what they are trying to do, kick up some social media dust for some action on their Facebook page. That said, the social media team for SoulPancake.com might want to read the room a little before they get cute with the traffic friendly cheapies. The question of whether men and women can be "just friends" is much more of a hot button than they seem to think.
Sean PatrickPublished 7 years ago in Viva#MeToo
This is the definition given to the word 'rape' in the dictionary: unlawful sexual activity carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female (paraphrased, because the full definition is MUCH longer). Unfortunately, society today defines it only as the act of forcing sexual intercourse. They say that what happened to me is called sexual abuse, not rape. I disagree.
Jasmine YinglingPublished 7 years ago in VivaMe Too. Not Me.
Just before I left for vacation, I published two of my short stories on Amazon. One is about a ghost who witnesses her own funeral and features my most popular character. The other is a tale that I should have probably written more of, but in just 1,500 words I drive home the point about what males go through when they are sexually assaulted. It was a story that started out as one concept and morphed into this piece that I am incredibly proud of. While talking about it with a few writer friends, one of them said something that struck me. She told me I should use the hashtag me too to promote the story. The sheer cynicism in that statement shook me to my core.
Edward AndersonPublished 7 years ago in VivaCan You Have a Feminist Wedding?
Here's the thing: It's hard to ignore history. So many of the wedding traditions practiced today are deeply rooted in a patriarchal system that suggest (if not insist) that women are no more than property, easily traded and bargained for.
Why Young Women Play Down Their Career Goals Around Men
Isn't it awesome that women in current years are going the extra mile and succeeding their life-long goals? That they're making their wishes come true and are able to work in fields of their passion and make a living out of it? That many women are breaking the chains of gender roles and becoming successful, dependent individuals who are making a change in the world? How amazing this that? Nothing gets me more excited than hearing the achievements that women have made. But you know what seriously brings me down, possibly getting on my nerves? That certain women would rather put men first before their life goals...
Jacqueline HanikehPublished 7 years ago in VivaI'm Sorry I'm a Man
I'm sorry I'm a man. I do know that as far back as I can remember I've been this way. I was born this way. Please queue the Lady Gaga music, thank you. No, I was not born with female parts, nor have I ever felt any need to undergo a surgery. This won't be a plot-twist essay. I'm too boring for that. I was merely born male. Let me explain.
Kristian RomeroPublished 7 years ago in VivaMe Too, Caveated
Today on Facebook, several friends of mine posted a copy/paste update that read like this: "Me too. If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote "Me too." as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem.
Yumi YamamotoPublished 7 years ago in VivaWhen in Disgrace with Fortune and Men's Eyes
The title of this piece is the first line of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29, which is analysed in detail here. The poem itself doesn’t have much to do with this topic, but taking the first eight lines in isolation, it sounds a lot like how it feels to be a woman in a male-dominated workplace:
Katy PreenPublished 7 years ago in VivaA Mile in Her Feet
It started out as a joke, really. I was attending one of my best female friend's bachelorette party and as a part of the low-key celebrations, the plan was to go to the salon to get our nails did. I didn't really feel like disappearing midway through the day so I agreed to go with. After all, I had heard about men getting manicures and pedicures and absolutely loving it.
C.E. ZulinPublished 7 years ago in VivaThe Panopticon of the Patriarchy
The patriarchal society lived in today is commonplace. Women find themselves constantly shorted in conditions ranging from violent rapists found innocent to girls told to cover their shoulders in school so as not to distract the boys in the room. These circumstances are a direct result of a panoptic mechanism abducting the idea of masculine power as dominant over femininity and fixing it into society so subtly that people rarely notice or have the ability to protest it. Foucault presents the central idea of Panopticism in Discipline and Punish: power is “visible and unverifiable,” (555). The sexist society in the United States exhibits these symptoms. For example, as Berger shows the reader in Ways of Seeing, men are visibly seen as favorable in art. However, it is essentially unverifiable because there is no sure way of knowing the inspiration, the intent, or the impetus behind the artist’s painting — consciously or subconsciously. Foucault’s presentation of the Panopticon directly represents and results in the relationship between male and female in today’s society as shown in Berger’s work, Ways of Seeing. As Berger puts it, “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at” (47).
Amelia Clare WrightPublished 7 years ago in Viva