“ appropriate ” gender roles growing H u m a n i t i e s

Hello group members,

I wanted to start off by saying I had a lot of fun with this discussion post. For my word pairs, I chose to do Nail -> Hammer, Bow ->Hair, Club -> House, Band ->Music, Lash ->Mascara, Ring -> Wedding. From these word combinations, I concluded that one was masculine, three were feminine, and two were neutral. With that being said, my word pairs did conform to my own gender because my highest scoring gender rating was feminine. I believe that the reason my answers leaned towards being feminine is that that is what I relate to and what comes to my mind faster.  Through the chapter we learn that culture is a large part of gender roles and growing up Hispanic it is very common for a woman to dedicate herself to the family while a man provides. Though as I have grown up, this is not particularly the way I believe the situation needs to happen, there are unconscious biases in my mind from my upbringing.  In addition, I believe that gender conformity is a good thing, but in moderation just like anything. I believe that men and women were both made with different strengths and weaknesses, and those play a large role in our genders. I think the society we have grown up in now has developed tremendously giving women more presence in the workplace and respecting a father who wants to stay home with his kids, which I see as a good thing though some may believe that goes against gender roles. Overall, this chapter highlighted several interesting points and facts that I was unfamiliar with. For example, I enjoyed learning about the way that both our nature and nurture. I believe both these factors; biology and our upbringing equally contribute to our development. In conclusion, this was an interesting chapter, and I was happy to learn that women statically speaking have less of a chance of being killed by lightning. 

2 Discussion Ashhly

My word pairings were:

Nail-Hammer = Masculine

Bow-Wow (the rapper lol) = Masculine

Club-Sandwich = Neutral

Band-Aid = Neutral

Lash-Out = Neutral

Ring-Engagement = Feminine

My word pairings were not gender conforming they were more neutral. My thought process involved just clearing my mind and thinking of the 1st word that came to my mind when I thought of the original word. The reason I think my pairings were gender neutral and didn’t focus on more feminine aspects of the word is because of the gender schema theory. Gender Schema Theory says that children learn about male and female roles from the cultures in which they live. I grew up in a single mom household, so I saw my mom perform both “gender roles”. She did the cooking, cleaning, but also the yard work and home repairs. Although I learned about the “appropriate” gender roles growing up I didn’t witness the traditional gender roles in a home, so my thought processes have always been a little different. I don’t think gender conformity is a good or bad thing. I think it’s just something that comes naturally because of our biological make up. Although, I don’t think women should be subjected to housework and men be subjected to hard labor. I feel like everyone should be able to perform whatever role makes them most comfortable. My thinking on gender roles hasn’t changed given the content of this chapter. I respect gender roles and understand them, but I choose to not conform to them. I prefer to be neutral. I like using all my talents to balance both sides of the gender roles spectrum. I know a ton of households still follow the gender role rules but you can see the tide is turning on a more modern approach to gender roles.