Looking at the reading for this week, there were a couple things that I was particularly interested in discussing. First, on page 280 in the book it states that, "According to the social concept of gender, men and women have different identities and social roles and, thus, are expected to think and act in different ways." I definitely find this to be true in American society. The traditional role of the woman is to be the caretaker for the kids, the homemaker, the person who cleans the house and does laundry and has dinner ready when the working dad gets home from his 8+ hour days. Women are also deemed the nurturing ones, which may be why it is assumed we will take off of work to stay home with a new baby. Although I believe that this is predominately how America is, I do think it is shifting. There are more women who are going to college, getting higher paid jobs, and not staying at home as frequently, like it used to be 10 years ago. There are more dads that are taking the role of the homemaker and the women are becoming breadwinners of the family. I think this is a great thing that is happening, so eventually it might not be unusual to see a stay-at-home dad and a mom that works full time.
The second thing I wanted to talk about is related to the biological make-up of men and women. My boyfriend was in Washington state for a month for ROTC Army training. Their regiments consisted of both men and women, so there was always interactions between them. One thing he mentioned when he got back was that he can now see why there is such a push for women to stay out of combat arms positions. This is the type of position that requires a lot of physical strength, which women have less of (on average). Now, by no means is he trying to be sexist by saying this comment, because he explained how so many of the girls in his regiment had trouble carrying the same amount of weight in their rucks as the guys had. In fact, the guys would take some of the weight from the girls' rucks and carry it for them. I thought this was interesting to hear, because people might hear the comment "women shouldn't be allowed in combat arms positions" and assume someone is being sexist, when, instead, you look at the facts and the biological make-up of men vs. women and there is a logical reason for the statement.
The last thing I wanted to discuss was transgendered people in other cultures. This past spring semester I took a class called Psychology and Culture. This class was one of the most interesting of my college career and it taught be a lot about other cultures and different diversity issues. One of our topics was transgendered people and looking at them cross-culturally. It was interesting to see that in some cultures, transgenders are equal to men and women. In Thailand transgenders are called Kathoey's and are very accepted by the rest of society. A Kathoey even won a Miss Thailand crown. I think this shows how much more accepting other cultures are when compared to ours.
The second thing I wanted to talk about is related to the biological make-up of men and women. My boyfriend was in Washington state for a month for ROTC Army training. Their regiments consisted of both men and women, so there was always interactions between them. One thing he mentioned when he got back was that he can now see why there is such a push for women to stay out of combat arms positions. This is the type of position that requires a lot of physical strength, which women have less of (on average). Now, by no means is he trying to be sexist by saying this comment, because he explained how so many of the girls in his regiment had trouble carrying the same amount of weight in their rucks as the guys had. In fact, the guys would take some of the weight from the girls' rucks and carry it for them. I thought this was interesting to hear, because people might hear the comment "women shouldn't be allowed in combat arms positions" and assume someone is being sexist, when, instead, you look at the facts and the biological make-up of men vs. women and there is a logical reason for the statement.
The last thing I wanted to discuss was transgendered people in other cultures. This past spring semester I took a class called Psychology and Culture. This class was one of the most interesting of my college career and it taught be a lot about other cultures and different diversity issues. One of our topics was transgendered people and looking at them cross-culturally. It was interesting to see that in some cultures, transgenders are equal to men and women. In Thailand transgenders are called Kathoey's and are very accepted by the rest of society. A Kathoey even won a Miss Thailand crown. I think this shows how much more accepting other cultures are when compared to ours.
Christine: Your remarks on gender roles regarding the blog on the social construction of gender are well taken. These roles are changing and it appears they're changing very rapidly. Good work.
ReplyDeleteRichard Bobys
Thank you! I really enjoyed writing this blog entry.
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