Within this essay I will prove that gender roles are still a massive part of our society and that people claiming equal rights and equal privileges are fighting a losing battle–if not are actually hurting their own cause. This essay focuses on the differences between gender roles and will show you that it is far harder being a woman in a world where gender roles exist in this manner.
Gender roles happen from an early age, such as with the toys and colors we introduce children to. We use blue for a boy and pink for a girl, and we do this even though we know that blue is commonly associated with being masculine and pink is a soft and feminine color. Girls are not given action figures, tanks and guns, and boys are not given dream cars and cooking stations. These roles are engrained from a young age and are pushed on children so that they support it. Boys are encouraged to pick on other boys if they are playing with a baby doll in the same way that girls pick on other girls if they want to play football or have a toy gun.
Gender roles are far more a part of our society when it comes to parenting. It is seen as far worse for a mother to abandon a child than for the father to abandon the child. When it comes to a straight couple living together, it is very rare to see a man being more fastidious than the woman is and even rarer to see him take up most of the cleaning and childcare jobs. Yet, this unbalance is seen as acceptable by society as a whole.
The idea that women should not be viewed as sexual objects is laudable, but as activist work to make things fair, they have pushed too far to the point of oppressing the women they are trying to represent. They should be fighting so that women have a choice. So that women can choose to dress comfortably instead of insisting that they have to. Women should be able to show off their bodies in any fashion they wish, but activists insist that they cover up in case they are viewed as sex objects. By doing this they are pushing women back into the days when women were arrested for showing an ankle.
On the other hand, the male gender is allowed to walk around a beach wearing just a pair of Speedos and nobody calls them a slut or hussy. Nobody looks at them as if they are letting the gender down.
Conclusion
A man that acts within his own gender role is lauded, but a woman is forced to stay within a certain fence within her role. She has to be feminine but not too much, sexual but not too much, and must have a career but not if it means she is a bad mother. Gender roles exist, they are deeply engrained, they are currently unfair, and the people trying to make them fairer are repressing women backwards instead of giving them the same choices that men have.
