It was a typical Tuesday morning, and, as always, I was zoning out in advisory. My advisor was saying something, but it was simply acting as background sound (it's harsh, but true). But this time, something caught my attention. She was ranting, and it was about the gender roles that we are expected to fit. She explained that she was shopping for her young daughter's shoes the other day, and was searching frantically for shoes her daughter liked in the girls section of the store. In seeing that her daughter didn't favor the pink, girly colors of the shoes, they had to go to the boys section to find a pair she liked. My advisor was annoyed that these department stores set a certain image that is expected of each gender: pink and light colors for the girls shoes and blue, black, overall darker colors for the boys. It's unfair that at such a young age, these kids are introduced to this expectation to fit the mold that society has created for them. What if a girl doesn't want pink shoes? She shouldn't feel as if it is a bad thing.
I feel as though this represents gender roles today. In everyday jobs, it's seen to many as simply absurd for a woman to be doing a hands-on job, something like mechanical engineering. Many say the joke to girls, "Go make me a sandwich", but if you think about it, it's expected for women to stay in the kitchen and cook for the family, taking care of the kids and keeping the house clean, while men take up the position of going to work and earning money for the family.
From such a young age, we are introduced to these expectations of what we should become; what we should wear, what we should do, simply based off of what gender we are. But is that really fair? Can you guys think of other examples that come to mind when you think of these unfair expectations?
Tricia that is a really good point that kids are often "brainwashed" from a young age into conforming to a certain image of a boy and a girl. I remember an example in The Catcher in the Rye (one of my all-time faves) about a mother being concerned that her son liked played with dolls, whereas for girls it was no problem to be a "Tomboy." I think this also brings up the issue that our society deems anything that is remotely gay to be shunned. Though The Catcher in the Rye was written before much was being done to improve gay rights, it is still relevant to modern American culture. To me it is concerning that little kids are being taught to conform to something that they may not be.
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