Gender Roles- Abbey Dahl

Just this week in my World Religions class, we discussed how Christianity was a defining factor for gender roles in that specific religion. It is believed that in Christianity because Eve made Adam eat the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden woman were deemed to be inferior to men after that. The man was the one who provided for his family, and the women were to have children, look over the house, cook, and clean. So this is just one example of how religion can affect the views of gender roles. Over time though, it is amazing to see the perception over gender roles change immensely.

We must realize that America is a young, and industrious country compared to Europe and all the other countries. So we do have a narrow mindedness about gender. When people first migrated to America, there was a culture already formed. As I said before men made sure their was a shelter over his families head, and the mother kept the children in line, and the home. Unlike, the berdache in the Native American culture, we did not have a specific name for a person like that. To us it was sadly "abnormal" because it was "normal in our culture". Also in the article, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving," the author throughly discusses how just because the woman wore burqas we automatically were under the impressed they were oppressed by the Taliban men. It actuality, it was simply their culture, something we need to learn to respect and not try to change.

I believe that the perception of gender roles has been and is still under way for change. Fifty years ago, women might have gone to secondary school. Since the Civil Rights Movement, and an ample amount of feminists change is inevitable . Now there are statistically more women attending college then men. I am not at all trying to put down the male gender they are still powerful, but currently woman are single for a longer time, we are accepting different kinds of sexuality, and becoming more accepting and respectful to different cultures.

Gender Roles - Becca Libby

Gender roles are learned by whatever culture you are a part of. In most western societies, from the time you are born you're learning how to act based on if you are male or female. The stereotypical "girls do this, boys do this" thing. For example the second your born you get pink balloons if you're a girl, and blue ones if you're a boy. Girls get barbies, boys get GI Joes, that is teaching gender. As the Berdache article metioned, western society has a hard time accepting/understanding it when people do not follow their assigned gender roles. No wonder our society has trouble accepting gays, bisexuals, and transgender people. We have this engrained image of what male and female are and how they should look and act and live. Every religion has it's particular gender roles, most of which consider women to be the subordinate. Men are usually assigned the role as provider, and women are given the role of obedient wife, mother, and homemaker.

I believe mainstream American society only provides for two genders roles, because it's what we are used to. However, I do think this is changing, slowly but surely. More and more people are beginning to accept new ideas about gender and the roles that men and women play in everyday life. With more women in the workforce and more men becoming bigger influences in the home, old fashioned views about gender are changing. Not everyone is on board, but my generation is certainly more open to change in gender roles than my grandparents generation. Also more religions are coming in to the country, creating more fresh ideas and influences about everything, including gender roles.

Gender Role Comments - Sierra Armstrong

Gender Role Comments

Comment to Sam Stangl

Not all religions say that woman is the subordinate. In Christianity they are to be there for him, by his side. Not beneath him. I'm not sure what other religions say about women so, I don't think it's correct to say religion say's women are subordinate.

Comment to Taylor Britt

I also said that American only has two gender roles because it has always been that way. It makes since becuase it has just been solidified in our brain since we were born on what men and women do.

Gender Roles - Sierra Armstrong

Many religions such as Islam and Christianity have very set ideas of what gender does what. It says that woman was made from man's rib. Some people (who have been generalized as a whole religion from others) say that women are to serve man because she was made from him. This is not true, she was made from his side to be close to him. I think that American society provides for only two genders because, since early settlers men and women have had very different roles. Men hunted, protected, and provided or the family. Women have been home-makers, take care of children, and cooked. Since then we have grown up that way. Dad is out working and mom at home. I also think that we view gender roles fifferently because of the jobs and education that men and women have. A lot of men are in the military. Until recently, women were not in the armed forces to fight. They were there only to be nurses. They took care of the men. Also men used to be the ones who went off to college. They received the degree and then got a job. Women didn't attend college, so they stayed at home to be housewives. They took care of the house and the children. Those views are changing because more and more women are joining the military and attending colege. There are earnng the same degrees, and getting ths same jobes. They are becoming more equal to men and their jobs. But, there are still women who are housewives, so even though we are changing and progressing we still have our same ideas about gender roles.

Kinship

Many of your comments reminded me of an Arab saying,
"Me and my brothers against my cousins, me and my cousins against the world."

Family relationships tend to be much stronger in other societies than in ours. And, that has a lot to do with the economy of a society. In a society like ours, based on a market economy, we sell our labor for money that we use to buy what we need. Therefore, we tend to identify ourselves by what we do for a living. One of the first questions that we are asked when we meet people is, "What do you do?" Professional networks are important to our social organization, as are political organizations, recreational groups, etc. Our lives are not so dependent on our families. That doesn't mean that family is not important. It is. It's just not as important to our careers, in our decisions about who we marry, or to how we vote.

In societies based on kinship, people are asked questions like, "Who are your parents?" (Although, since living in NC I have been asked, "Who are your people?" We still see emphasis on kinship in rural areas and small towns in the US) As we saw in the last section on marriage, in societies where family is so important, marriages are mechanisms to tie families together. Families also provide the basis for economic and political relationships. Kin groups care for and educate the children, provide for transmission of property and social position. In non-commercial societies, kin groups are those whom individuals depend on for aid. In these societies there are mutual rights and obligations that are much more defined than in our society. The difference between our society and non-commercial societies that are kin-based, is that we can choose not to participate in those relationships with our family and be just fine. We can get what we need in other places. We can pay for services. We can develop family-like relationships with non-family members. We have options. In non-commercial societies where kin groups provide the basis for social organization, there are few, if any, options. You are defined by society primarily as part of a family. Without that family, you have no identity. Therefore, those rights and obligations take on greater importance than in our society.

This week we saw another story from the Arab world that is tied to this importance of family.  Muammar Gaddafi, former dictator of Libya, was found in his hometown, just like Saddam Hussein in Iraq.  These men went to the place where they knew people, their family, would not turn on them. 

In our culture, relationships with in-laws are good examples of an area where conflict may arise between kin and non-kin. Think back to the discussion on marriage and particularly the issue of arranged marriages. In societies where marriages tie families together, the relationship between the families is more important than the relationship between the spouses. That is why the decision is not left to the individual as to whom they will marry. What is at stake is bigger than the marriage itself. In our society, the relationship among the in-laws is not as important. The marriage is more important than the family relationships. Therefore, in many families there are difficult relationships with in-laws.

Gender Identity - Sam Stangl

There are certainly obvious religious reasons behind how our society defines gender and gender roles; it is religion that tells us that man is the leader and the necessary being, and woman is the subordinate and the child-producer. American society only provides for two gender roles because of our religions. Although there are probably thousands of religions in America today, maybe more, we tend to be most accepting of monotheistic ones, and that classifies man and woman as the only two gender roles that exist. It is only in other cultures and other religions that you find things like berdaches, or other cultural equivalents. These berdaches are men that serve a feminine role in their society. They cook, clean, and gather food, and it was said in one example that the can even be the wife and the sexual partner of another man. This is completely acceptable in their culture, because it is another gender that is decided for you by fate, or by the gods, or by anyone other than you.
Americans also view gender as man and woman because we have come to learn that being gay is not like being another gender, but rather "same-sex relations" contrary to "opposite-sex relations." This notion, described in the berdache example, is the literal translation that we see everything as one vs. its opposite or one in the same; never one, its opposite, and its "similar" as I could call it.
In the example about saving Muslim women, it is clear that their traditions have made the women dress and act the way they do. The religion and culture influence them to become who they are in life, and this is not something that we should try to "save" them from. We are treating their cultural tradition of wearing burqas as if it is an abomination because American men like to see their women significantly underdressed (for the most part, I'm being stereotypical). In the Nigerian example, the men prefer their women plump and well-fed, and that is how they decide that the woman is able to bear healthy children and will be a good wife. In America it is thin and petite that men prefer (again, for the most part, not totally) in women, and this creates the effect of seeing large and small women as two sub-gender roles of the "woman" gender role.
However, it seems as though our views on gender are changing, as we learn more about other cultures and other religions, and what is acceptable in other regions and societies. This is not to say that we are going to integrate these acceptances into our culture. But it is possible that a greater understanding of gender roles in other cultures is a positive influence on our American culture, and that cultures around the world coming to America and introducing their ideas about gender is going to contribute solidly to that influence.

Gender Roles - Taylor Britt

In modern society today gender and gender roles can be in be influenced by religion very easily. Mostly because of the original way that gender roles should be displayed. Western Judeo-Christians traditions have strict rules when it comes to the topic of gender roles and they are not afraid to in force the rules if needed. Like it says in the article "The Berdache Tradition" if the European descendants accepted something as normal, than anything different is considered abnormal. I think that in American society today we ave those same views of if something is different we see it as abnormal. American society only provides for two genders because that is how it has always been, that is what we were originally taught and normally we keep traditions the way that they are supposed to be. Man should act like man and woman should act like woman. I do believe that the views of gender are changing though. This reason could be because of the simple fact that it might be out with the old views and in with the new views of gender roles. The new ones can be more flexible and understanding such as giving woman the same jobs as the men do or vise versa. I think that the jobs in America today can be a contributing factor to the changing of gender role and those views are constantly changing everyday.