http://allegroweb.sectorlink.org/orball/ArtisticDir.html
The reading, X A Fabulous Child’s Story by Lois Gould,
illustrates the majority feeling society has on gender roles. In this reading, X is raised without any one
particular gender role, instead the parents decided to raise their child with
the expectations and norms that of a female and male. Those that were impacted
by X’s life found it important to know what gender X was. Society thought that
if X was a boy he should be playing with action figures, dressing down, and
showing interest in sports. As a girl, they believed she should be playing with
dolls, dressing up, and showing interest in cooking. However; being raised gender neutral, X shows
interest in all of the above things.
Unfortunately,
X, is a depiction of today’s society. We
focus the activities and interests people should take part in based on their
gender. Yes, I say we. You and I have both judged someone for doing something
we believed to be gender inappropriate. It may have been the time you were at
the beach and saw an oversized man wearing the revealing speedo that made you
cringe, because “a man shouldn’t wear something as revealing as a woman’s
bikini.” Or, it could have been that time when your girlfriend ate a little to
much China King and passed gas worse than you, and the only thing you could
think of was how manly that was. Males and females are constantly judged based on
the gender roles they display.
Let
me tell you about one of the times I was proven wrong for believing females
were incapable of taking part in a male careers. I was working for an up and
coming landscaping company that was always short on staff. One weekend my mom
offered to come help and I laughed. Yes I laughed at my own mother, needless to
say, it won’t happen again. I got to work and my boss said if we did not find
someone to fill in we are not going to get our work accomplished, so I called
my mom and hoped not to be embarrassed. Working only twenty minutes with my mom,
realized how wrong I was. She worked harder than a majority of the twenty-year-old
men on the grounds crew. Unfortunately when my boss had seen her working harder
than most of the men, he expected much more out of us for the rest of the day.
Women
and men prove every day that they are capable of excelling in opposite gender
roles. For example, Michelle Howard of the United States Navy was pinned her
fourth star last year, “making her the branches second-highest-ranking officer”
(Doodly). Many people don’t look at a woman and think that she is capable of
being in charge of men. It is a common feeling that men should have the
leadership position, even though it has been proven that people are more than
capable of excelling out of their respective gender role, such as Howard.
Bruce
Marks is an example of a man that can excel in taking on non-traditional gender
roles. Marks is an artistic director now, but in his youth he was a phenomenal
ballet dancer. Bruce Marks began his ballet career when he was just fourteen
years of age. Even though females are known for excelling in ballet, Marks has
been appointed to principle dancer for several different dance organizations. Marks is also “a founding member of
Dance/USA, a national service organization that represents professional dance
companies” (Orlando Ballet).
Women
and men are able to shy away from their typical gender roles and succeed, no
matter what they are succeeding at. All individuals should be able to do what
they what, no matter what the norm may be without worrying what society will
think of them. Everyone has taken part in gender discrimination at least once
in their lives, but once we realize people are happier doing what they enjoy
and not what is expected of them, we will live in a more enjoyable, less
judgmental society.
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