From day one, men and women have been socially constructed into gender roles. Society expects both genders to act, dress, and speak in society based on the assigned sex. These gender roles occur commonly within physical appearances, occupations, personalities, and domestic behaviors. For example, women must like pink, makeup, shopping, care-taking, and emotions while men must like blue, video games, sports, working, and being emotionless. Stereotypes about gender lead to unfair treatment, which is sexism. These stereotypical gender roles prevent both men and women from reaching their fullest potential, which prevents equality. Men and women are limited to things they want to accomplish for no concrete reason other than their different biological sex.
Both men and women feel restrained due to societal expectations of gender roles. It is so important to have men advocate against stereotypical gender roles as much as females advocate. In order to have a better chance to create equality, both genders need to become a united front with the same message and goals. I am not saying we absolutely need men to accomplish our goals, but it would help since many men are in more positions of authority and power. The power in numbers is incredible, especially with a celebrity platform. In order to change up my blog posts, I wanted to show some male perspectives on gender roles in order to see if they support females in our endeavors.
To start, Will Smith enforced the ending of stereotypical gender roles by allowing his daughter, Willow, to cut off all her hair. Will Smith said that "when you have a little girl, how can you teach her that you are in control of her body? If I teach her that I am in charge of whether or not she can touch her hair, she is going to replace me with some other man when she goes out in the world. She has got to have command of her body"
This male celebrity proclaiming how everyone, even females, have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies is powerful. It also shows women have the right to defy gender norms of having long hair to be beautiful in this society. Women will learn to love their personal appearance and know it is beautiful, however they choose to modify it. This teaches women that they have as much freedom and decision as men do to be completely themselves without oppression. Allowing a woman to express her true identity will allow her to be a more confident and happier version of herself. This will allow her to focus on accomplishing her goals and ultimately, to make positive changes in society.
Another example of a man advocating against gender roles is Ashton Kutcher. This father of two has complained about the lack of changing tables in the men's bathrooms for infants. Kutcher expressed his frustration on Facebook. “There are NEVER diaper changing stations in mens public restrooms. The first public men’s room that I go into that has one gets a free shout out on my FB page! #BeTheChange”
In order to break the stereotypes of certain gender roles, men and women must balance the role of taking care of children. By adding diaper changing stations to men's bathroom's, this shows society accepting stay-at-home dads or equally involved dads. It shows that the woman does not always have to take on the role of caretaker of the kids 24/7. This gives a relief to women in order for them to to better themselves and better society. A woman with a man who will take care of the child will allow the woman to accomplish more of their own individual goals, as men are always allowed to. The woman will be given more time to advance her career, personal hobbies, and self-care in general while also being a great mother with equal help from the father.
In order to change the stereotypes of gender, we must unapologetically be ourselves. If we are our authentic within our personality, occupation, domestic behavior, or physical appearance, society will improve for the better. If every person does what they want to do and are good at doing, this will lead to a happier, healthier, and more successful society. Men and women must also support one another in this endeavor for equality through accepting that gender roles are pointless.
-Marisa Ward
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