Gender roles; don’t help anyone…
These pictures give us an inside look on the writing process of Joanne McQueen’s booklet on Men’s Liberation. These documents were found in the scrapbook made by Joanne McQueen, a historical collection that shares her story of her work with the Oxford NOW chapter. I chose to write about this picture first for one main reason, I wanted to highlight that feminists DO care about men! Feminists get a very bad rep bec
ause many people believe that all feminist fall under the category as radical and that we HATE men. This isn’t true, not all feminist act this way, a lot do but not all. I identify as a feminist and I want equality for all people, for all genders, and for every single being on this earth.When looking over the writing notes of Jo, something that kept popping up in my mind was how gender roles have such a negative effect on genders, in this case men.
I agree with the note that there are some many aspects that shape us into the gender that society wants to see us as. For instance, little boys are given certain toys that correspond stereotypically to men. Parents condition their children to fall into their socially created gender constructs. Children are taught from a young age about how to act based on how their parents act. When a little boy cries, the Dad is usually first to show up and say “boys don’t cry” or “stop crying and act like a man”. Men were not supposed to show their emotions, an emotional man was seen as less masculine. Especially in the past, children were always seeing the stereotypical roles of men and women. Women typically stayed at home and took care of the children while the men went off to work. Young boys were told at a very young age what goals were set in place to them and if they didn’t reach their goals they were seen as less of a man. Jo mentions some ideas about what men are afraid of one of them being “an independent woman”, I agree with this statement because strong women ARE a threat to men. They should be, because for some many years men and society have put some pressure on and attention to men dominating the work place and being superior to women. When a strong independent woman comes in and doesn’t need a man, a man’s masculinity takes a serious hit. What happens when a man’s masculinity is threatened, THEY PERFORM ALL OF THE STEREOTYPES THAT ARE ASSOCIATED WITH BEING A MAN. They mistreat women, they need to prove that they are on top and have the power; most importantly they feel the need to fill their gendered roles. Bad things happen when men have their masculinity threatened, women are usually the ones who get hurt.
Gender roles need to be eliminated, they aren’t helping anyone, young boys should be able to play with dolls without having their masculinity threatened. Men should be able to express their emotions, cry, smile, be happy, be in love, and express whatever emotion they feel!
Men, if A strong woman comes into your life and makes you question your masculinity, don’t let her. Respect her strength, but don’t put her down. If she takes your job, use that anger and become the best person you can be. She is no different than you and you are not any different than her, you are two humans fighting for the same job, she won this time. Yes she took the job, but she DID NOT take your masculinity.
Sunday, September 25, 2016