By Amanda Knoll
From the time we start socializing, we see the differences between girls and boys....and also what is expected from each gender. If you're a boy you should be outside riding your bike, catching bugs, and getting dirty. If you're a girl you should be playing with barbies, having a tea party, and painting your nails. If you go against these norms, you're usually just being a carefree kid, but sometimes if you show too much interest in the other side, then you're labeled and judged and stereotyped pretty quickly.
I personally grew up doing both girly girl things and some tom-boy type things too. I took ballet class, but also fought my brother to mow the lawn barefooted on the weekends. I could dress up with bows in my hair, but loved to walk through the creek in our back yard looking for cray fish. I didn't ever really get judged, because I was young. Now a days I'm not out in the woods exploring because I'm older and I don't really get the chance to often, but I love when I date a guy and we go hiking or cliff jumping or fishing. It brings back that tom-boy little kid in me that I think balances out my being.
My last example would be my brother. He is a gay man, so whenever I converse with his friends now they kind of hint and prod that he probably was such a feminine little boy. But my brother was just the opposite. He constantly was outside doing outdoorsy little boy things, playing with snakes and animals, climbing rocks, burning stuff, etc. And he still does to this day.
So, as you can see, I believe a balance between feminine and masculine is ok and actually preferable. It shouldn't be frowned upon and honestly to me the extreme of either can just be kind of overwhelming. A manly man is nice, but every man needs that little hint of feminine softness to them; and vise versa with a woman needing a little touch of tough rugged spirit when its needed.
A lot of the stereotypes you can see just by watching tv for 5 or 10 minutes. There are beer commercials that only really show men drinking beer. Like in the commercial below: they keep saying "Mr....." this and that, only targeting men as the consumers of beer. Funny, because I know many many women including myself that enjoy beer. But beer is seen as something that mainly men drink. It just exemplifies how strong stereotypes of genders are in our society.
The stereotypes of gender roles are so wrong in my eyes. We all need a little bit of both sides of the spectrum to balance our lives, our experiences, our senses, and our wisdom in my belief. I think a lot of the gender stereotypes and norms that so many people live by and base a large majority of their judgements on just rests on the problem of too many closed minds.
From the time we start socializing, we see the differences between girls and boys....and also what is expected from each gender. If you're a boy you should be outside riding your bike, catching bugs, and getting dirty. If you're a girl you should be playing with barbies, having a tea party, and painting your nails. If you go against these norms, you're usually just being a carefree kid, but sometimes if you show too much interest in the other side, then you're labeled and judged and stereotyped pretty quickly.
I personally grew up doing both girly girl things and some tom-boy type things too. I took ballet class, but also fought my brother to mow the lawn barefooted on the weekends. I could dress up with bows in my hair, but loved to walk through the creek in our back yard looking for cray fish. I didn't ever really get judged, because I was young. Now a days I'm not out in the woods exploring because I'm older and I don't really get the chance to often, but I love when I date a guy and we go hiking or cliff jumping or fishing. It brings back that tom-boy little kid in me that I think balances out my being.
My last example would be my brother. He is a gay man, so whenever I converse with his friends now they kind of hint and prod that he probably was such a feminine little boy. But my brother was just the opposite. He constantly was outside doing outdoorsy little boy things, playing with snakes and animals, climbing rocks, burning stuff, etc. And he still does to this day.
So, as you can see, I believe a balance between feminine and masculine is ok and actually preferable. It shouldn't be frowned upon and honestly to me the extreme of either can just be kind of overwhelming. A manly man is nice, but every man needs that little hint of feminine softness to them; and vise versa with a woman needing a little touch of tough rugged spirit when its needed.
A lot of the stereotypes you can see just by watching tv for 5 or 10 minutes. There are beer commercials that only really show men drinking beer. Like in the commercial below: they keep saying "Mr....." this and that, only targeting men as the consumers of beer. Funny, because I know many many women including myself that enjoy beer. But beer is seen as something that mainly men drink. It just exemplifies how strong stereotypes of genders are in our society.
The stereotypes of gender roles are so wrong in my eyes. We all need a little bit of both sides of the spectrum to balance our lives, our experiences, our senses, and our wisdom in my belief. I think a lot of the gender stereotypes and norms that so many people live by and base a large majority of their judgements on just rests on the problem of too many closed minds.
