By Nicky "Opinion Educator" Service
The fact that gender roles/stereotypes still exist in our current society is absolutely baffling and we should get rid of them as fast as possible. But first, what is a gender role/stereotype?
Gender roles, or sex roles, are a set of ideas that society has created on how men and women should dress, what personalities they should have, and even the way they should speak. An example of a gender role is that men should be strong and aggressive and that women should be polite and nurturing. Ideas like these have been around for hundreds of years but other gender roles have been around since prehistoric times.
Gender stereotypes are similar to gender roles but gender stereotypes often spurt sexism by creating unfair treatment of one's gender. The four main kinds of gender stereotypes include personality traits, occupations, domestic behavior and physical appearance. What these gender roles and stereotypes do is put people down by forcing them into being boring, stereotypical people. But guess what, having a world where everybody is the same is soooo boring and uninspiring.
Gender roles are archaic at this point, this isn’t the 17th century where women have to wear corsets in order for their bodies to be the “desired shape”. These gender roles are actively hurting people, the idea that men can’t cry or express sensitive emotion is harmful. The idea that women can’t be independent, smart or assertive is harmful. So why do they still exist! This is the 21st century!
I’m not denying there haven’t been good steps in the right direction, but, sexism is still a huge problem in our country and gender stereotypes aren’t helping that issue. Quick exercise, when you think of a pilot, which gender comes to mind first? Which gender comes to mind for a flight attendant? What about a doctor? Or a nurse? I’m guessing the pilot was male, flight attendant was female, the doctor was male and the nurse was female. Don’t feel bad if I got it right because it’s most likely not your fault. Sources like television and the internet are at fault here. They further drill these stereotypes into our minds making it difficult to fight back.
So maybe in the next TV show or book, let's have a female doctor or male flight attendant. All in all, the steps taken towards removing gender roles from our lives have been good, but we need to continue to try even harder to get rid of them once and for all.