Paper #2 Rough Draft

Dear Macho Women and Femme Men,

            In this letter I do not hope to solve any problems or to give you any answers, I want to provoke thought, if anything, so that you can discover the problems and find your own answers to them.

            Being shunned from society hurts, it can leave feelings of being alone and confused, or even frightened, unable to tell where you belong or who will accept you for who you are. People who see themselves as 'normal' people may use words like 'different', 'weird', 'trouble', or 'gay' when they talk about people who go against their ways of normality. One thing we have learned from generations and generations of history is that people have a fear of things that are 'different', today's generation has a fear of people who go against what is considered 'normal' for genders, also known as gender roles. Gender roles of men shown as strong, brave, and dangerous heroes of masculinity and women characterized as submissive, caring, and gentle things of femininity; these ideas of gender roles are forced onto us leaving us with a perception of what the standard man and woman is, what is 'normal' to society. However, imagine if the standards were to be rewritten putting the gender roles in society on the opposite sex, changing it so that men the ones constantly perused by women and women are raised to not show the weakness in their emotions. Even more drastic yet, imagine that gender roles were eliminated and had no foothold in people's minds, we may naturally gravitate towards our old habits because it is in our biology, or we could reshape the gender roles that are placed on men and women into something different then society has made them today. Is it possible to live without gender roles in society?

A woman goes to a high fashion retailer to look at the latest fashions, she works for a important clothing magazine that is always up-to-date with the trends so her style is always under surveillance. She sees so many cute things that she cannot make up her mind, until she decides to buy them all to fill up some of that empty space in her closet.

A man goes to a high fashion retailer to look at the latest fashions, he works for a important clothing magazine that is always up-to-date with the trends so his style is always under surveillance. He sees so many cute things that he cannot make up his mind, until he decides to buy them all to fill up some of that empty space in his closet.

            Take some time to think about what is different about these two segments, really think about what each sentence means for the woman and man. Do not look at them as you yourself would judge them, but from the position of someone likely to find issue with the difference, someone who is held by the ideals of gender roles. Several things could be marked as being feminine qualities such as; working in the fashion industry, being conscious of clothing style, describing clothes you want to wear as 'cute', indecisiveness with decisions, compulsive buying, and even having enough clothes to fill-up your closet. A woman can do all of these things and not be questioned or feared for any reason, but when a man does them it is unnatural and to some even sickening. There is such a large displacement between societies' image of the ideal man and this man, he is so far from 'normal' that he is feared because of his unique differences and is shunned from society. The same could be said for a woman who has qualities normally reserved for a man.

A man sprints down the street from his house so his family cannot see him cry, he goes down a dark alley and finds an abandoned 67' Chrysler. He starts to beat the car with whatever he can find, not even noticing the deep cuts forming on his hands.

A woman sprints down the street from her house so her family cannot see her cry, she goes down a dark alley and finds an abandoned 67' Chrysler. She starts to beat the car with whatever she can find, not even taking noticing of the deep cuts forming on her hands.

A person who looks at this with strict belief in the gender roles in society would take notice that the woman is physically exerting herself, running away from her emotions, is not scared of danger, knows something about cars, she releases her anger in physical form, and is unphased by the pain in her hands. Qualities that are typical in a boy and not quite so typical in girls, this difference leads to society into feeling unrelated and distant from the single person justifying the person's exile from society. These characteristics are scary coming from a boy, but from a girl it seems even more drastic. She is a girl, most would perceive on site that she is happy, safe, and unthreatening, but when she acts out in anger in such ways she is looked at more critically then the boy because it is expected from the boy, not the girl.

            Women have made leaps and strides in equality, fighting uphill against the gender roles that are placed on them as women. This has given women a much stronger sense of pride in recent years, allowing them to have the courage to break several of the barriers that were used to keep woman in check back in the day. "*" Most women today would say that their sex is not a hindrance to them and they can do anything a man can do.

             This is not the same for men, man has not made strides for equality because most men are content with the position they hold. Leaving them to the mercy of the brutal standards such as "big boys don't cry" and "take it like a man" which are forced onto men at a young age. Leaving boys from a very young age to be very critical of the way they act and self conscious of the way they are perceived by others. They are unable to do several things that a woman can do because of the way they are raise to be self conscious of themselves doing anything feminine.

            The purpose of the gender roles is unclear, it has been for several years a way to keep people in check, particularly women and homosexuals. It has also been fundamentals that we raise our children on, giving them guidelines they will come to see as the way the world works. They have been seen as both attractive qualities that bring people together in love and irregularities to be feared and avoided. These roles do slightly adapt to the times, but I think this is not a problem of adapting to the situation we have, but a restructuring of the system for situations that are to come. We need to reevaluate what is true within these gender roles and what is opinion.  

Annotated Bibliography #2

Works Cited

Connolly, Paul. Racism, Gender Identities And Young Children : Social Relations In A Multi-     Ethnic, Inner-City Primary School. Routledge, 2002. EBSCOhost eBook Collection.   Web. 13 Nov. 2012.

In this book they outline several situations that might arise in a multi-cultural school, they talk about different students and the dynamic situations that they may come to face. It is an interesting way to write, as well as a great way to get a view from many different perspectives. The school system is an understudied frontier of where the melting pot of American society really comes together. Looking at the conflicts that arise from these smaller systems might be able to tell us what it would entail on a global level.  

Jordan-Young, Rebecca M. Brainstorm: The Flaws in the Science of Sex Differences.       Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. 2010. Print

Jordan- Young has made leaps and bounds in this field, after intense research and rigorous analysis of others and her own work. She is paving the way to the realization the there is in fact scientific results pointing towards proof that people can be born gay and born straight. There is biological facts that lead to several characteristics of men and women, and what makes them that way. So does this prove or disprove the possibility of ambiguity in a relationship? What hormones would need to be changed to reverse the gender roles.

Kuzminyh, A. A., and S. N. Enikolopov. "Prevailing Perceptions Of Masculine And Feminine      Aggression" Psychological Science & Education 5 (2011): 70-80. Academic Search        Complete. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.

This has a lot of statistical facts, I will look at the effects of these statistics if they were to be true for the opposite gender. It will give me a solid base to lay out the rest of my paper on, I need to understand in detail how the gender roles work now before I am able to accurately predict how they would change in a world that would be so drastically different. This will give readers more belief that I actually know what I am talking about and won't be distracted by unsurity.

Stets, Jan E. and Peter J. Burke "Femininity/Masculinity" Washington State University.     Department of Sociology. Web. 13 Nov. 2012.

This is a study on the topic of femininity and masculinity completed by very knowledgeable people in the Sociology Department of WSU. They explore the topic in depth with several of there own great points that give the topic direction. They are not looking at the topic in the same way i am, but in several ways that is better because I will be able to get a solid look at the situation from another perspective. I can use some of their conclusions and theories to help build my own of the world where the gender roles are reversed.

Paper #2 Proposal

Title ~ Macho Women and Femme Men

Topic ~  Have the differences between men's and women's personalities been so different that it has formed the society we live in today, or is it the society that we live in that has made the personalities of men and women different? If we were to 'restart' the gender roles in society, would gravitate towards the old habits, or could we reshape the gender roles that are placed on men and women, or possibly get rid of gender roles all together?

Analysis ~ Exploration of the complete reversal of gender roles, if a man were to be the ones constantly perused by women and if women were raised to not show the weakness in their emotions. Would it be a simple flip-flop for the two genders, or do some characteristics only occur in a man or woman? Is dominance a man's role naturally, is submission the natural state for a woman? Are both attitudes needed to make a functional pair, or is any personality (and gender) capable of falling in love with another?

Exigence ~ I have an vision of people loving people. A person is capable of loving whoever they fall in love, unrestrained from the gender roles, society norms and the notion that straight men only date straight women or even that gay men only date gay men.

Intended Audience ~ Anyone capable of showing love and compassion.

Main Evidence ~

            Pathos ~ I will use the reversal of gender roles to get people to think about what it truly means to be a man or a woman. The point is not to get them to agree, it is to get them to think of the possibilities and how were are restrained from them. They will be more able to define the structures they are bound by, and will be forced to think critically about themselves and how they feel about certain roles they have been forced into, whether consciously or subconsciously. Will also compare to real life situations that I have personally seen, mostly in the gay community, where someone went against the suggested gender roles and what the effect of it was.

            Logos ~ I will use facts from gender studies found online to have something to compare the role reversals too. I will use biological facts that show a real difference between men and women as well as what is observed in the animal kingdom between animals who are not persuaded by advertisement or human gender roles.

            Ethos ~ I will give my perspective on the situation as someone who defines my sexuality as Ambiguous. So I will explain the way I look at people, how I perceive them to be, who I am attracted to and why I am attracted to them. I will explain the technical and emotional aspects of being Ambiguous and what would mean for society if it was practiced globally.

RA #3 Kimmel

Title: "Bros Before Hos"

Author:  Michael Kimmel

Date: 1998

Topic: Men and the rules that boys feel they have to monitoring how they act, talk, move, and think to be as least feminine as possible in order to be perceived as a man in society today by other men.

Analysis

                In Michael Kimmel's writing titled "Bros Before Hos" he talks about the issues that boys in today's society face, and the expectations many of them feel they need to live up to. Kimmel explains how "The Boy Code leaves these boys disconnected from a wide range of emotions and prohibited from sharing those feelings with others" 616. Men are put into this thing mold when they're born, as a man they are perceived by society to be the masculine, dominant man that society sees most real men as. Kimmel  elaborates when he says "The face that you not show to the world insist that everything is under control, that there's nothing to be concerned about" 609. Men must constantly be in check of all of their actions and thoughts so that have the approval of other men.

                One of the worst fears for a man in today's society is to be perceived as gay, to be perceived as gay is the same to some men as having no masculinity to them at all. They have been trained by generations of bigotry that shines through in today's culture, everything can be compared to being gay. Kimmel  puts it into terms by telling us " 'That's so gay'. It said about anything and everything dash they're closed, there book, the music or TV shows they like, or the sports figure they admire. 'That's so gay' as become a free loading put dash down, meaning bad, done, stupid, wrong. It's the generic bad thing" 612. The word has been so over used and said to mean so many different things, I think that it now even goes beyond the gay community. I see several people saying gay has two definitions, one for the slang term and the other meaning gay people, but this is not a significant impact to the younger people who fear saying the truth about their sexuality because of all the bad things they here. I wish we could take back the definition of the word gay in today's culture and at least make the slang word definition conceptually correct, the word gay should be used to call something gay if the object or action is in some way perceived as homosexual. Some would say that is just as bad, but in my opinion the actual definition of gay is better than it meaning stupid.

so what would that mean for a gay man in study today, surely not all gay men are depicted as bad wrong or stupid like how gay is so commonly used in today society. As a gay man I do not even I feel a as important quality in a man, there are many other characteristics in actions that make a boy turn into a man. A man has responsibilities, has people he needs to love, has drive, and direction for himself; masculine men are able to accomplish this, so is a regular man, or even a feminine gay man. I think it should be thought of mare as when a child becomes an adult, the two sexes should not have separate standards for when they can be seen by society as adults

RA #2 Morgan

Title: From Fly Girls to Bitches and Hos

Author: Joan Morgan

Date: 2008

Topic:  Author Joan Morgan talks about her life as a Black woman dealing with Black and feminist issues and how women are affected by the perception of given to them by hip-hop in today's culture.

Analysis:

Joan Morgan talk about her opinion as a black feminist, and how she has come to interpret the attitude and the hurtful words that come along with it  hip-hop culture in today's world. Morgan fears that supporting a genre of music that disrespect women so constantly is unfeminist in itself. So the problem for Morgan comes from her love and support of the hip hop music, and the connotation that it is the same as okaying what the artist have said about women. Morgan offers a solution, "(Sistas) gotta continue to give up the love but from a distance that's safe. Emotional distance is a great enabler of unconditional love and support because it allows us to recognize that the attack, "the bitch, ho" bullshit  isn't personal but part of the illness." The illness they have being a depression that they have because of the molds they were put into as a child and the inability to thrive in this world.

all of the harsh words an insult a rocker says I his artistic expression, is how he truly feels, but is that really a respectable and healthy way to act? Morgan elaborate when brothers can talk though casually about killing each other and then reveal that they have no expectations to see their 21st birthday, that is straight up depression masquerading as much was it 603. I agree completely these men who have no desire to live life are lost within their own sorrow and we have no way to get out of this in this society that we live in.

Morgan tries to give us her perspective on the situation which is very dynamic from her position, she explains that "(Her) feminism places the welfare of black women and the black community on its list of priorities. It also maintains that black-on-black love is essential to the survival of both" 602. Now if a white man were to be saying something of this caliber her would be seen as an extremist, but for Morgan it does not come across so harshly. I could see how black- on-black love is need to keep the culture of the black communities thriving, but it is not something that can be forced on to people it just has to take its course. Morgan has a very interesting way to look at the situation and has opinions and information that could help navigate through the situation if the reader is looking for help in this area. The idea that men who act tough talking about killing and how their not scared to die, is actually depression disguised as machismo. By far the most crucial point in her paper, and the way that we need to look at the situation if we ever hope to help solve the problems that are there.