Gender Roles

So lately in my sociology class all we've been doing is talking about gender roles in society. It's pretty obvious that my teacher is a feminist because practically every class period she brings up how women are still paid less than men for the same job. Anyways, we watched the following part of a documentary in class (start at around 1:18)

Commence discussion! Is it just me or are they going WAY overboard in analyzing Disney movies? It seems to me like regardless of how Disney portrays their characters, gender roles are still going to be instilled in children. Any movie where men or women aren't acting like they "should" be, it's usually in the genre of comedy. Simply living in society makes us learn gender roles so although these movies might reinforce them it's not like they are the reason that children learn how they are supposed to act. I think what Disney teaches is probably actually a good thing. Don't get me wrong, I hate gender stereotypes and think they're stupid, but if you don't act within those confines you're practically rejected from society. It's not like we can really do anything about gender roles; even though they've slightly changed over time we can't completely transform them. Women will always be the typical one who would be the stay-at-home parent and men will always be the typical one to be sitting on the couch watching football.

A young Tina Fey

In my opinion we need gender roles to an extent. And it's not like we can't break out of these roles because we can, it's just not generally accepted by society. I feel that gender roles help guide our behaviors, I think we'd be lost without at least some inkling of how we should act in society. People like feminists really overemphasize women being 'mistreated', men have certain images they have to maintain too. In some ways it's harder to be a man than a woman, and vice versa.

Although it's true that often young girls act like and look up to princesses who are portrayed in Disney movies, oftentimes they are praised for this behavior. This made me think of Halloween which happens to be just around the corner which then led me to costume choices for children. You won't really see a girl dressed as Batman or a superhero and you won't see a guy dressed up as a princess. That's just not how it works. When a kid follows the gender role they are 'supposed' to, they're rewarded for it. It's never going to change so people need to just deal with it.

And I'm sorry Tina but that hair style would totally be a dealbreaker (to use your own term against your past self)