What If: Gender Roles

Recently in class, we've been discussing gender roles and their effects in the book Orlando. While discussing their effects in Orlando, we also began to discuss how gender roles effect our society today.

We tend to think that, compared to the time before feminism and women's rights arose, our society treats males and females pretty equally. And I guess that's true, seeing how women nowadays are allowed to work, and the majority of working women have gone to college and received a degree. But what we seem to ignore when it comes to equality between the genders is the stereotype that each gender typically takes on. These stereotypes aren't usually questioned, because they've become so common that we've learned to accept them and move on with our lives. But these stereotypes are still limiting what each gender is socially "allowed" to do.

Women are supposed to be nurturing, pretty damsels in distress. Men are supposed to be big, successful tough guys. While, of course, there are exceptions to any stereotype, most men and women in our society tend to follow these gender roles, at least to some degree. But during our discussion, I began to wonder: What if these gender roles didn't exist? What if macho men could freely have a passion for ballet? What if nurturing women could play football and obsess over their cars?

And the more I thought about it, the more questions came to my mind. How much would really change in a society without gender roles? People would be more likely to fulfill their potential without worrying about whether it would be perceived as the"right" thing to do as a man or a woman. But, would people feel lost or confused without a pre-established role to follow? Could it be that gender roles are just a part of human nature, and our society would eventually just fall back into the way that things are now? Are gender roles really so bad? In truth, it's hard to assess whether they are good or bad, since they do seem to be based on human nature. After all, since the beginning of time, men have been hunters and women have stayed home and raised the children. It's really a fact of life. So by questioning a human's ability to break through a gender role, we're really questioning the entire foundation of society.  And while I could "man up" and wrestle with that subject, I'll just let the boys take care of it. Maybe I'm better off with a pint of ice cream watching The Notebook.