Gender Roles

This week in class we discussed several readings, including the Simone De Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex”, Anne Waldman’s “Feminafesto”, and Shakespeare’s “Taming of The Shrew.” Beauvoir’s piece brings attention to the binary relationship between men and women. It talks about how a woman is incomplete without a man, and how essentially a man creates a woman; making women the “second sex.” Talking about this led to a class discussion about other binaries, including the “master/slave” relationship. The slave must come to consciousness that the master does not have all the power and is nothing without them. The master has to see the slave as his equal, because knowledge comes from both of them. Relating it back to the man/woman binary, Professor Wexler mentioned how the repressive apparatus is the very means of normalization. There was one line from “Feminafesto” which I particularly enjoyed: “I propose a utopian creative field where we are defined by our energy, not by gender.” I think this is a vital line because it shows the one thing that many feminists are striving for. Society has certain stereotypes for gender roles, and if anyone steps outside of those “boundaries,” it is almost as if a little red flag goes up. More often than not in the media, women are portrayed as being sexy, sensual beings and men are shown as being overtly masculine and strong. When society sees these images in the media, many of which are photo shopped, they strive to be like them because that is the example. We as a whole need to recognize that just because we are not like those images we see, doesn’t mean that anything is wrong with us.