Gender Bending at its Best..

Lately we have been talking about the roles gender play in society. Patriarchy is the blindly written rules of in essence male dominance. Reading through all the different articles and seeing how Patriarchy is viewed by different people I see that it is very clear that I was a prime example of a home where these rules were set into play. I myself was taught that femininity was very important aspects of a girl, at the same time don’t be ashamed to show your independence. As a young girl I was bought dolls, an easy bake oven, kitchen sets and other domestic toys to help show me the roles I should play when I became a woman. As I stated I was taught the importance of femininity but also how to stand on my own. There are very few times where I challenged the roles of gender. For a short period of time, I was brought up in a single parent home. I was used to seeing my mom take on the role of a father and mother. It made me realize that a woman is just as powerful and knowledge to make it without a man. When my stepdad started coming around there were things he felt that I should not do. One small incident that I can recall in particular is when he found I was a part of a softball team. He felt as if it was a sport where I would become hurt or injury could be caused. Not long after he found out, I tried out for the cheerleading squad, he found no threat to that. I found that oddly ironic because I can get hurt doing either. The idea of running around and acting masculine while playing softball was his only issue. He felt as if cheerleading was meant for girls. This situation is more sexist than anything but it just one of the few times I can remember gender roles playing apart in my life. 

Feminism.. .

Since I have started this class I have been asking my boyfriend his views on Feminism. Once the class got to talking I noticed there are not only very different views among women but there are absolutely differences of opinion when it comes to men and women. When I asked my boyfriend did he know what feminism was, he gave me a puzzling look. He had no clue where I was going with that question. I explained to him I was taking a Women’s Studies class and our past class meetings have focused on our take on feminism. After he had an understanding of the question I began asking him some of the questions we had to answer one Wednesday. I quickly learned that he was an example of what I may refer to as a “somewhat of a feminist”. During the conversation I realized that some of the views we had were very different. I was not at all disturbed by the disagreement. I found it interesting to find out that he never really understood the term feminism. I, myself am not totally certain on what the term truly means. Everyone seems to have their own standpoint of the word.  I think with any type of “ism” there will always be controversy simply because no two people think alike or perceive information the same. Take into account the famous “telephone game”. Where you sit in a circle, one person says a statement, it is then passed from person to person and finally the last person states what they heard. Most times when this game is played the initial statement does not make it to the end. Therefore I feel that information is always altered. Feminism to me is the movement of bringing people together and joining forces that there is not a sense of superiority.