Kinds of traditional gender roles definitions Essay
Kinds of traditional gender roles definitions, 488 words essay example
Essay Topic: gender roles, traditional, definitions
The surprising thing is that there is no connection whatsoever between beer and women so the question still remains why women are being used sexually to advertise beer.
Movies and music videos are also other media avenues through which women are objectified or sexually identified (Katz & Killbourne, 2004). In a very funny way sexual objectification is also facilitated by different kinds of criteria which are prescribed or created for the woman in that particular period. These criteria help create and shape the environment which facilitates sexual objectification of the woman. The first among these criteria is the definition of roles based on masculinity and femininity. Males have different features and so do females. These features help each of them to perform certain roles that come along with them. The features could also be ascribed towards certain attitudes which are exclusive to that gender only. For example males have beards, broad chests, mean faces and other strong features. Therefore naturally some of the roles traditionally assigned to the male gender include aggressiveness, rationality, objectivity, persistence, dominance among others (Bakan, 1966 Person and Bales, 1955). Women on the other hand are traditionally viewed as caring, nice, affable, emotional, passive, submissive and dependent (Worrel and Remer, 2003).
These kind of traditional gender roles definitions does not only exist at home but also at workplaces despite the fact that it is unnecessary. That is what Gulek (1985) referred to as gender role spillover. This type of spillover occurs when wome judge their sexual identity through their appearance or dress (Gutek and Morasch, 1982). Another factor that facilitates sexual objectification of women is the population variance between men and women. Due to the fact that men are more than women presently, men are more liable to perceive any relationship with a female as sex oriented (Henningsen, 2004). In an environment dominated by men, the euphoria of sex rather flows easier than it does in female dominated environment (Gutek, 1985). According to a report by Gutek et al.(1990) women are more likely to produce harassment reports due to their contact with men at workplaces. Gruber (1998) further supported this argument by stating that when females come into contact with men often, it is likely that incidents related to sexual violations such as rape, harassment or assaults would occur the more.
1.2.5. Pornography
The sexual portrayal of the female body has reached the extreme in pornography. Pornography in this contemporary age is based on the traditional dominance of a man and the submission of a woman to the act of sex with the awareness of being filmed. Ironically the shame involved in this act has been transformed to seem as if it was a normal act (Jensen, 1998). Radical feminists have described how pornography facilitates violence against women. The only one women perform in pornography is basically satisfying there male sexually and while doing this they are reformed to submit to any request by the male concerning how the wants the sex act to be performed.