Unchanging Roles in Society

One of the things that got to me from the readings was the assumption of who gets to play what part in the world. Who got to decide where the women’s sphere or men’s sphere should be and why? Looking at the people that surround me, I came to the notion that these roles in society are influenced from generation to generation. Coming from a patriarchal society, that’s the way it was construed. Men wanted to have the power and one of the ways to do so was to take over any form of independence that a woman could have, and so they locked them in the house and condemned them to work in things that if applied to the workforce, would be considered worthless. An interesting observation is that most of the children are predisposed this notion as they grow, depending on how their family plays the roles of men and women.

In my friend’s family, for example, the concept of machismo rules and so the father is the authority figure. Whenever there’s something to do that involves washing dishes and cooking, her mother orders her to serve her brother. Rare are the times that her brother actually serves his own plate. Because of this, her brother grew up with the notion that he should not do certain things around the house and has adopted his father’s machismo. When I perceived this, I found it a bit strange because I was not raised like this at all. Although my grandparents, uncles and aunts live their life like this without complaining, I find it hard to comply. Ever since I was small I saw both my parents share the work, in and out of the house. Both would have a job, take care of us, cook, and so that’s the way I think about the roles in society. I believe that they are shared and that no one has the right to decide on who gets to do what. No one of the sexes is better than the other, but sadly this unbalance is subliminally seen in the movies we watch as in Chicken Run when no one would pay attention to Ginger until a male figure, the rooster called the room to attention. And when a woman does happen to take the lead as in the marriage between the farmers, the woman is seen as evil in her ambition to profit more from her farm. And sadly that’s how it still is as long as generations keep on passing on their oppressive lifestyles to their children. Women will always be seen as a worthless dreamer as in Ginger’s case or independent and mean as in Ms. Tweedy’s case.