While the world is quite familiar with gender roles, it shouldn’t be. There is no need for them, and they only add to the stereotypes created for both boys and girls. In fact, gender roles can end up dictating how most children are raised, and that is extremely unnecessary. Here are some reasons why gender roles do more harm than good.
Boys are expected to hide their emotions. It is understood that girls are the emotional ones and that boys are supposed to be stoic. This idea is one that is taught at an early age. It really shouldn’t be. Most of the time, boys who cry are called ‘sissies,’ among other names, and are mocked for showing their emotions. Some boys grow up swallowing their feelings because that’s what they were taught to do, and in doing so they might not properly learn how to deal with the emotions that they are feeling. This can lead to acts of violence and aggression, alcoholism, drug use, and more. Allowing boys to feel their emotions will cost the world nothing, but it will positively impact the lives of so many people.
Girls. on the other hand, are taught to express their emotions openly. However, this can lead to comments such as 'she's such a b****', or 'she's just on her period.' Those kinds of comments dismiss women's emotions as trivial things that don't need to be considered. Also, some women are taught to be submissive. Those women are taught to let men be the strong ones, and to not appear to be too aggressive. They are even being taught that their bodies are not their own and that someone can take advantage of them and get away virtually scot-free. Women need to stand up for themselves and their fellow women. They need to protect one another instead of being the weak, feeble creatures society wants them to be.
Most toys are gendered, and this can lead to a difference in socialization and interests. From an early age, a majority of girls are taught to play with dolls, bake using their Easy Bake oven, and more. On the other hand, a majority of boys are taught to play with cars, trucks, and Legos. The toys most girls play with either teach them how to care for other people and be homemakers or make them feel like they need to look pretty — aka Bratz dolls and other related toys. The toys most boys play with could end up making them interested in mechanics, construction, and similar subjects. From an early age, most children are raised to be more likely to join one career or another based on what gender they are, and that is not okay. Also, for the girls who want to play with trucks and cars and the boys who want to play with dolls, what’s the big deal? The girl could grow up to fix cars and/or other machines, and the boy could grow up to be a good father. There is nothing wrong with that. However, most of society doesn’t give them that fair chance.
Phrases like ‘man up’ and ‘you’re such a girl’ insult both genders while confining boys and girls to their specific gender roles. Telling someone to ‘man up’ implies that his masculinity isn’t intact. This begs the question — what is masculinity? If you look up masculinity on Dictionary.com under its root word, masculine, the second definition explains that masculinity is ‘having qualities traditionally ascribed to men, as strength and boldness.’ Therefore, if a man is weak, shy, or soft-spoken, that makes him less of a man. Masculinity can be very fragile, making men feel the need to prove their manliness to the world. Television commercials such as this Summer’s Eve ad, product labels, and more prove this to be true. Hyper-masculinity is not an uncommon practice in advertising or commonplace conversations. Masculinity can be so fragile, but men aren’t supposed to be weak. This makes no sense, and can cause major issues.
As far as the phrase ‘you’re such a girl’ is concerned, femininity is being brutally spit on. Calling someone a girl is meant to be an insult, meaning that the individual in question is weak, emotional, afraid of getting their hands dirty (figuratively or literally), and so on. The worst thing some boys can be called is a girl. That means that, subconsciously or not, those boys see girls as lesser beings. That causes a huge ripple effect. The boys can feel pressured by society to behave in a more ‘masculine’ fashion (aka they can become slaves to the gender roles assigned to males), and the girls can and most likely will feel terrible about themselves because feminine traits are deemed "less than".
I think gender roles have the potential to be very harmful, and I do not care for them one microscopic bit. In my personal opinion, society as a whole should do away with them and just let people be who they are. Instead of labeling things as masculine or feminine, things can just be things. I’ll end with an example (admittedly one that I got from She’s the Man). If your son has a nosebleed, you could hand him a tampon. Those things are super absorbent.
