Blog Post #2

Since this morning’s class, I’ve been thinking about society’s views, gender roles, and motherhood as well as the themes and stereotypes that go along with it.

I find it funny that in this typical male-dominated society that most men don’t feel guilty about just coming home, sitting on the couch, falling asleep, and not contributing to the cooking, cleaning etc.… Why?

Because, psychologically a man would feel less manly if they took on the stereotypical “mom role,” by being a stay at home dad. Now why is that? Because they aren’t working and receiving the role as the “money maker?” That’s what confuses me a little bit. Men shouldn’t feel less manly because they aren’t in control, because after all the definition of manly isn’t dominant!

Manly: Having or denoting those good qualities traditionally associated with men, such as courage and strength.

Womanly: befitting or characteristic of a woman especially a mature woman; womanly virtues of gentleness and compassion

Perhaps I just don’t like the definition of manly or womanly because both genders can have either of these characteristics (and most often do!). Either way, I believe that society takes these definitions to a whole new level on a scale that defines us before we can create our own guidelines in our lives. I noticed that a couple of people in the class used the phrase “a women’s role” or “the mother’s job.” We talked about how a woman doesn’t necessarily have to take care of the children, cook, clean etc.… that sometimes men do that but then it’s still mentioned as “women’s work.” I understand that people just assume to call it that (because of the way we’ve seen it for so long) but I just found it ironic because one of our points was that it’s not always the women/shouldn’t be the women always doing it. And because of this stereotype, women today do work outside of the home as well as inside of the home (they’d feel guilty if they didn’t contribute inside of the home).