Gender Roles
Written Paper #1
Rory Muskin
SOC101C15
Kristin Grant

Abstract

Assignment Instructions

After watching the films, write a response paper (4-5 paragraphs) based upon on the following questions:
1) Are the differences between boys and girls based upon biology, or are they just social constructions? Include educational material to support the position.
2) How could children learning specific roles for boys and girls be harmful to society? Include educational material to support the position.
3) Are the gender roles for boys and girls as limiting as in previous generations or are they beginning to change? Include educational material to support the position.
Submit your
I think that the dangers of only being taught these Stone Age values can be seen in the violence and destruction of today. From this years’ Sochi Olympics’, where Gay and Lesbians were afraid to attend because of the threats that Russian President Putin relayed prior to the start. To the problem our country is having in legalizing “same sex marriage”. Imagine a small boy proudly following his father. As he swaggers and sticks out his chest, he is doing everything he can to be like his father – to be a man. Chances are his father is not swaggering, but the boy is creating a persona that embodies what he is admiring in his adult male role model. The same is true of a small girl as she puts on her mother’s high-heeled shoes, smears makeup on her face and minces around the room. Chances are that when these children are grown they will not swagger and mince respectively, but their childhood performances contain elements that may well surface in their adult male and female behaviors (Eckert, Penelope and McConnell-Ginet, Sally, 1997).

The world is changing very quickly. A lot of the values that have been ingrained by religion are starting to change. Parents that were brought up to believe these values are having kids that are coming out as being gay, or transgendered, and are being excepted for the first time in