As a biological female, in more ways than not, I tend to follow the expected roles of a traditional women. Associated with the role of a female are certain personality traits, behaviors, appearances, and occupations. Females are seens as gentle, emotional, nurturing, soft-spoken, cooperative, and dependent. Females are expected to be “pretty” by using makeup, skincare, and haircare products. Longer hair is seen as feminine, as well as, the color pink. In addition, women are expected to pursue careers as teachers, nurses, social workers, and secretaries because these careers required traits and characteristics which are associated with “female.” I view myself as a gentle person, but I am also a strong and relentless soccer and rugby player. …show more content…
I identify as white, Christian, heterosexual, educated, abled, and middle class. It is difficult to understand the unearned privilege of these identities because I have experienced privilege my entire life. Just as with being a female or a student, I learn the roles and expectations of each identity and strive to play that role well. With a middle class economic status, my priorities are expected to be my job and my finances, as well as career growth and professional development. Black males are more likely to experience racial profiling for crimes and brutality from law enforcement. My race protects me from these injustices. I can assume that my ability to get a job, rent an apartment, or secure a loan will not be denied because of my sexual …show more content…
I work in social services as a foster care licensing specialist and interact with children and families who are culturally diverse. My awareness of my identity enables me to make culturally responsive decisions. With various social identities comes different perspectives, values, and experiences. I am not color blind to race or its larger social implications, but I tend to categorize others less by race than gender. I have a multiracial extended family. My aunt is white and my uncle is black. Together they had three beautiful bi-racial daughters. Additionally, I have a cousin who is Chinese and was adopted at birth by her white, single mother. I dream of having a multiracial and multiethnic family myself and hope to celebrate race and ethnicity. However, I am more likely to notice the number of men and women in a room than differences in race. Perhaps this is due to my white privilege status versus my female oppressed status. Because white is considered the “norm,” I am less likely to identify the differences between races, and because male is considered the “norm,” I am more likely to recognize the disparities between gender. Moreover, there are times I identify with one identity over another. As a fan of the Women’s National Soccer team, I was proud to identify as an American female during the 2015 World Cup. I knew that being an American was a privilege that
Feminist: the person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. Sexual stereotypes are deeply imbedded into today’s society. Ideals of the gender roles are passed down from generation to generation, creating a gap between what is socially acceptable for a woman to do and what is expected of a man. One thousand years ago humans chose dominance by physical capability, simply because it was essential for our survival, but the world has evolved. One thousand years ago physical strength was the most important part of survival for human beings. Men in general are physically stronger therefore it made sense to have a man lead. The world humans live in has evolved and is no longer run by the physically entailed, but by the most intelligent or creative(Adichie). Though this world has evolved, the gender expectations and stereotypes have stayed the same. Sexual stereotypes in America limit men and women to abide with,by the expectations of masculinity and feminism, create a sense of shame for women, and create a gap in today’s job industry.
To be a person, requires intersectionality. Intersectionality is the idea that people do not function on only one aspect of their being, but instead, function on every aspect. Aspects that include race, gender, ability, etc. With this intersectionality comes innumerable categories that lie on the scale of privileged, oppressed, or somewhere in between. To be privileged is to have advantages that are not necessarily earned, and instead come with a specific, usually uncontrollable feature, such as race, gender, class, and ability. To be oppressed is to have disadvantages that are not earned, but instead come with the same uncontrollable categories as privilege. Even cis-gendered, heterosexual, white, men have aspects of their intersectionality that might not place them at the top of the privilege hierarchy. And it is in these complications where people start to place doubts on their own privileges. It is important to realize that it is nearly impossible to have privilege in every single way or oppression in every single way, yet, this is not an excuse to deny privileges. Even with some oppressions, some are still granted more advantages than others. To delve into this deeper, analyzing writings from established writers, such as Peggy McIntosh and Devon Carbado become necessary.
White (male) privilege comprises of having more access to resources, having normative assumptions of self-worth, and escaping consequences like being discriminated against just on the basis of one’s race (Neville, Spanierman, & Lewis, 2012). There are seven core components of White (male) privilege (Neville, Spanierman, & Lewis, 2012). The first core component is that While (male) privilege differentially benefits Whites on the basis of social group membership, including class, gender, and sexual orientation. Further, differentially benefits Whites, means that Whites benefits vary based on their social membership group. An example
I am a white woman living in the United States of America. Without any intent on my part I have automatically been given certain advantages based on the randomness of the color of my skin. Yes, I am aware that being a woman includes dealing with lower pay wages, body objectification, pressures to be beautiful, sexual harassment and so on and so forth. However, I will never be able to comprehend the struggle or challenges that face people of other races and ethnicities. I do not know what it is like to be watched in a store for fear I am going to shoplift. Or to be questioned about my loyalty to the country I was born and raised in because of the religion I grew up practicing. Unfortunately, those are just two of the many examples that
American society consists of many equal races, yet people believe that as a white American, I am more privileged than others. However, I have learned that race is not the only factor that determines my status or position in life. In addition, the concept of white privilege is not as prominent in younger generations. Despite the assumptions made by others about the privileges whites are given, there are circumstances where being white negatively impacts me.
Living in 21st century United States, being a much more liberal and inclusive environment than prior decades, gender “roles” and their normalities are being severely questioned and challenged. Americans have defined and established gender stereotypes that have become a critical part of how we look at gender roles and create biases about each gender. Stereotypes assume people who 'belong ' to a group will appear, behave, look, speak or sound like others from that group. The values, norms, practices, behaviors and traditions associated with the group are shared by all members of the group. For example, gay men are promiscuous, women are maternal and men don 't show emotions. Stereotypes are often dismissive, negative, and they are sometimes
I am a white, heterosexual, Christian female. In today’s society, there can be three issues with my cultural identity. As a white person today, there are many stigmas that are faced, along with many cultural biases. As a Christian, there are also major social biases that are brought forth regularly. In today’s world, many people choose to talk about white privilege; however, there are also many other forms of privilege that are considered too taboo to speak about in public. While I will not deny that there are “white privileges”, there is a legitimate case that there is also “black privilege”, “non-Christian privilege”, and even “Asian privilege”. With each of these cases, I have my own personal experience.
many as successful female artists as there are male in the rap genre. There is serious talent being exhibited with these young female rappers and I feel the public just refuse to give their time to even bother with these artists. For a young girl wanting to be a famous artist, it can be dream crushing to realize this is more of an impossible decision. A few female famous artists today can explain how this became a stereotype and made this an impossible career pathway.
A recent published magazine article describe a girls’ teenage years as filled with ravaging emotions. Continuously as they engage in online drama and sexual bullying ”Studies show that modern tennages self-confidence is low due to hurtful and harsh words.” (Spencer P.). Girls mainly focus on their outer beauty instead of inner beauty, meaning they care what everyone else's opinion of them is. Girls face socially awkward challenges with different chapters of development. Beauty standards can have a huge impact on modern society of girls. For instance beauty can take a toll on public bullying. Girls being socially outcasted by other females. Simply on the appearance of the female. Different altercations but can leave and or
During school years, I wasn't like "other girls". No I'm not going to tell you about how I was different or I fell in love with the popular kid and he didn't even know I existed. I was just the girl who never got into the phase of make up. I was never dressed up in cute dresses, or was remotely interested in "girly toys" (other than Polly Pockets, I mean who didn't love those adorable mini rubber barbies?!). I woke up five minutes before the bus would come to my stop, throw on my sweatshirt and take my hair out of my braid and run. I never worried about getting up an hour early to make sure I had my make up on point (not that there is anything wrong with that at all, it's just not what I did). I was always told by the girls I went to school with about how lucky I was to not have to wake up early to get ready for school. I always thought that was kind of weird though since they were all cute enough to do the same thing I did. I didn't think they needed to go through the trouble.
Women stereotypes have kept women from being successful in male dominated jobs. With women being housewives and care givers they do not fit the role of being a laborer. Gaining education and joining male dominated jobs have changed the trend of being house wives and care givers. Single mothers can have been working and being a care giver for many years now. Many skills that women have exceled at such as multitasking has helped women become successful in many fields of work. Regardless of the efforts women make to succeed in male dominated jobs they are passed up by other men for higher level jobs. With women starting to have interests in mathematics, mechanics, and other male dominated jobs they must conform into male dominated jobs. When women
In well-known fairy tales the males and females characters are often portrayed in the same light. The male characters are often described as the hero with strong masculine traits while the female characters are portrayed as the damsel in distress. Throughout the years fairytales have been casting the same stereotypes for their characters. In the story Beauty and the Beast the author de beaumont depiction of what an ideal woman is lays in Beauty. She is meant to embody the role of a feminine, humble caretaker, lover, and savior. The author depicts males as provider’s, however, it is clear that the men in the story are dependent on a positive female figure for life. Beauty’s disappearance threatens both her father and beast with death, symbolizing
Some of the strengths of this study are the various areas of a participant's perspective that were evaluated including their implicit association between careers and both genders and their likeliness to sexual harass (Weber et. al. 108). The study also kept the sexual harassment vignette in the same pose and with the same facial expression regardless of how she was dressed, conservatively or provocatively, to ensure that no other body language was attributing to the participants attitudes (109). The study also addressed participants internal factors that could not be measured, these include personality factors attributing to perceptions of masculinity and femininity as well as possible gender role conflict within the study.
To begin, I would like to examine the privilege that I inherited when I was born to a white mother and father. It is important, as a white person, to end the silence that so many white people engage in daily, regarding their privilege. It is not common to hear people speaking about the privilege they experience. This may be due to guilt. It may also be because most people wouldn’t want to willingly admit that all they were able to achieve, the stability they feel in their lives, and the pride they feel for the success that they created for themselves, in large part is due to how people in society perceive them as members of a privileged group. This isn’t to say that those who have achieved success have not earned it, but it must be said that skin color has made certain things easier for white people, and that it may have played a large role in their ability to achieve their potential. Of course I worked hard to be where I am today, but I
How women are perceived by others, and how women perceive themselves, impacts their leadership roles in the work place. Stereotypes and gender biases are themes women have been dealing with for centuries. How women are perceived by social medial and television have been influencing how they are treated by men, and how they view themselves when it comes to taking a leadership role in their organization. According to Omega Institute (2012), “The rapidly shifting landscape of new media and technology, including reality television and celebrity culture, continue to reinforce gender stereotypes” (p. 1). This leads to men still growing up viewing women as home makers versus bread winner. With more women entering leadership roles in the work place they lack the respect from men due to how these men have grown up to know the typical role of a man and woman. Men tend to feel belittled due to the gender stereotypes seen on television, and this leads to women struggling to succeed as a leader with the lack of support from their male counterparts. Lack of confidence with women in the workplace is also influenced and effected by how women are perceived in social media and television. According to Steele (2005), “Exposure to stereotypic commercials persuade women to avoid leadership roles” (p. 276). As young women grow up seeing the typical gender stereotypes they lack ambitions to break the mold and