Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Gender Stereotypes, I Question Your Origins

Sometimes I wonder how gender stereotypes came to be. The more I interact with people, the more I see traits normally assumed to be dominant in one gender being a part of another. The trait I'm going to delve into in this blog is the emotional impact of relationships gone wrong, and how they affect or even in some cases prevent future relationships. This is commonly referred to as having "baggage".

We are taught, through tv shows and movies, that women are emotional, and allow the past to scar them, and often project insecurities that were cultivated during bad relationships onto current or prospective relationships, while men are supposed to allow everything to roll off of them like beads of water, and be the more logical and less emotional party when it comes to current/prospective relationships. Women are also perceived as weak, while men are supposed to be strong and brave.

Yet I find that every man-whore or commitment-phobic male has a story of a girl who fucked him over. I find that women also have horror stories, yet they dont let it hold them back from getting into new relationships after the fact. They seem to either learn from it and adjust their standards accordingly, or just jump back into dating, blindly (and possibly bravely) hoping for the best.

How is it that the old stereotypes still exist, and affect our current perception of gender roles, when actual examples of such stereotypes are the minority? Please feel free to comment with your thoughts.

No comments:

Post a Comment