Gender Roles in My Life

It is interesting to think that growing up we are just socialized to like certain things without even realizing it. Such as, girls loving the color pink and playing with Barbie’s and dolls, and boys more into the color blue and playing with play toys and Legos. When a child is born based on their gender we immediately buy them things of certain colors and toys that are gender affiliated. As the child gets older it keeps getting gifts that are more prone to their gender which shows how much people around us really affect us growing up and socialize it.

            When I started thinking about this I realized how much it has impacted my life too. Growing up my mother would always dress my sisters and I into dresses and we would always look perfect with my brothers they would just be wearing basketball shorts not dressed as perfectly as we are. I realized my culture plays a huge rule in how gender roles occur. Such as women are always supposed to be prim and proper while men portray a manlier role. Culture wise I realized a huge difference between gender roles within females and males. Growing up I was never allowed to have any guys over my house or even allowed to hang out with guys. I wasn’t even allowed to text guys. Now that I think about it I believe that plays a huge role in why I am still single. I am 21 and my younger brothers are ages 14 and 11, they bring their friends over all the time girls and guys.  I don’t really care that they are allowed to but it is so interesting to see how different they are being treated. If I had ever brought a guy to my house there would be a crime scene. I think it is interesting to realize that because it shows the difference in the roles that are being taken and how some things aren’t as serious for different genders.

            Another gender role that is very common in my culture is the common misconception that women are supposed to be the home makers and men should be the bread winners. This I see within my own family because my mother is a stay at home mom all she does is really take care of my siblings and I and my father is the one person that works and feeds us. I grew up kind of wanting to play the same role as my mom that was all I knew. All my aunts are stay at home mom and uncles also play the role as the breadwinners. I grew up learning this was the right thing until I came to college. I had to really think about my lifestyle and if I really wanted to stay and follow my mom’s footsteps or step out and do something different. The great thing is I chose to explore what I would like to do and whether I would be comfortable being on my own and being a breadwinner for myself. I am happy with my choice, I believe that growing up with huge gender roles it helped me choose what I like and what I didn’t like. The greatest thing is that my family accepts these social changes and we all grow through time.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wander-woman/201012/what-does-it-mean-be-feminine

http://www.fsdinternational.org/country/india/weissues