By: Jade
Male or female, for most of the
general population this is an easy question filled out on many forms. What if you identified yourself as neither
but were forced to pick. In a society
that is changing minute by minute we still seem to have this idea that we must pigeon-holed
ourselves into gender roles. Fifty years
ago a man predominantly went to work, while a woman reared children and took
care of the house. Even today it seems
the when a baby girl is born a majority of people want to buy her something pink,
and frilly.
Today there
are more women attaining higher education degrees than ever was before. Women are accepted in nearly every aspect of
the professional world. In a world that
tells children they can grow up to be anything, society still expects a boy to
play baseball over ballet.
Recently Facebook is telling their
consumer define themselves with 50 plus gender options. Users now have the choice to tell the Facebook
world who they truly are. Is it time for the academic world to offer a mandatory
class on the ever changing gender roles of today’s society? Perhaps.
What one does not know tends to breed fear, and intolerance. A class on gender roles could open the minds
of the collegiate attendee. A class
where participants can discuss what they think is changing in society, and what
is not. Opinions on what is expected for
individuals in this present society could be discussed as well.
Currently most intuitions across the United States offer
women studies and/or gender roles classes.
At the very least gender roles are featured in certain curriculum. Understanding one another as who we define
ourselves as, seems like a positive message to spread to impressionable college
student. Ellen page recently came out at
the Human Rights Campaign’s Time to Thrive conference. During her speech she stated “the simple fact
that this world would be a whole lot better if we just made an effort to be
less horrible to one another.” I couldn’t
agree with her more.
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