Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Will Be Girls

Rory Cuerdon

Media Studies

Lou Canelli

October 5, 2015

Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Will Be Girls

Gender is a concept that has existed since the early humans and almost since the beginning of life’s existence.  It has always been common knowledge that there are two different sexes of almost every species on earth.  As life has evolved, each iteration has taken on differences both physically and mentally.  These male and female differences have defined who we are and how we act in everyday life for as long as human existence.  In the modern world, this way of defining who we are based on the physical aspects we are born with is starting to become “old fashioned.”  Men and women are starting to take on values from the other sex and some people don’t even define themselves as male or female anymore.

Based on my own observations of the human race, generally men seem to have evolved to become physically larger and stronger than women, naturally putting them in the position of being “The Providers.”  Women, on the other hand, have obviously become the natural bearers of children.  I believe this has resulted in women being put in the position of caretaker of both the home and children. Through the media, these stereotypes have been drastically blown out of proportion.  Women are not only meant to take care of the home and children, they have become sexualized through the media turning into items for men to own.

The male stereotypes are greatly represented in many of America’s favorite movies.  The movie 300 features a group of 300 all male Spartan warriors who have to go off to war against the entire Persian army.  This movie is based off a true story, the difference is that everything is exaggerated.  All the warriors are portrayed as being some kind of invincible superhuman with all the perfect male qualities.  The spartan king, King Leonidas, is the manliest of them all with his dedication to protecting his country, his prowess in battle, and how much he fucks his sexy wife.  This is all entertaining to watch in a movie; however, historically, Spartan warriors all had homosexual relationships with each other.  Part of the reason they were such successful fighters was because they were fighting to protect each other as more than just brothers.  There was an even greater emotional connection between them.  There are many more movies besides 300 with similar themes of masculinity, warping the consumer’s perspective on how men are supposed to look and act.

The female stereotypes are also represented in the media through movies and tv shows.  There has been a recent drive in the media to try and break the trend of female stereotypes by trying to put these stereotypes out in the open, but in the process, it usually ends up doing the opposite.  The movie Mean Girls features a group very stereotypical teen girls called “the plastics.”  All these girls do is worry about how pretty they are, make fun of everyone else in the school, and act stupid to get guys to like them.  Even though this movie attempts to drive these hidden stereotypes out into the light, in the process, adolescent girls still watch the movie without realizing the real point of it.  As a result, these girls try to look and act like “the plastics,” reinforcing the problem that was trying to be resolved.

Gender stereotypes are not only influencing people through movies like 300 and Mean Girls.  These stereotypes begin to take hold on people starting from a very age.  Parents begin influencing these stereotypes as soon as kids there kids are born.  The whole concept of blue and pink starts to take place with parents painting their boy’s room blue and their girl’s room pink.  Once kids are old enough to start playing with toys, boys are given toy super heroes and girls are given dolls.  The super heros reflect the qualities that boys are supposed to adopt.  They are strong, violent, and protect other people.  Dolls influence girls to have certain body types and look a certain way.  The influence placed on children at a young age can define who they become in adult life.  When they are forced into a social category that they do not identify with such as gender, years of confusion usually follow.

In recent years, there has been more acceptance for people who do not identify as the gender that society has defined for them.  There is also more encouragement for people to identify not only as male and female, but instead as gender neutral, gender fluid, transgender, or something else completely that I am not even aware of yet.  This is a situation that will take a while for people to begin to both socially accept and understand, but progress is being made.  Gender and sex used to be defined the same way, but in the modern age, gender has taken on a completely different meaning.