Gender battles
have existed throughout our history and will ultimately remain with us. It is not something that is just going to
evaporate and disappear. In order to
ease its negative effects that it can cast upon individuals, we must educate
and enlighten ourselves. We must learn
its roots, utilize our critical thinking skills, understand how it is used
against us and individually be strong within our own decision making processes
in order to overcome its effects. In
doing so it will enable us to rise above the negativity gender labels create
and eventually help to equal out the playing field.
To begin
this journey I had to start with looking at myself; was I raised with gender
biased directives? The answer is no, it
was difficult for me to understand firsthand.
I had to dig deeper and phoned my brother as I wanted to be sure my
memories were accurate. Both of us
concluded we were raised as “kids” simply put.
Although we were separated in years by 7 we each played with trains,
went fishing, caught worms, sold lemonade, had teas, learned to clean, cook, and
worked with tools etc. I would say we
were raised to be well rounded in all facets.
We were never told by our parents that we couldn’t do something based
upon being male or female. Entering the
outside world and the expectations of others we found is where we hit walls
along the way.
A couple of
key words referenced in “The Gender Book” by Mel Reiff Hill and Jay Mays that
stood out were “misconceptions” and “assumptions.” I thought this to be key in describing one’s
gender as it can only be described by the individual in question, one’s gender
is their personal view of themselves, not their biological sex. We do not have the right or knowledge to
instill what or how we believe a person is or should be. We do not live inside of them; when someone
does take on that usurped power it is merely that of control over another.
Gender roles
and the ways they have been perceived; are presently perceived; and its
perception in the future can be changed.
Let us go all the way back to the Bible where it speaks of “The Virtuous
Woman” and King Lemuel is having a discussion with his son. In line 3 he states to his son “Give not thy strength unto women,”
(The Bible, Proverb 31:3-31, King James Version) yet he later goes on to
describe to his son a woman as being virtuous, trust worthy, honorable, wise, and
strong. Could it be that these traits if
not belonging to a man were the cause for fear amongst men? Perhaps it is, when we as humans feel out of
control our desire is to control; power over another if necessary in order to
make ourselves feel strong and secure.
Jumping
forward to the early 1900s a man by the name of Eddie Bernays arose bringing
about the use of his uncle, Sigmund Freud’s, psychological theories to utilize propaganda,
later termed public relations. A far cry
from biblical days, however it was he who got women to begin to smoke
cigarettes, was that in the best interest of women or for more sales for the
companies? His theory was that the
masses could be controlled by feeding them information to make them believe they were in control of their
decisions and themselves. Bernays once
stated, “The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and
opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who
manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government
which is the true ruling power of our country…” (Durden, 20141) These psychological practices began to be
used all around us in advertisements, our news and incorporated into just about
all of our decision making endeavors which are subliminally encouraged and
controlled. The effects surround us and
have only multiplied.
This trickledown effect burdens us
all by the negative portrayal of women in video games as voiced by Anita
Sarkeesian, to how and what women should wear, makeup, diets, and how they
should strive to look. However, it
continues with men needing Viagra, dying their hair, getting hair transplants,
taking steroids, proving their masculinity to be part of the crowd that is
measured by how well they play violent video games and high scores; the lists
can go on. In order to gain control as
individuals, we must each measure and look deeper to where the root of the
problem lies. The “M” in Media has such
power over us all if we allow it and don’t question its validity, source and motive. Maybe we should create a new word Wo-Men to
create a unity of the two.
Works Cited
Durden, T. (20141, December 30). ZeroHedge.com.
Retrieved February 15, 2015, from Zero Hedge Website:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-12-30/edward-bernays-propaganda-theory-has-been-perfected
Per APA Bible passages only need to be cited in the text of
paper; no reference list citation is required.
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