Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Reinforcing Gender...
A twenty six year old man was attacked outside his local McDonalds because he wore pink shoelaces. While dining at the restaurant with a friend, the two began to get verbally attacked. The verbal abuse soon escalated into a vicious attack. Two men proceeded to beat the victim while yelling anti- gay slurs, leaving the victim with two black eyes, and a cut on the nose (http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/wpix-gay-brutally-beaten-in-greenwich-village,0,1736566.story ) .
This unfortunate situation illustrates how strong the world puts an emphasis on gender. While reading the section regarding men and masculinity, the book stated how men feel the need to prove their manhood. It could be express through competitiveness, aggression, and toughness ( Marsiglia, Flavio Francisco., and Stephen Stanley Kulis. "Men and Masculinity." Diversity, Oppression, and Change: Culturally Grounded Social Work. Chicago: Lyceum, 2009. 146-47. Print.).
Gender is something that is created by a society. Being masculine requires men to not participate in any feminine activities; these concepts need to be demonstrated daily. Wearing pink shoelaces was seen as being inappropriate nor was it an acceptable cultural symbol and the offenders were determined to make the victim suffer for his action.
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This makes me very sad, I dont understand people who go out of their way to hurt others when they were doing nothing to them. Everyone has their own opinions about things and I think they are entilted to those opinions but once they become agressive or violent with their opinions that is when things are not ok. For this man who just wants to walk out of his house and feels comfortable with what he is wearing without having to worry about being attacked by someone else should not ever be an issue. This is something I would never think about and I am fortunate in this regard. Why cant everyone be this fortunate?
ReplyDeleteMelanie
SWK280
After spending four months in Mexico, the part of your blog that was really relevant to my experience here was when you noted “how strong the world puts an emphasis on gender” and “how men feel the need to prove their manhood. It could be express through competitiveness, aggression, and toughness.” While such emphasis on gender roles and “masculinity” clearly exists around the world, it has been especially apparent in Mexico in the form of “machismo”—the cultural emphasis on patriarchy and male dominance. Machismo here is evident in family and gender roles, in which women are traditionally expected to marry, have children, and take care of the household. Moreover, hundreds of women are killed throughout the country—but especially in Ciudad Juarez—in hate crime killings known as “femicide,” in which women are targeted simply for being women and cases are rarely pursued or prosecuted by authorities.
ReplyDeleteWhitney Traut
I completley agree with your statement that gender is created by society. Society as a whole drew the lines for gender differences from the dawn of humanity. Man had their roles laid out as did woman from the beginning. Woman were seen as weak and caretakers as they were the mothers and didnt aquire the physical stength as men to be the hunter and gatherers. These stereotypes grew into what we know today as, "Woman are physically weak and can't do what men can." "Men don't cry." etc. The problem with these stereotypes and labels is that there is no room to bend the lines and step outside of that predetermined box that has been layed out. So when a man wears pink shoelaces, it draws attention and shoots alarms throughout minds saying, "Wait a minute, that is not right, somethings wrong." When in all reality, it shouldn't be wrong, it shouldnt matter what someone wears, or who they love, or what gender they are. The only thing that should matter is that they indeed are humans too and should be treated the same as everyone else. No one should be able to put rules on someones idenity, that is just wrong, yet it is what our society is all about. It is disgusting that people will go to such lengths as to harm another just because they dont UNDERSTAND what they see, phobia means fear. It is misunderstood or not understood at all so people act with violence. I can only hope that one day, our society will see these wrong doings and realize that you can't put walls around love, or who someone is. That everyone should be free to be who they are (unless it means being violent, harmfull etc.) No one should have to live in fear of getting beat up because of showing the world who they are. One day, I hope for everyone to be treated like they should be treated.
ReplyDeleteKelsey Thompson swk 280
This is sad but its reality. We as a society have created labels and boxes and when someone doesn't fit into
ReplyDeletethe box that they were assigned people get uncomfortable and some get mad like the attackers in this story.
As a society we need to begin to realize that individuals are unique. Our world is too beautifully diverse to demand
that we all stay in our boxes and play the roles that we were assigned. Its crazy how some people feel so strongly about
these boxes that they begin to feel threatened when someone else is bold and brave enough to step out of their own. It takes
a lot of work and bravery to stand up to society and say, "no, I will not allow you to choose my identity and define me" people who do this
should be thanked not attacked.
Zora Rabb