Gender Roles

After last week's discussion, I began questioning why we as a society have such a stigma against women being more masculine and not having a problem with men being more feminine. Why is it such a problem when girls can do something typically only associated as a man's job or trait? And on the other side, why isn't it a problem when guys take over the stereotypical women's work? Basically, the situation is the same in both: someone is upsetting what was the social norm. But why is it a much larger issue when women are the ones upsetting this norm. Finally, I came up with a possible reasoning. If a portion of all males act feminine, there would be enough masculine men that they still have power and are not in a great risk to lose that power. However, when women are masculine, they are taking a shot at that power, and men feel like they could lose it. They, in turn, would want to protect that power and do anything to maintain their status. Social status has been, and probably always will be very important to everyone in the society, and when that status begins changing, there will be resistance. It is constantly mentioned in the media with talks of the glass ceiling and how women are breaking through that barrier. Until people accept the fact that women can be in power and the world won't come crashing down, resistance will be evident in our daily lives and in the media.