V’K GENDER ROLES AND GENDER TRAITS ‘

Masculinity and Femininity

What is masculine? What is feminine? Not too long ago, the answers would have seemed quite obvious: men naturally have masculine traits, meaning they are strong, stable, ag­gressive, competitive, self-reliant, and emotionally undemonstrative; women are natu­rally feminine, meaning they are intuitive, loving, nurturing, emotionally expressive, and gentle. Even today, many would agree that such traits describe the differences be­tween the sexes. These gender stereotypes, however, are becoming less acceptable as our culture changes.

Masculinity and femininity refer to the ideal cluster of traits that society attributes to each gender. Most societies have cultural heroes and heroines who are supposed to embody the traits of masculinity and femininity and serve as models for socializing youths into their gender roles. In some societies, these models are provided by gods and goddesses, religious leaders, warriors, or mythical figures. In modern American society, entertainers and sports figures serve the purpose of providing gender models of behavior. For example, Halle Berry and Brad Pitt both embody many of the stereotypic feminine and masculine traits we hold today.

Some studies have documented less gender role stereotyping in African American than Caucasian populations. This is probably due to the fact that African Americans are less sex-role restricted than Euro-American groups and believe that they possess both masculine and feminine traits (Dade & Sloan, 2000). In fact, African Americans often view others through a lens of age and competency before gender. There are also some ge­ographic differences in sex-role expectations. In the United States, the South has more traditional sex-role expectations than the North does (Suitor & Carter, 1999).

Even so, models of masculinity and femininity are changing rapidly in modern American society. It’s not uncommon today to see women police officers directing traf­fic or women CEOs in the boardroom, nor is it uncommon to find stay-at-home dads at the park with kids or men librarians at the public library shelving books. Avril Lavigne wears combat boots and neckties, and many men today wear two earrings and keep their hair long.

But gender role change can also result in confusion, fear, and even hostility in soci­ety. Gender roles exist, in part, because they allow comfortable interaction between the sexes. If you know exactly how you are supposed to behave and what personality traits you are supposed to assume in relation to the other sex, interactions between the sexes go more smoothly. When things change, determining correct behaviors becomes more difficult.

Question: I’ve always wondered why so many men are into acting tough. It seems that the majority of women want a guy who is tough and they don’t give the nice guys a chance. Guys on the other hand, tend to look for hot girls instead of thinking about how nice or intelli­gent the girls are. Why is this?

Men and women always seem to wonder why people of the other sex behave the way they do. Yet society itself supports those kinds of behaviors. Is it re­ally any surprise that men often seem to pursue appearance over substance in women when advertising, television, and women’s and men’s magazines all emphasize women’s appearance? Is it surprising conversely, that some women pursue the "tough guys" when society teaches them to admire male power?

Women have been found to value many qualities in their partners, and sometimes it depends on the relationship. For example, women are more likely to rate "niceness" as an important quality for guys with whom they are considering having long-term relation­ships (Urbaniak & Kilmann, 2003). In the end, it is society that determines the way we view gender relationships, and each of us is responsible to some degree for continuing those attitudes.

For example, when construction sites were the exclusive domains of men, a very male-oriented culture arose that included sexual joking, whistling at passing women, and the like. Now that women have become part of the construction team, men com­plain that they do not know how to behave anymore: Are sexual jokes and profanity still okay, or are they considered sexual harassment? Some people yearn for the old days when male and female behaviors were clearly defined, and they advocate a return to tradi­tional gender roles. Other people still see inequality in American society and argue that women need to have more freedom and equality.

Let’s go back, for a moment, to that alien you met earlier in the chapter. When you de­scribe what is male and female for the alien, chances are you will talk about stereotyped behavior. You might say, “Men are strong, independent, and assertive, and often have a hard time showing emotion,” or “Women are sensitive, nurturing, emotional, and soft.” Descriptions like these are based on gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes are fundamental to our ways of thinking, which makes it difficult to realize how thoroughly our conceptions of the world are shaped by gender issues. For example, when a baby is born, the very first question we ask is, “Is it a boy or a girl?” The parents proudly dis­play a sign in their yard or send a card to friends, proclaiming “It’s a girl!” or “It’s a boy!” as the sole identifying trait of the child. The card does not state “It’s a redhead!” From the moment of birth onward, the child is thought of first as male or female, and all other characteristics—whether the child is tall, bright, an artist, Irish, disabled, gay—are seen in light of the person’s gender.

Overall, we expect men to act like men and women to act like women, and we be­come confused and uncomfortable when we are denied knowledge of a person’s gender.