Stereotypes For Women
Stereotypes for the lady population have been around for hundreds of years. The larger known stereotype women are seen as are housewives. Remember as a young boy or girl playing house? In this pretend game that most people participated in it was always the “daddy” coming home from work, to the “mommy” who was cooking and cleaning. Young girls playing this game didn’t know at the time that the game they were playing was actually demoralizing to their gender. There are tons of stereo types for women. Like that their inferior to men, they are emotional all the time, their weaker than men, they are to stay home take care of the house and children and be good. This treatment of women occurs in all cultures.
The Chinese had the housewife stereotype embedded in women’s. Long ago, a young Chinese girls about 6 or 7 years of age would have their feet binded. The arch of their foot was broken and their toes bent under and bound. It was considered “beautiful” and ensured that they would have “little golden lilies” for the rest of their life. This was very painful for them and affected them for the rest of their lives. They could only hobble, not being able to walk or run properly. This practice allowed men to feel even more superior because the women couldn’t do anything due to not being able to walk. In the other cultures girls were being brainwashed by stereotypes since they were born. Fairytales, something all young girls loved and remember watching in their younger days. In most of these fairytales and stories the women are perceived as helpless housewives. For example, the story of Cinderella shows that if you are good, clean, cook and are beautiful you will be desired by all men. The step sisters she cooks and cleans for are wealthy women who don’t have to lift a finger when it came to cooking and cleaning, yet they are automatically perceived as rude, ugly and obnoxious. Cinderella may have been sweet and good, but the truth was she was weak, and didn’t have a mind of her own.
So the question I leave to men and women of all ages are what kind of stereotypes do they see women as and if they believe any of them? To answer some these questions I interviewed 5 women and 5 men. The five women, Bird (17) Caitie (21) Jamie (43) Carol (70) and Ashlee (21) all had the same answers along the same lines. The main stereotype they hear used against women were that women are only meant to be housewives. Stay at home moms cooking and cleaning for their husbands before they come home from their big time careers. Carol, age 70 was a young woman back when it the only goal for a woman was to be married with lots of children. Most had no interest or goals in having a career. The younger women have heard the stereotype of being a slut if you have slept with two or more partners. While guys who do this are considered pimps, and are “oh so cool”. All of these women have been victims of these stereotypes at one point or another. After interviewing these five women, I decided to interview five men. When I asked them what kind of stereotypes they have heard used against women all them answered that “women are suppose to be home with the children.” Augie, age 15 stated that he “thinks it’s awesome that women are out there doing jobs that use to be only meant for a man”. He also stated that he doesn’t believe any of these ridiculous stereotypes that are pointed towards women. Austin, age 16 also doest believe any of these stereotypes. He stated that it’s split down the middle between women and men. “There are things women can do that men can’t and there are things men can do that women cant.” Wes, age 29 stated that at one point in time he probably used a stereotype, but can’t remember what it was about. However, he doesn’t believe there are any stereotypes that have truth to them and regrets the times he ever used one. Rubin and Wes both believe that women are not inferior to men just “different”.
The interviewed women answered the questions I used during the interview with more of an angry response. The men answered them with an unsure attitude and really had to think about the questions. That to me shows improvement in our society about stereotyping women. If these questions were asked back in the day the men would have had quick answers to these questions that would have been stereotypical. Let’s hope that it keeps improving and that women don’t ever feel like their inferior to men.
