Cherish Kalilikane
06SEP11
FD1
The ideology of an American family where the wife stays home, cooks and cleans, while the husband is out working is slowly transitioning out of our society. Roles are what people title the identities of society, it’s where people are supposed to fit in and if they don’t fit into these roles they are characterized as unusual or strange. When one thinks about trauma a more likely response would be ideas of someone in a life or death situation, or someone dealing with something that is so emotionally or physically breaking that they cannot do everyday things. [THESIS] Gender roles are not traumatic, instead they allow women to fight through the stereotypical roles and become successful. [THESIS]
Trauma, according to Oxford dictionary is, a deeply distressing or disturbing experience. It can also mean an emotional shock following a stressful event or a physical injury, which may be associated with physical shock and sometimes leads to long-term neurosis. I wouldn’t classify gender roles as traumatic because that would be a melodramatic, overdrawn statement. When thinking about gender roles one would assume that the discussion would be primarily about the women in these roles as opposed to the men because they have the stress of higher standards to uphold.
Michelle Wie, being a woman has certain gender roles needed to appeal to today’s society. Overcoming her “role” didn’t lead Wie into a traumatic experience, instead it lead her to fame and success. In the example of Michele Wie, she is a young woman golfer who enters various championships going head to head with men. Wie is marked as ludicrous for not sticking with her own gender and constantly critiqued for trying to keep up with the standards of the male professional golfers that compete with her. Gender roles made her seem unusual because she goes against the normal stereotype for a young woman. It also allowed her to gather more attention from golf fans whether it was bad or good. Dr. Richard Lapchick, the director of the institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the UCF says, "it gives added opportunity to belittle the accomplishments of women like Michelle Wie. The fact that they haven't won it all shouldn't get in the way of it. We have a society where sexism is at play.” Since Wie did not fulfill her stereotype of sticking with woman golfers she gained a lot of critics, which also led to being a great advertisement opportunity. As Hill said, “If her name were Bob Wie, nobody would be calling her a failure or questioning why she was trying to play with men.” Since she is a woman and has expected gender roles, people can’t stop talking about her. Wie has been very close to placing in championships as well as the fact that she isn’t even in her 20s and she’s already grossed over 10 million dollars from her success. Michele Wie is a great example of how a woman uses the negativity that comes from gender roles to benefit her. She gained power and success from her critics and ironically, she became more famous.
Gender roles’ being traumatic is a highly exaggerated statement. Mary Pipher made the perfect example when she said, “Something dramatic happens to adolescence. Just as planes and ships disappear mysteriously into the Bermuda Triangle, so do the selves of girls go down in droves.” Women don’t lose perspective or anything when they go through adolescence. Instead, women gain insight and the ability to understand exactly what they need to do to effectively use their gender role stereotypes to their advantage.
The educators of society also realize the importance of gender roles. Teaching the girls at Sacred Hearts Academy the importance of ignoring society’s roles and becoming what you want in the world. At Sacred Hearts, headmaster Betty White states, “We want to break down the stereotypes that girls are better at English and history and boys are better in math, science and technology. We want to show them that girls can do anything that they set their minds to." Although the statement may come off as biased because the headmaster happens to be a female, she is older in society and therefore she understands the importance of being a female and setting yourself apart from society’s roles and stereotypes. I know first hand how hard it is to become technologically savvy and work your way through science fighting the stereotypes that a female will most likely fail at learning technological advances. In the article regarding Sacred Hearts there is a female success story, Audra Bullock, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Hawai'i Manoa who specializes in lasers and optics. As Andrea Hamilton states in this article, "She's a female in a male-dominated field and industry, so we want her to convey that message to the audience that in these times, the sky's the limit.” Bullock was a great example of a female who ignored society’s gender roles and excelled at what made her happy which happened to be different from the usual woman’s occupation.
In Laulima discussions Kendrya Cook stated a very interesting case, she actually compared the traumas of the male gender role in order to help understand the trauma women receive with their roles. The way of using an opposing example to create understanding was very clever, however the example lacked connectivity to the debate at hand. Her solution for trauma is to talk early so situations don’t stay unnoticed but talking doesn’t necessarily lead to happier women. I believe that it only leads to women who now have their “eyes open” and understand their role can seem traumatic. Women talking about their roles should create understanding that gender roles aren’t really traumatic but they are stepping stones to give women the audacity to step out of their stereotypes.
Society’s gender roles don’t need to be the deciding factor of a person’s life, male or female. People categorize normal when they have no right to. Women are slowly grasping the idea that they are very capable of fighting through normal gender roles and accomplishing whatever their hearts desire. Wie fought through the opposition of many critics that didn’t believe she should be competing in a men’s sport let alone with men. Bullock fought through gender roles as she went to school for engineering and was successful when she got her degree in lasers and optics. These ideologies are slowly being recognized for women and they’re starting to realize that there isn’t only one way about doing things, one can create their own path, a path less traveled by.
Works Cited
“Wie Deserves Our Applause, Not Those Jeers.” 6 June 2006. MercuryNews.com. 8 June 2006 [http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/14756706.htm].
Pipher, Mary. “Saplings in the Storm.” Dialogues: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader. 7th edition. Eds. Gary Goshgarian and Kathleen Krueger. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2011. 347-354
Shapiro, Treena. “Girls Gather to Break Stereotype.” HonoluluAdvertiser.com 13 Jan. 2005. 13 Jan. 2005 [http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2005/Jan/13/ln/ln20p.html].
Log of Completed Activities
__X Aug. 22- First Day of Instruction. Read the welcome message, which includes instructions on how to navigate our class blog. Next, log in to our Laulima discussion forum and your hawaii.edu mailbox. Become familiar with these instructional media. Carefully review the information in our class blog, especially the schedule and syllabus (click on the tab at the top of the page). In the syllabus, pay special attention to the grading policy and the document “Am I Ready for an Online Class?” These will give you an understanding of online classes in general and this class in particular.
_X_ Aug. 23- Laulima Discussion: Who Am I? Post your response by midnight. Possible topics: your academic and career goals; your favorite pastime; favorite book, movie, song; favorite physical activity or sport; favorite quote; personal philosophy on the purpose of life; your personal thoughts on why it’s important to become an excellent writer; favorite food or restaurant; favorite vacation destination; etc.
_L_ Aug. 23- Intro to Paper #1. Read the “Guidelines for Paper #1” by midnight.
__X_ Aug. 23-31- Set up your personal blog for all class papers. Click here for instructions. Alternately, see the “Blogger” links in the right sidebar in our class blog. To begin, complete the initial setup. You’ll be able to add finishing touches as the RD1 due date approaches. If you need help, post a request in the “Q&A About My Blog” forum in Laulima.
_X_ Aug. 26- Laulima Discussion: What Is “Trauma”? One definition or many different definitions? Post your response by midnight.
_X_ Aug. 29- Complete readings for Paper #1 by midnight.
__X_ Sep. 2- Laulima Discussion: Causes & Solutions: What causes gender role trauma? What’s the solution? Assume that there is more than one cause or solution. Post your response by midnight. [10 pts]
__X_ Sep. 6- Submit RD1 (Review Draft #1) [50 pts] Review the guidelines.
__X_ Sep. 12- Submit three RD1 evaluations in Laulima. [50 pts] Review the guidelines.
__X_ Sep. 16- Submit FD1 (Final Draft #1) [100 pts] Review the guidelines.
