Does our society create sexism?

Like most girls growing up I loved to play with Barbies and dolls. I wore dresses and loved playing with my mom's makeup and clothes. One of my earliest memories was telling my parents that I should wear a dress to bed, because I was a girl and not a boy. I strongly believed that girls did not wear pants. Where did I learn that from?

In college, I learned about men and women's expected roles in Sociology class. For example, women are expected to have children, act feminine, and be nurturing. While, men are expected to be strong and not show emotions.

We can see these role expectations as soon as children begin playing with toys. As you walk through the aisles of a toy shop girl's toys are in feminine colors, like pink and purple. And their aisles are filled with dolls and baking toys. While, toys for boys are in masculine colors, such as greens and blues. Their toys involve athletic activities, tools, and military figurines.

What message do these toys tell our children? As society continues to condition and reinforce these roles, women and men are put against the wall to act like expected or go against the norm. 

Most recently, surprisingly I found myself doing this to a child. I was playing with my nephew and a few of his co-ed friends. We were coloring and playing with stickers. We bought princess stickers for the girls and car stickers for the boys. When my nephew picked up the princess stickers he liked the sparkle and started putting the stickers on his shirt.
 I picked them up from him to give to his little female friend, and said "Oh, these are for her and the car stickers are for you." A second later, I realized what I doing and thinking. I gave him back the princess stickers and told him you can play with whatever you want.

I was upset with myself for thinking that he shouldn't be playing with "girly" stickers.  He should, and there shouldn't be anything wrong with that.

It reminded me when I was a little girl. I went against the "norm". I was considered a tomboy because I didn't wear dresses and played in the dirt with the boys at recess. One night my relatives came over for dinner and my Uncle took one look at my knee and asked what happened. I told him how I climbed some rocks and fell. He said I was a tom boy and my knees looked like they belonged to a boy. Even then I knew he was wrong. I was a girl and I wanted to play with the boys. I wanted to be treated fairly and equally, yet I constantly felt pressure to fit into a mold of what women should be.

I saw the mold every day on TV. Women were stay at home mother's who baked. And, if you ever saw a woman who didn't fit that mold she was automatically considered mean, cold and unfeminine. 

Recently, I was on a forum called "Why do men think women are weak", and here are a few of the responses from both men and women:

"I try to treat women with respect and tenderness, I open doors for them and pull chairs. I don't do this because I look upon then as weak. I do this because I was raised and taught to treat women better than men. I have gotten nasty remarks from younger women for holding a door for them, but I chalk that up to them having different values than I do...." (from male responder)

The above male response indicates that holding doors and treating women with respect and tenderness is due to his values, how he was raised and taught to treat women. He was taught to treat women better than men. Why wasn't he taught to treat them both equally?

"I'd accept the concept that men are "stronger than women- or females are made to be a bit weaker than guys! But to bluntly say that women are weak' is just both sexist & insulting!" (from female responder)

The above comment is from a women and she contradicts herself by saying that she would accept the concept that females are made to be a bit weaker then guys. Yet, she says to "bluntly" say that women are weak is sexist. If women continue to say sexist remarks too, then the cycle of sexism continues.

"If women dont want to be treated that way, they have to change themselves, they are commonly naive, and crave the acceptance of a man. This can happen for boys to, yeah, the bitchy little boys that get pushed around all the time.  Don't blame others for the way they treat you, Blame yourself for letting them treat you that way." (from male responder)

The above male responded by blaming women for their treatment and indicating that women should change themselves. Additionally, he comments on how "bitchy little boys get pushed around" too. His comments perfectly describe how our society views women: women are weak and men are strong. 


What are your thoughts?



Sources

Are there differences between male and female bullies? http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/male-female-bullies.htm

Why do men think women are weak? http://www.sodahead.com/living/why-do-men-think-women-are-weak/question-1796057/

Juul, Matt. August 10, 2012. Want WMMA to Be Taken Seriously? Stop Objectifying the Fighters. http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1288021-want-wmma-to-be-taken-seriously-stop-objectifying-the-fighters