The Gender Roles In American Society And Other Contries Such As Africa
Women are usually portrayed as fragile, nurturing, patient, loving and many other traits; on the other hand, men are characterized as strong, confident and emotionless. From an early age, young girls are taught to be more ‘behaved’ than boys. They are taught to aspire to be teachers or nurses, while boys are told to be firefighters or policemen. In America, many of the roles in society have changed, women have grown up and have aspired to engineers and have been able to be in occupations that are supposed to be for ‘men’, while in Africa and other countries, women are still fighting to have the same rights as men. Living in different cultures has a major impact on the way women are portrayed in our societies and the way that they are viewed. American women have always seemed to be trying to please what others think that the ‘ideal’ woman should look like. The ‘perfect’ women are considered to be thin, look and act a certain way.
In The Female Body by Margaret Atwood, in the first section, Atwood emphasizes the satire by using her own personal experiences. Through her diction choice, “I dump in the fuel and away goes my topic…”, Atwood is able to satirize the masculine society, which objectifies women based on their appearance. She also includes, “I sprinkle it with water, brush parts of it, rub it with towels, powder it, add lubricant ” referring to the fact that she cares for her own body, but now her body isn't really her body. Atwood describes this as a sense of women bathing and lubricating their bodies to cover up their imperfections and flaws to go out into the world. Just like today, women cover up with makeup, do plastic surgeries to feel good and look but in reality, we would never know what she really looks like. Whereas the women in Africa live the “housewife” life, they are the ones that have to provide the food, educate their children and have to be in charge of the chores that need to be done around the household. African women are considered to be at a disadvantage in their education, due to the fact, that most of them are more likely to dropout of school before they can make it to the fifth grade. According to statistics from UIS data, girls ages 15 to 17 are not enrolled in school. Girls are at a disadvantage from going to school after their adolescents, having 36 percent of exclusion whereas boys have a 32 percent. The lack of not having enough resources is the biggest reason for this problem that women in Africa face day to day.
On the other hand, women in America have it all handed out to them, once they turn 4 they are able to get enrolled into early childhood. After completing middle school, they move onto high school once they are in high school and by the time they are in their senior year, they are required to apply to colleges. Education in America is a huge part of their lives, many are told that without education they won't be able to achieve anything in life besides being housewives. Religion tends to get in the way of many things that women are restricted from the way that they dress and their sex preferences.
In Africa the largest religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam depending on the region. Women have less rights, they aren't allowed to express their feeling and ideas. In America the largest religion is Christianity, the beliefs in Christianity in the 1600s were similar to African women because they were not allowed to speak up for their own decisions, they had to obey their husbands and if they failed to behave they were punished.
Women in America tend to have a greater opportunity than other women who live in other countries such as Africa, because they do not have as many rights and freedom. Although women in America always try to look their best due to the fact that “pop culture is so powerful” and their lives rotate around “tv shows, movies, or books”.
