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Gender Stereotypes In American Culture

Decent Essays

Society can put unrealistic expectations of reality into individuals from a very young age. As soon as a child can begin to comprehend what is going on around them, they are shown movies of perfect society’s and perfect marriage. So, as they grow older, this is what they expect life to be like. Then, when they finally reach a certain age they begin to wonder why life isn’t going the way they thought it was going to go. The picture that the media and movies portray of life and how one is supposed to look can make individuals put outrageous expectation on themselves in order to be “normal”. Nobody feels those expectations more than females growing up do. Women are oversexualized and kept inferior to their male counterparts and this can affect …show more content…

There are also stereotypes that most women feel the need to conform to. This begins when girls are very young. Boys play with action figures and guns, while girls play with Barbie’s and ponies. As the two sides get older, Men are supposed to be powerful and masculine while women supposed to be sensitive, and feminine. These stereotypes can be easily seen in almost every aspect of American culture. This can make individuals who don’t like the stereotypical trends for their gender feel like outcasts. For example, if a girl is playing with guns and playing sports she would be called a tomboy, and most other girls would not be friends with her. The same argument can be made for boys as well. If a boy likes to play dress up and with dolls he would be called soft or much worse …show more content…

Society has painted a picture that beautiful is the most important thing that a women can be. Smarts, a good personality, and other great traits do not matter if the women is not attractive looking. The media is most responsible for this stereotype. Women in commercials and television shows give girls a false expectation of what they are supposed to look like. The women on these programs have thousands of dollars of make up on and have done countless number of surgeries on themselves to make themselves look “attractive”. Not only does this effect the girl’s self-esteem, it also puts a false image into men’s heads about how women are supposed to look. This puts even more pressure on the women to try to achieve something that is unattainable. Not only are the women in these advertisements unrealistic looking, they are also over-sexualized. Over-sexualized means that these women are being shown as sex figures instead of being actual actors. One of the worst offenders in over-sexualizing women is music videos. Music videos almost always have scantily clad women dancing in a sexual way throughout the duration of song. This coupled with lyrics that are vulgarly demeaning towards women give ladies a false idea of what they have to be in order for a man to like them. In conclusion, there are many unrealistic expectations that society puts on all people. Expectations of what you are supposed to

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