February 8th, 2017: Gender Roles

This week's articles written by Noah Berlatsky and Emily Martin provide the readers with a closer look at how our cultural views toward gender roles affect society. After analyzing these readings, I believe the goal of both Berlatsky and Martin is not to simply express their personal opinions towards the ideal desires of men and women, but rather to show the readers that their outlooks on men and women are severely effected by cultural norms and that we should looked past them while we shape our own wants. Martin's "The Egg and the Sperm" highlights the extent of cultural stereotypes in society by showing how its presence in the biological study of gender shows that gender bias exists even at the cellular level. Analyzing reproductive research from several different scientists and time frames, Martin points out the powerful and dominant descriptions of the sperm versus the weak and wasteful descriptions of the egg. This goes to show that gender stereotypes are something that is constantly being etched into our minds, and it serves as a call for the readers to have an open mind about the gender identity of themselves and others and leave the cultural bias out of it. I think Martin disagrees with the typical binary view of gender that limits people to act one way or the other; instead she thinks it should be approached with more individualism. Berlatsky's article, on the other hand, describes gender roles in a different manner by analyzing the femininity of two protagonist from two incredibly popular book series, but the overall idea of his article serves a similar purpose as Martin's study. Bella Swan from the "Twilight" saga and Katniss Everdeen from "The Hunger Games" trilogy have almost polar opposite characteristics from each other in regards to femininity. Bella is portrayed as the typical girl, requiring constant attention from dominant male forces, while Katniss, on the other hand, is viewed as strong power figure that must work her hardest to survive. While highlighting these obvious differences in the protagonists' personalities, Berlatsky also shows how these characters are acclaimed and criticized by critics and fans. It's pointed out that Katniss and her masculinity receives better critical acclaim then boring Bella due to society's negative view on the female gender role. The author then takes a closer look at these characters, however, and starts to bring light to the fact that they actually might be more similar than it's commonly believed. They both have different desires and strengths, and although their methods of achieving their goals might be different, they do share some similar characteristics as females. I think the author's overall purpose is to show their individual desires, and show the readers that judging their personalities based on stereotypical views of the female gender role isn't the way to go. The world tends to put these characters in the female category when forming opinions towards them; the category that classifies every female as a feminine figure. Like Martin's study, Berlatsky's article gives the reader the idea to view people of both sexes with more individualism. These readings show that people's wants and personalities are crafted on their own and aren't based on the physical organs that define our sex. People should want what they truly desire, rather than what society tells them they need.