I learned in a recent lecture in my Sociology of Gender class that men’s and women’s roles in the house are changing. Although women are still spending more time on housework, men’s rates are beginning to catch up.
Women’s household roles include cooking, cleaning and laundry, while men’s include outdoor work like lawn and pool care and car maintenance. Another addition to the changing roles in women’s and men’s house work include childcare. Again in this situation women are spending more time with their kids but men are catching up. While women are more likely to spend time doing things for their kids like cooking and bathing for them, men are more likely to play “rough and tumble” games with their kids. Men and women also differ in the frequency of time spent with kids. Men are much more likely to spend time with their kids after work and on the weekends especially Saturday mornings.
I heard a recent news story that there are far less domestic violence shelters for men than women. I thought at first that this fact was self-explanatory, that men are far less victims of domestic abuse.http://www.batteredmen.com/bathelpnatl.htm
But is aggression really gendered, are men more likely to be the perpetrators of domestic violence? Biologically, men have been said to have a much more aggressive disposition than women, but is this just a social construct? Men are much more likely to act volatile with one another such as in sports and women are much less more likely to act out aggressively against each other. But could it be that aggression between males and females does occur at the same rates, could men just be more embarrassed to join a domestic abuse shelter? These are questions that sociologists take a look at. Another thing to look into is the way aggression is learned. As children we are often scolded in the same ways. My male cousin and I for example always received the same punishment if we both got into the same trouble. However, some of his behavior he was not punished for would be something I would be punished for because it was not “lady-like.”
Gender socialization takes place all throughout our lives. From the very beginning one of the first things kids associate highly with is their toys. I can remember when I was a little girl and had my first kitchen play set.
It had all of the kitchen essentials, pots, pans utensils an of course an oven. I also recall making my way through the aisles of the Toys R' Us and looking at the hundreds of boxes of toys. I would always associate with the other little girls that were on the covers of the boxes.
Recently though I have noticed that many of the advertisements for toys are beginning to cross gender boundaries. For example, instead of having just a group of little girls playing with a kitchen set, nowadays you will see a boy and a girl playing together with these play sets. I think these advertisements are reflective of the way gender for men is not exactly becoming more feminine, but men are just adapting to more feminine characteristics, like cooking and housework.
“That’s what she said” is a phrase most of us have become aware of over the past few months. It began on the show The Office when Steve Carell’s character uses it as an addition of his character’s awkward humor.
The Office "That's What She Said
According to urbandictionary.com, the phrase is used to turn a simple comment into a sexual joke. One example would be as follows:
Guy 1: Wow, that is a really big spear!
Guy 2: That’s what she said.
Most of the perpetrators of the “that’s what she said” joke are men, and it may often seem wrong or out of the ordinary for women to use the joke. I personally do not find the joke offensive, but it does make me wonder where the joke originated. In my opinion, I think it supports the claim that men often associate women with their sexual desires and in many conversations they find an excuse to make light of a sexual situation.
I recently heard about one of the Gaylord graduate students’ semester presentations about female television anchors. As an aspiring news anchor, I was interested to hear how women rate not only in the industry, but on a local level as well.Top CNN Anchors According to Chad Nye’s study, the number of females involved in television news is higher on the local average than the national average.
One factor that contributed to this statistic was that women are taking more on-camera positions such as anchors and reporters. The positions of news director and executive producers continue to be male dominated. This concept Chad referred to as a “ghettoization” in the newsroom. However, Chad did point out that we as viewers may find these statistics to be confusing since we are often used to seeing the ma and pop male and female team on the evening news desk.
One reason females were not as highly represented on a national level was the limited number of them involved in weather and sports reporting. I think it will be interesting to see how newsrooms change within the next few years and also how they will change throughout my personal career.
It is almost guaranteed that at every family function of mine, whether it be a holiday, birthday, or even a funeral, my family will bring up stories about our history or past. I always recall hearing about grandmother and granddad’s ballroom dancing days, or pa pa’s old suit jackets. I have heard so many bits and pieces of my family’s history that it was nearly impossible to piece it all together from just my memory. Not to mention, that half of the time I was zoning out during these conversations over dinner wondering when it was time for dessert or to open presents. In fact it wasn’t until this assignment I really began to take an interest in my family’s past and beginnings. Through this assignment I was encouraged to get to know my family’s past, their cultural histories and see how they relate to mine today. I decided that the best way to get started on this assignment was to speak with my Aunt Mary, my dad’s sister. She has always kept up with family photos, letters, documents and in her words the only one who ever “gave a damn” about listening to her father’s stories about his past. I also chose to speak with my aunt because she has always tried to share with me special stories about my ancestors and that is why I have decided to focus the majority of my family history on my father’s side. I also chose to do this because I have spent much more time with my dad’s family than my mom’s.
The one thing I have always been greatly aware of and that is something my parents have always ingrained in my head is my Texas heritage. I am a fourth generation Texan! Yee Haw! Not only that but, both my mom and dad’s families grew up in Ft. Worth and knew many of the same people around town. http://ftworth.com Not surprisingly my mom and dad were high school sweet hearts and ended up marrying after the two of them went through separate divorces. Thank goodness they decided to get back together, or there would never have been me! (Now I am getting off topic much like my aunt does at the dinner table when she is discussing family stories!) But lets go back to a time before I was even a thought.
Rumor has it that my ancestors on my paternal side were from Germany. Now while this may be true, the information came from my dad’s dad Edwin Miller or Pa Pa and a lot of what he always said had to be taken with a grain of salt, but with family names like Ida and Eurie this may not be too far of a stretch.
Religion has always been a big part of my family. In fact unbeknownst to me before this assignment, my great great grandfather was a Baptist preacher, so my family, on both sides, has a deep southern Baptist background. My grandmother was one of the last to be baptized as a Baptist. In fact, she and her mother were both fully dunked at Broadway Baptist church in Ft. Worth on the same day. It was not until my father and aunts were baptized when they were about 13 years old, in a Methodist church did my family officially change their denomination to Methodist. Church was always a part of my grandparents’ lives. Both sets of my grandparents spent every Sunday at Sunday school and had church gatherings during the week. Religion also went hand and hand with music in my family. Some of my father’s best memories included afternoons spent at his uncle’s house around the piano singing gospel songs. As far as religious intersections one of my grandfather’s first jobs was at a Jewish funeral home. Although this did not bother him he did have to get used to the Jewish funeral proceedings.
The most profound interaction my family had with people from different backgrounds was when my paternal grandmother and grandfather lived in Hawaii while my grandfather was serving in the navy. They lived there for several years and most all of their friends were native Hawaiians. In fact, my oldest aunt named Sally was born in Hawaii and was the only white baby in the hospital. The town they lived in was named Oahu so from living there my grandparents deemed it appropriate to make Oahu my aunt’s middle name. Much of my grandparents’ openness to other cultures and lifestyles I feel is also the way I am. I have always been extremely culturally accepting, mostly because I am interested in all sorts of people. Not only that, but I have also always been very accepting of those who may have less than I and I believe from hearing the stories of my family I know exactly where I get that. When my great grandfather passed away at the age of 40, my great grandmother took on a new role in her life, she fostered a group of orphans from a local orphanage. These neglected children were all boys and my great grandmother Murray took them under her wing as her own. One example of a negative intersection of social class however was when my grandmother and grandfather married. In my grandmother’s mother’s opinion, her daughter had married out of her class when she married my grandfather. Although there was not a great difference of social class between the two of their families, my great grandmother was always involved in prestigious ladies’ clubs in Ft. Worth and found it disturbing that my grandmother didn’t quite follow her in those footsteps. My great grandmother’s lack of acceptance was one reason my grandmother and grandfather ran away to get married.
One traditional task that my grandmother did not forget was cooking, something all Miller women are known for. Recipes from generations and generations ago are still used at my family gatherings and I can always remember my grandmother and aunt spending a great deal of time around the kitchen. My grandmother would prepare a fresh cooked meal three times a day for my grandfather and my dad and aunts. I have to say I do feel the responsibility of carrying on the cooking tradition in my family. In fact, that tradition is so revered that my aunt made me a recipe book of all of the Miller favorites! Although I do not do much cooking now, I do look forward to cooking these traditional recipes for my own family some day!
As I reflect back upon my family’s history and upbringing I see many resemblances of values, beliefs and attitudes. Although I do consider myself more of a conservative person, I have always been very personable and loved meeting new people. The one person I feel I identify the most with is my dad’s dad. Although he passed away when I was 10 years old, I am able to appreciate the memories I have of him more now because I see so much of myself in him. I also know that my appreciation for music comes from my ancestors and without it I am incomplete!
The second Rule of Engagement I found to be profound is rule # 9. - Break the silence, and object to the objectionable.
The second Rule of Engagement I found to be profound is rule # 9. - Break the silence, and object to the objectionable.
I really enjoyed our conversation we had at the end of our last official class this week. I really feel as though we broke through some tough issues this semester and were able to relate to one another in a powerful way. This relatibility we have learned will help us deal with the issues of race and gender in whatever field of media we pursue. I think the rules of diversity created by former students are a great reflection of the issued covered in class and can be used in out-of-classroom situations.
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