Gender Roles In American Culture

I guess growing up in America, I tend to have a mindset that anything is possible. The mindset to always think that anything can be change if we fight for it or if we have the will to change it. One thing that I failed to realized when I brought up the ideas of gender roles is that, this is society and the world itself and not just me. Through this experience, it’s better to be realistic.

I asked my father one day regarding gender roles in the American culture and his opinion on it since gender roles play a huge portion in my culture. He brought up the point that even if we state that in today’s society, there are some equality and freedom in gender roles, it doesn’t matter much because in some shape or form, we can never really walk away from the stereotypes or labels that have been clearly defined on us. Some people will look at us and when there is fault, our gender sometimes becomes

Why does the men get to pick the engagement ring (many don’t even get themselves one) and propose when they are ready to settle down? I mean women also have the option to decline it or accept it, but it’s not likely to see one who dares to do it. I guess all of this is just do to the fact that people like to stick to the norms, the easy things, the ego and they don’t want to change what have been set in place for centuries. Why? Is it because it takes a lot of thinking, communication, possibly offending people who likes to keep their tradition the way it has been for years, etc.? After talking to my father and had him ramble off about how in this society and many other societies, only a male figure can marry a female figure and if he doesn’t bring up the idea that he wants to settle, no matter how much you (female figure) want to settle, it’s not likely to happen. It’s easier for a female to settle when he states he want to settle than vice