Gender Expectations In The 21st Century

The 21st century has made quite the impact on the world. From new technological advances to science being able to answer some of our deepest questions. Despite the obvious changes made in everyday lives, something that hasn’t considerably changed is gender expectations. These value systems and perceptions of what is to be of genders result in negative reactions or costly consequences. The biggest issue we face that prevents us from eliminating this is how we react. It’s almost as if it is a contest of who has it worse no one can be a victim without someone yelling out “what about when men/women go through this.”, both genders face immense difficulties. These assumptions that are awaited from each gender at times seem very little although the tiniest influences can cause the biggest disasters

If you are passive by all means be passive, but don’t be passive because you feel like you have to be. So many things can go wrong when you are forcing yourself to be someone you’re expected to be. Jensen goes a bit into depth with this in his article “The High Cost of Manliness” in which he explains how characteristics that are expected of men are at times taken to a higher level which can lead to the endangerment of others. He wrote about how if men lived by the type of masculinity looked for in them they would live life in an “endless competition and threat”. Now there are many ways one can interpret how a man's masculinity could be threatening some of those include violence, sexual assault or rape, and murder. Jensen was convinced that the leading cause for these type of actions is the belief that men are the “dominant” ones and they feel the need to prove so. Although what Jensen didn’t mention was how these actions can also be caused by the fact that men are expected to suppress their emotions. Suppressing emotions leads to the damage of your mind and