In classical theory we focus on Chaftez’s four points that tell us if something falls under feminist theory. The four points that something is a part of feminist theory are gender is the central focus of relationships, critiquing problems about gender differences such as “pink collar” jobs, immutable gender, and solution for changing strict gender roles. In today’s society we like to think that we are progressive in a way that gender does not play a role in the job market but when compared next to the four criteria of feminist theory and with support from statistics available to anyone we can see that it falls short. I will be using the four criteria of feminist theory to examine how society views traditional families.
In our society when we hear the word family we traditionally think of a man and woman and their child/children but we know that that is not the only types of family people enter into. When we think of family we tend to think of the man as the bread winner for the family who supports them or finds any way to do so while the woman traditionally stays home to help raise the kids and performs all the household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and child care. This type of family is generally the one we seeing being pushed on us in society through TV shows, advertisement, and traditional values. Our society claims that this is not true because we are progressive in our time but regardless if it is a traditional family or a family where the heads of house hold are the same sex or made up of any other factors there will always be the person who takes on the male gender and the person who takes over the female gender. These roles are either “known” or assumed because of sex or they are established based on factors such as who brings in the most money or who makes the big decisions for the family. When establishing traditional family roles between those at the head of the house hold we are looking at the first criteria for determining for feminist theory. For the blogs sake we will use the traditional family of a man and women to examine criteria two, problems that gender may cause. When establishing gender roles it is usually the man who is seen as in charge, makes the money, supports the family, and is the backbone of the family while the woman is usually the one who offers emotional support, in charge of household work and usually looks to the man for more “important” decisions. The man is not seen as capable enough to run a household if he shows any signs of weakness such as too emotional or stays home while his wife goes to work while the woman is seen as not maternal enough if she has her own career putting her family second.
When these roles are determined they become immutable, the third criteria of feminism, because it becomes the norm and it would take both to be willing to change their roles. The traditional family would never change because a woman is viewed as the only one capable of emotional care and the male is the only one who is strong enough to carry the responsibility of supporting a family. Society is slowly accepting the fact that gender roles are not strictly bound. We are taught that if we stray from the expected role we are to play that makes us less or frauds to something we do not know and because it is a traditional family there is no chance of breaking those roles.
This leads us to the fourth criteria for a feminist theory, some applicable way to change gender stereotypes which reflects what our society is fighting to move towards. A way to move away from the strict boundaries that traditional families offer is to expand the amount of exposer we take in on a daily basis in relation to social media, television, advertisements, and information we receive about families. The more expose society receives about the other families that are out there and the different gender roles that people take that do not necessarily have any limitations the more we will be able to break free from tradition values the create boundaries causing people to restrict the role they play.
Traditional families have been around for as long as we can remember but as we expand our knowledge and acceptance of families not made up of traditional male and female head of households who confine themselves to gender roles determined by their sex. By our society accepting that regardless of which gender role we choose to take on in families all provide value to our family and can be even expand over what we know these gender roles to represent.
In our society when we hear the word family we traditionally think of a man and woman and their child/children but we know that that is not the only types of family people enter into. When we think of family we tend to think of the man as the bread winner for the family who supports them or finds any way to do so while the woman traditionally stays home to help raise the kids and performs all the household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and child care. This type of family is generally the one we seeing being pushed on us in society through TV shows, advertisement, and traditional values. Our society claims that this is not true because we are progressive in our time but regardless if it is a traditional family or a family where the heads of house hold are the same sex or made up of any other factors there will always be the person who takes on the male gender and the person who takes over the female gender. These roles are either “known” or assumed because of sex or they are established based on factors such as who brings in the most money or who makes the big decisions for the family. When establishing traditional family roles between those at the head of the house hold we are looking at the first criteria for determining for feminist theory. For the blogs sake we will use the traditional family of a man and women to examine criteria two, problems that gender may cause. When establishing gender roles it is usually the man who is seen as in charge, makes the money, supports the family, and is the backbone of the family while the woman is usually the one who offers emotional support, in charge of household work and usually looks to the man for more “important” decisions. The man is not seen as capable enough to run a household if he shows any signs of weakness such as too emotional or stays home while his wife goes to work while the woman is seen as not maternal enough if she has her own career putting her family second.
When these roles are determined they become immutable, the third criteria of feminism, because it becomes the norm and it would take both to be willing to change their roles. The traditional family would never change because a woman is viewed as the only one capable of emotional care and the male is the only one who is strong enough to carry the responsibility of supporting a family. Society is slowly accepting the fact that gender roles are not strictly bound. We are taught that if we stray from the expected role we are to play that makes us less or frauds to something we do not know and because it is a traditional family there is no chance of breaking those roles.
This leads us to the fourth criteria for a feminist theory, some applicable way to change gender stereotypes which reflects what our society is fighting to move towards. A way to move away from the strict boundaries that traditional families offer is to expand the amount of exposer we take in on a daily basis in relation to social media, television, advertisements, and information we receive about families. The more expose society receives about the other families that are out there and the different gender roles that people take that do not necessarily have any limitations the more we will be able to break free from tradition values the create boundaries causing people to restrict the role they play.
Traditional families have been around for as long as we can remember but as we expand our knowledge and acceptance of families not made up of traditional male and female head of households who confine themselves to gender roles determined by their sex. By our society accepting that regardless of which gender role we choose to take on in families all provide value to our family and can be even expand over what we know these gender roles to represent.