Analyzing gender roles- Megan Beers

Today in AP lit we discussed gender roles within society and in literature. This coincides with the chapters that we are learning in AP psych: if it is nature or nurture that determines what happens to us during our life. In literature when we analyze gender roles the reader looks through the Gender Theory lens. The approach to this theory is to examine the role of gender in the text; it focuses on the place of the female in the text, as well as critiquing a patriarchal, misogynistic society. Feminist may argue that gender determines everything in a text, or that gender roles are determined and imposed by society and hence that gender, in reality, means nothing in a text. Theorists will examine the construction of both masculinity and femininity within the text. In AP Psych we analyzed how gender is developed and what influences our expectations for a certain gender.

Society assigns each of us a gender, the social category of male and female. The inevitable result is our strong gender identity, our sense of being male and female. To varying extents, we also become gender-typed; that is some boys more than others exhibit traditionally masculine traits and interests, and some girl more than others become distinctly feminine. Social learning theory assumes that children learn gender-liked behaviors by observing and imitating and by being rewarded and punished. The gender schema theory combines social learning theory with cognition: in your own childhood, as you struggle to comprehend the world, you formed schemas or concepts of your gender, then gender became a lens that through which you viewed your experiences.

In AP literature we took a tally on certain words that we considered male or female. Many of the responses from my classmate came from personal experiences and what they were taught to associate the word with. In literature when analyzing a piece through the gender theory lens the reader has to take into account the time period and the social norms for the time periods that the works were written in. What makes many pieces of work controversial in this theory is that gender roles become more and more similar with men and women than in earlier times. There are also social roles that distinguish themselves between male and females. In most societies, men are socially dominant examples being they tend to occupy more leadership roles and their leadership style is more directive than women’s. Males also tend to have more aggressive than females.

I found these theories really interesting because, they can clearly define the purpose of a novel, and it is interesting to look at the theories from a psychological point of view. I was a little disappointed to see that socially that males are dominant after all the progress throughout history that women have made through the women suffrage movements. These movements also have inspired many books that have challenged these gender roles such as The World According to Garp. These novels have brought the new ideas about feminism and new theories on gender roles.