Anyone else bothered by the increased blurring of gender roles?

[SkyeNeko]

SNIP

SNIP

ITS A TRAP. I love Ciel.

OT: i dont think beefed up guys should defend only girls, but also other guys who might have the disadvantage in a fight. the idea behind it has good intentions though....

 

[Worgen]

you pretty much lost any ability to have a normal conversation when you said "Despite what lemon-scented crunchy-granola liberals like to scream about in their podcasts" since you made yourself sound like some kind of right wing mouth breather. Which is especially dumb on a site like this that has a pretty left leaning user base, we like women, we know they dont need protecting, sometimes they like it and that is cool but they dont NEED it.

don't forget, we like men too. *gets weird looks* whaaaaaaaaaaaat? fine, I like men too.

(well I thought it was funny)

and some of us like men too apparently

 

[Lieju]

Because I address a viewpoint contrary to that held by the majority of Escapist users, I am automatically a troll? God forbid you have to be exposed to something outside of your carefully constructed social concepts on how the world works

If you want to be taken seriously, you might want to try writing an opening with a little more thought. Explaining your viewpoint a bit, how do you see gender-roles in the society you live in, and how they have changed in the past, what evidence you offer that there is some "blurring" and why it is a bad thing.

Your opening post is simply a statement of your dislike of "sissies", and that women need protecting, thus I will treat it with all the respect such an argument deserves.

 

[GeorgW]

Maybe it is being blurred, but I'm all for it? Why do we need gender roles anyways? I'm willing to agree that different genders may generally be more suited for certain things, but why must we be constricted by that? It's only good to encourage people to go against stereotypes. I like my beer and meat and women, but I'm still a fairly feminine guy, and I'm not ashamed of that.

 

[Wedlock49]

The point isn't really in the masculine/femine behavior as a pattern. The point is, current men are basically encouraged to be soft, weak and "smart" rather than strong.

Say you have a son. What would you rather him to be, a programmer or a lumberjack? See what I mean? Why should 'metrosexuality' be the default preferred way for men (and women alike) to behave?

There's been a thread here recently about someone wishing to join the army and he's been discouraged and frowned upon by almost everyone in his vicinity.

As a sidenote, let's not forget that metrosexuality was invented by homosexuals; current fashion (especially women's) is dictated by homosexuals. Ideals of corporal beauty (men and women alike) are also dictated by homosexuals. Strange pattern here.

I typed a real long reply but lost interest in it half-way through, this is a hard subject to discuss because of the wideness of the meanings of "boy and girl" and "maculine and feminine".

Generally this whole girly-guy thing is just people being pathetic. If a male were to behave like it I would tell them to shut the fuck up and if a female were to do it I would say the same. That isn't "feminising" people, it's coddling them and telling them that they're special.

 

[oooooooooooooooooooooooooo]

Not at all, in fact I think gender-based roles should be eradicated altogether. The idea of the strong male leaders who are "protectors of women" as you say, is a highly out-dated and, to be honest, childish view of how a family and social structure should be. Mental traits such as intelligence, artistry, calculation, etc are the only things that are important in modern social and economic structures, and they are not traits with any gender bias whatsoever.

 

[Gigano]

I am not bothered in the slightest by anyone who voluntary choose to embrace traits commonly associated with the other gender (or the other gender entirely, for that matter).

I could however agree to some concern that it's no longer always possible to choose what could be termed "traditional male values", since very few role models exist to showcase them; Not because they are in any way superior to other choices, but because they're not lesser either, and thus should be part of the available plurality you can pick from.

 

[TheEvilJester]

I don't mean to sound like a prick and all but its gonna happen anyways but then why can't I punch a girl in the face now a days but its totally fine to punch a dude in the face if he crosses me? Assuming of course the woman did the same.

 

[Bravo 21]

I worked as a camp counselor at my local YMCA with 12-14 year olds, and I have never seen such a group of sissies, hypochondriacs, and whiners. How are these boys going to grow up to be leaders of men and protectors of women?

The only way possible, at a local YMCA camp near where i live, me, and 8 other guys, plus 2 counselors, went on what is an extremely ridiculous trip. first, on guy had norwalk virus, so naturally everybody had to get norwalk virus, 2 people, from are cabin, were sent home, the remaining 6 of us then went on a 7 day hike, condensed into 5 days due to time lost from lying in bed, puking our guts out for the better part of 3 days. then day one happened, and we started hiking for several hours. Then we got to the designated campsite, put our gear down, and prepared to have dinner, then, while prepping the foodhang, one guy hear something, so rather that risk losing the food, we started hiking again. this continued for several hours, until 10 at night, when we reached the next campsite, only for one of the leaders to see a cougar. long story short we hiked until one in the morning, covering almost all of the distance to the next days campsite. The next day was easy, because after covering 20km the day before, 3km wasn't so bad. The fourth day we hiked up to the top of Mount Albert Edward, and the on to the next point, which would have been great, had there been any real trail to follow. The final day, we reached the campsite at roughly noon, so decided that we should just go to tommorrow pick up point and spend the night there. Unfortunatley for us, the trail ended and we had to find our way down the mountain to buttle lake, through a new growth forest in the dark. We eventually found the road to the campsite where we would then spend the night, only to discover we were several kilometers away. Fortunately we got a lift in the back of a pickup from a couple of park rangers. The next day we got back to find out that the group a year older than us had had similar difficulties.
TL;DR: we were on an epic hike through the wilderness, and it helped make us manlier. OP that is what must be done to the "sissies, hypochondriacs, and whiners" in order to make them leaders

 

[FaceFaceFace]

Yes actually, I am. Gender roles serve a purpose: they ensure that required tasks get accomplished in a partnership for both sides. This brings harmony into the relationship because less time arguing over who fills what roles means more time spent in further building love and a family. I see lack of defined gender roles contributing to the break-up of marriages and the rise of single-parent homes. It's not the SOLE reason, but it certainly is a cause.

I look at my family and I see prime examples: Great-Grandparents and Grandparents followed gender roles and they stayed married till death do they part. My Aunt Tina and her husband Dave are the same way with her being domestic and him working his ass off to monetarily provide. Now my uncle Tim married a 'career' woman and she felt that my uncle could work BOTH his job as a firefighter AND clean/cook/raise the kids. Suffice to say, ***** got his house, alimony and child support.

Most of you all will disagree with me, call me backwards and mysogynistic (I happent LOVE women btw). Doesn't necessarily make me wrong, just the holder of an unpopular (at this time) opinion.

The question then is which is more important? Lasting marriages, or a person's right to choose what kind of person they want to be? The reason your opinion is at this time, and likely will remain, unpopular is because most people would consider the second more important by far. Many people don't even want to get married, which would make constricting them to a gender role for that purpose especially oppressive.

 

[DevilWolf47]

Not only no, but regardless of what your sentiments are the belief that roles exist beyond what accidents of biological chemistry has left us with is frankly offensive.

What you should mourn is that these stupid shows are reducing individuality. Women becoming more assertive as opposed to brood mares makes for a more interesting world where everyone can develop their personalities free of such stagnant bullshit as gender roles and forced religion.

 

[Mimssy]

Nope, not even a little.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Welcome to 2010. Clearly you've just taken a visit from July 1914.

Men don't need to be manly any more and women don't need to be the damsel in distress. If we kept it like that then the grim reality is that there would be a lot of uncomfortable people in the world.

Calumon: Does this mean Jack can be someone's mommy?

...It's 2011

It's not 2011 until we've made contact!

Or until I've made that 2010 retrospect thing I'm doing.

Or if I'm going by the Chinese calendar.

Calumon: Awww... but the future's shiny! I wanna go forward a year! Please?

 

[emeraldrafael]

You may not intend to set women back, but that is what you're doing when you say that they need protected or that men have traits they are built for sociologically that women arent. Or that Women would be less suited for them.

Personally, I dont see anything wrong with it. The "feminization" of men is what is allowing the gay and lesbian culture to make a nice emergence. Its also letting those soft spoken boys who like to write stories and poetry have an easier time. I mean, if you think about it, if you took Charles Dickens, or Edgar Allen Poe, or William Shakespeare and put them into today's culture where muscle headed dumbshits are the ideal manly image in America, we wouldnt have the stories and poems that we do now (whether you like them or not).

Its also allowing the arts to come back and let men be apart of it. things like Fencing, track running, and other such sports that require a man to be lithe, lean and sleek arent being laughed as as much in comparison to the burly 300+ pound football player.

For women its doing much hte same, letting them decide to be single and strong, or do what a man can. In fact, in my town we have a female mechanic. Sure, she works under a man, but thats cause he's her relative of some kinda nd founded the business. But its looking now that if/when he dies, she'll take over.

So no, I'm not bothered,and while I understand you're not trying to be, its very Masculine chauvinistic statement and thought to say that these genderblurrings are bad or something that should be questioned. As to people being "sissies" now, is it any wonder in American culture, where you have to scared to breathe on someone for fear of being sued or labeled not CP. We're teaching people that everyone is equal and that kids/adults who are retarded or physically/mentally defective in comparison to "the normal human specimen" and that they shouldnt be made fun of. We're teaching kids not to be hurt and not to explore, because you could get picked up by a sexual predator.

Really, if I were to blame anything for the "feminization" of males is the inability to live in a neighborhood that is safe and you can roam around in without worrying about being picked up and kidnapped. I'm nto saying a nanny state is needed, but jut somehwere where you feel safe and able to walk around and scrape your knees.

I would also put a bit of blame on video games. I know, "Oh, he's blaming games, he must hate them" which isnt true, but kids today dont know moderation and will sit on games of fantasy and not want to go out into what is to them the depressing reality of the world.

 

[oktalist]

Welcome to 2010.

Greetings from 2011. How's the weather where you are?

EDIT: Oh, you darn space ninjas from the future.

 

[Uncreation]

To paraphrase Yahtze here:

Short answer: NO!

Long answer: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I hate gender roles, so they can go die in a fire as far as i care. Seriously, as far as i'm concerned, this can't happen soon enough.

I worked as a camp counselor at my local YMCA with 12-14 year olds, and I have never seen such a group of sissies, hypochondriacs, and whiners.

THEY'RE KIDS!! 12-14 year old kids. What do you expect from them? Sheeesh!

How are these boys going to grow up to be leaders of men and protectors of women?

Wait... is that a joke or are you serious? Are we getting trolled here? Who the hell says they're suppose to do that? Maybe they don't want to. Why force them? Personally i sure as hell don't want to lead men or protect women. And i don't see anything wrong with that. I mean, really, why is that a problem?