In today's comparatively progressive society, the value of established and traditional gender roles are increasingly being reviewed and investigated. Given the long-running activities, rights and perceptions attributed to women over the past several centuries, it is not hard to believe that these traditional roles for women (which are typically subservient to men) are often ardently defended. From the Latino fixture of the quinceanera, to the rampant stigmatization of women's weight, it is clear that women have certain expectations placed upon them that are reinforced by the society around us - women are supposed to go out and find a man to marry, and to maintain often extremely high standards of beauty. According to the tenets of the theory of structural functionalism, these traditional gender roles come from the perspective of placing certain parts of society into different functions so that the entirety of society may be practically useful. The result is traditional gender roles that completely dehumanize those who do not follow them. Through the writings of Bergman and Alvarez in particular, among others, it is clear that traditional gender roles are grounded in structural functionalism, have little positive value in increasing the self-worth of women, both biological and transgendered, and should be limited in their emphasis on daily life.
According to traditional gender roles, one of the primary goals of women is to get married and have children in order to continue their family. While this can be quite the laudable goal if sincerely desired, many cultures ingrain it in their children to such a degree that deviating from the norm is seen as abnormal and something to either be pitied or scorned. One way in which this decision is enforced is in ornate rituals like the Spanish quinceanera, in which young girls are pressured and expected to have such an ornate, expensive ceremony in which she is celebrated, in essence, for who she will be - a wife. In many ways, people can argue that these rituals serve as 'gateways' to the possessiveness and attention received at weddings, furthering the ideal that women should get married to feel this 'special' again. The quince and other such rituals establish the traditional role of the woman as someone who effectively trades agency for being doted after; she gets to have gifts, presents and fine clothes in exchange for pleasing a man enough to marry her, or creating the potential for grandchildren for her parents. "Even if she is at the bottom of the American heap, if the young Latina girl can believe the fantasythen she can bear the burden of her disadvantage" (Alvarez, p. 37).
The pressure to put women into families as young as possible cements into their personalities the idea that women have the single role of starting a family, as rituals like the quince are given positive connotations that are almost purely conjecture - "young girls who had quinceaneras didn't drop out of school, didn't get pregnant, didn't get in trouble" (Alvarez, p. 35). These mindsets imply that, were women to deviate from these traditional gender roles, they would be completely lost in the woods, without any moral or ethical compass with which to direct their lives. This type of thinking stigmatizes abnormal behavior as bad, and creates the impression of pity upon those who don't "manage" to get married and become a productive member of society.
Yet another traditional gender role that should be de-emphasized in value is the expectation that women must be thin, and have a specific body shape, in order to be attractive or have value. Much of this has to do with the fact that "male is the default in Western society," whether in appearance or in social hierarchy, meaning that much of Western society is designed to cater to the male (Bergman, p. 141). Therefore, women's appearance is placed under a great deal of pressure to conform to those concepts - thin, attractive waifish face, large breasts, little to no hair, etc. These particular societal expectations are linked heavily to the fetishization of youth, and perhaps the infantilization of women in order to make them less threatening or seemingly more likely to be submissive. For those who are transgendered, there is often an anxiety regarding the treatment of womens' bodies; some choose to make themselves 'part-time fatsos,' who are acceptable as fat men but unacceptable as fat women.
This hammers home the unique problems inherent to women's roles in traditional society; there is a unique double standard that takes place in which men can still be attractive while being overweight or stockier, while women cannot. There is a certain expectation of skinnyness that is held by many men toward women when looking for a sexual or romantic partner; however, with men, there is not the same stigma to be physically fit and thin - while there is still the ideal to be thin and physically attractive, failing those same high standards does not hold the same consequences for men as they do women. Bergman writes that "my fat body becomes a place of privilege," and that men often enjoy a particular kind of adoration or respect for being obese; it becomes a personality quirk rather than a flaw (p. 142). Women cannot enjoy this privilege nearly as much, as it is not offered to them; obese women are stereotypically either extremely sexually undesirable or overly boisterous in media depictions, as if to give them quirkier, 'butch' personalities to compensate for their lack of physical attractiveness. There is not nearly the stigma regarding being a fat man
In order to examine the reasoning behind these traditional gender roles and their value, we must understand the sociological constructs that create them. Structural functionalism, as a theory, states that society is one single whole with many interconnected parts - all important to the operation of the machine that is society. These parts take the form of cultural and societal norms; while many of these roles may be subjectively unfair, they must be performed by someone, or else the entire system of society falls apart (Parsons, 1964).
As it relates to gender, structural functionalism simply states that the man-woman relationship is an inequal relationship that, nonetheless, works toward a complete whole. The traditional view of the man working a job while the woman stays home to care for the children and do housekeeping is rooted in structural functionalism. This is viewed as a complementary relationship, with everyone having an equal role to play in the operation of the family unit. Extended to the entirety of society, men are given the harder, more physically laborious jobs, while women are left with clerical, administrative, and secretarial work - occupations typically considered less physically demanding, and therefore more 'feminine.'
If one were to look at it from a sociological perspective, the divide between men and women, as it is understood through the perceptions of traditional gender roles, is viewed through the lens of structural functionalism. Structural functionalism sees the current trend of women having less power and authority, and therefore less freedom, as a necessary evil of maintaining a stable society (Turner, 2003). However, one must vilify the apparent domination of men in society, as they continue to reap the benefits while women are unable to have the power to make the same choices and have the same opportunities. This leaves women on an unequal footing in regards to their life and liberty, and therefore these traditional gender roles must be opposed and devalued.
Structural functionalism is very much considered an 'old-fashioned' method of assessing gender relations; by equating feminine activities with male activities, the theory tends to downplay the oppression and objectification women feel as sex objects, when they simply wish to be treated as equals. This way of thinking has been downplayed ever since the advent of feminism in the 1970s, but the prevalence of structural functionalism has often been displayed as evidence of the male dominance of sociological theory during that time; "if one looks to the early masters of sociological theory, they were conspicuously quiet about gender issues, despite the fundamental facts that roughly one-half of the human population is female and that all patterns of social organizations have historically revealed a gender-based division of labor" (Turner, p. 182).
Functionalism tends to downplay the negative aspects of women's role in society as being necessary for social harmony. The function of women in society is directly family-related, and quite minimized when it comes to equal military service, equal presence in the workplace, and other such aspects. As a sociological theory relating to gender, it tends to place a blanket over a given society and saying that it works and functions mostly as a result of these established norms, regardless of their value or equality. This leads to the aforementioned maintenance of gender norms like the need for women to focus on having babies and placing value judgments on their appearance as per how a man would receive them (Turner, 2003).
In conclusion, there is little to no value in traditional gender roles as they existed in the past in today's society. Given the huge leaps forward in social and cultural perceptions of women, many of these lingering attitudes are holdovers from a simpler time, when men were able to get whatever they wanted and the majority of female culture was designed to pressure other women to conform along with them. The existence and prevalence of these traditions continues to hold back women in terms of their social lives, their work lives, and more. As a result, these kinds of traditional gender roles need to be reexamined and deemphasized in today's culture, so that women who do not fit into those expectations are not robbed of the advantages that others who play the game do enjoy. It is vastly important to understand that the kind of society we live in today should not place such an emphasis on outmoded ideas of what women 'are for,' as it has long since been proven that they are capable of doing more than that.
Works Cited
Alvarez, Julie. "Selections from Once Upon a Quinceanera."
Bergman, S. Bear. "Part-Time Fatso." The Fat Studies Reader. New York University Press,
2009. pp. 139-142. Print.
Turner, J. The structure of sociological theory (7th ed.). Belmont, CA:
Thompson/Wadsworth, 2003. Print.
