Good The Hierarchical Concept In Gender Roles Essay Example

The necessity of hierarchies when societies seek to impose specific gender roles are evident in the literature written during the reign of the Tang Dynasty. Apparently, the understanding of male and female roles revolved around the specific behaviors and actions to which one either adhered or performed according to his or her sex orientation. Thus, as per the views of the societies in the mentioned period, men were to behave differently in comparison to their female counterparts. To that end, no matter how one looks at such an arrangement, the women were of a lower social rank while men enjoyed liberties that allowed them to assume dominance. Thus said, gender roles are impossible to impose on a populace without establishing a hierarchy and the exploration of texts written about the cultural norms of the Tang Dynasty provide the necessary evidence.
Foremost, the regulations in the Tang Dynasty were not a mere matter of the Imperial powers imposing their supremacy over the people. On the contrary, there was the Confucian philosophy or the “ren” from which all the doctrines stemmed, and deviation from any of them was automatically immoral. Accordingly, in Han Yu and the Confucian “Way”, the authors portray the notion of the “ren” principle as an issue that relied on one’s achievement of the “yi” through upholding righteousness and following the morally acceptable way otherwise termed as the “dao” (569). In that sense, gender roles were subject to ethical behavior and not mere traditions or the power of the emperor and that fact alone made them rigid for all persons.
In conclusion, rigid gender roles directly mean one group will be at a disadvantage as the other enjoys more liberties and pardons for failing to act as society expects of their persons. Naturally, society expects specific decorum when a person receives guests; however, it is impractical to assume that how a woman treats outsiders is a reflection of her abilities as a wife and a mother. Such restraints made women subject to familial and social criticisms that men did not have to handle.