Chapter 6

Chapter 6 of Nancy Deutsch’s Pride in the Projects is titled “I can’t lose to no girl, man” The Gendered Self. This chapter focuses on the role that gender plays in our society and how it influences individuals and groups within society in different context. Deutsch seems to be emphasizing that, like race, gender roles have been constructed over time by society. Deutsch says that gender can be thought of in three different ways; as an activity, as a structure, or as an interaction between structure and activity.

The idea of gender as an activity is how a person of a certain gender acts during interactions with other human beings. These activities may often go overlooked by the individual, but are usually noticed and judged by their peers. Women crossing their legs when sitting or males wearing looser fitting jeans are things that often go unnoticed by the individual, but surrounding society judges individuals as tom-boyish, lesbian, gay, metrosexual off of all these small gestures.

Gender as a structure is a set of rules that controls and confines each gender in many instances. For example, as children grow older and begin to participate in athletic activities. Boys are expected to play football and baseball and girls are expected to cheerlead or take dance. Why can’t girls play football or baseball if they like the sport? Why is it rare that guys are cheerleaders or taking dance classes? These are ideas that our societies usually frowns upon because certain structures have been defined.

Deutsch goes on throughout the chapter to discuss how gender and gender roles have affect young people at East Side. One of the main points of the chapter is the focus of the strong African-American woman. Both African-Americans and women had their struggles for equality and many of these children have witnessed that within their homes in inner-city Midwest United States. This shows up when Deutsch is talking with the young girls and they express desires to be more masculine and strong. The feminine trait is a trait that is not desired by young people. The term feminine comes across as negative because society has constructed the idea of being feminine to being weak and inferior to masculinity. This further defends Deutsch’s argument that gender is unfairly constructed by society; however, it continues to control our thoughts and actions

Quotes

“Gender differences became institutionalized in industrialized nations through the movement from household economies to a market-based, non-agrarian society. Women’s labor became less visible, centered in the private sphere, leading to a view of women as dependent on men’s public labor” (135)

Women’s roles during this time became less visible and less physically demanding. This led to women’s role in society diminishing unfairly. It was the woman of the house who basically raised the child who was going to become the future generation of society. It is arguably a more important job to raise a child than to be able to make money for a household. Both jobs are extremely important, but raising a child is at least equal.

“ ‘Acting’ feminine is seen by some girls as appropriate and expected in certain situations. Yet it retains the characteristic of something that is “put on” rather than an intrinsic trait.” 139.

Being lady-like is a trait that women want to have in certain situations, such as going to a dinner or a dance, but it is not a desire characteristic in most situation. Most women have desires to have the masculine trait of strength.

Questions

Do you ever desire to express traits of the opposite sex? Girls do you have a desire to be the assertive one in a relationship rather than the man? Boys, do you have the desire to cry when things are not going your way? Is it okay to have desires of the opposite sex, or is it still important in today’s society to hide these feelings?
Do you think one gender has an advantage over the other in reaching success in the workforce? In politics? In school? Does it differ depending on which aspect of society we are talking about? If so, Why?

Media

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57454755/as-gender-roles-change-are-men-out-of-step/

I chose this article because it focuses on the evening out of genders in society. Our parents were raised in a generation where society was dominated by men. It is arguable that this still exist; however this article suggest that women are significantly closing that gap.

DMU Timestamp: October 17, 2012 03:33