Men And Women Essays - Gender Studies, Gender Role, Free Essays

Men And Women Essays - Gender Studies, Gender Role, Free Essays Men and Women Whoever said men and women are equal must be blind. Women have always taken a back seat to men in American society. This occurrence is not only found in the United States, but in other countries as well. It's safe to say that the Declaration of Independence started it and it has continued to the present. There is one set of standards that apply to men, and another set of standards that apply to women. This is evident in the home, workplace, and society in general. The problem of men and women not being equal can be traced back to the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal. There was no mention of women being equal, only men. At the time of the drafting of the document, the men had all the power. The document was even drafted by a man. Women were confined to the home to take care of the domestic housekeeping duties. Look no further than the home to see the first sign that men and women are not equal. The traditional role of the man was to work and the money he made would be used by all in the household. The traditional role of the woman was to stay home, take care of the children, clean the house, and cook. Because society has always associated money with power, the person bringing home the money had the power. The man often makes the final decision on all household matters because he has the money. The workplace is another place where men and women are not equal. The most obvious sign starts at the top. Look at the CEO of the corporation. The majority of CEOs are men. Women serving as CEOs are a rare sight. Another sign of the unfairness can also be found in the lower ranks. Men are often applauded for being assertive and giving orders. By giving orders, men are taking a leadership role. Demonstrating leadership ability is a quality that employers often look for. On the other hand, women who are assertive and give orders are not well liked in the work place. They are considered as bitches by men. For women to be well liked in the work place, they have to be subordinate to the men. The salary of men and women who do the exact same work differ. Women often make less than men even though they do the exact same thing. In 1990, the median income was $29,172 for men and $20,586 for women. The fact that women often hold lower ranking positions contribute to the ! problem. There are many gender stereotypes associated with certain jobs. Secretaries, nurses, and maids are associated with women. Corporate executives, lawyers, doctors, politicians, and construction workers are associated with men. Society as a whole has also contributed to the problem. It starts at the hospital when a baby is born. Boys get blue blankets while girls get pink blankets. Toys are targeted at either boys or girls. Toys that are targeted at boys include trucks, blocks, guns, and soldiers. Toys that are targeted at girls include dolls, kitchen utensils, and doll houses. Boys are raised to be aggressive, tough, dominant, and daring. Girls are raised to be passive, emotional, sweet, and subordinate. The pattern continues on through marriage and beyond. A clear example of male dominance can be seen when a woman gets married. The woman would change her last name to that of the man's. She also loses her first name in some instances too. When a piece of mail is addressed to both parties, the name reads Mr. and Mrs. John Doe. The woman's name is not mentioned. Another example that men and women are not equal are the terms used to described the sexual habits of men and women. Men who are promiscuous are considered studs, macho, and manly. Men often boast about the many partners they have had. Women who are promiscuous are considered sluts, whores, and prostitutes. Women tend to hide the number of partners they have had. If a man has sex before marriage, he is getting experience and exploring his options. If a woman has sex before marriage, she is not considered

Be Your Own Ideal Reader

Be Your Own Ideal Reader Be Your Own Ideal Reader Be Your Own Ideal Reader By Michael Our article Your Ideal Reader prompted a response from veteran writer Kilburn Hall, who wrote: There is no â€Å"ideal† reader and if you start trying to write for one specific audience, you’re going to tune out others that might actually be interested in reading your book. How can Mr. Hall can say that? Because, like most successful writers, he is his own ideal reader! Instead of trying to please an imaginary member of a writers market (middle-class men aged 35-65), he is trying to please himself. And like every successful writer, he is single-minded about catering to this ideal reader, which happens to be himself. So his manuscripts satisfy editors, and his books satisfy readers. When you look at it that way, though, its not true that writing for one specific audience will tune out others. If you dont decide who youre writing for, even if its yourself, your writing becomes vague, even useless. A finance article for corporate accountants probably wont help college students cut their expenses. I would say this principle applies to novels as well. If you write an adventure novel because you really like adventure novels, the lovers of adventure novels will perk up, and other readers can at least tell theyre reading the real thing. Writing for specific readers, or a specific purpose, doesnt keep other people from reading your piece, just because you werent thinking about them when you wrote it. Yes, youll tune out some readers if your publisher prints on the cover, To Be Read By Middle Class Women Only, which is why your publisher doesnt do that. But your publisher is very interested in making sure middle class women know when a book is targeted for them. The pastels and flowers on the cover might tune out some middle class men. But if you dont know what youre writing about, youll tune everybody out. One group that Mr. Halls message is especially relevant for, however: aspiring writers who are willing to compromise their vision to make a sale. You have to write the book thats in you, not the book that youd like to think was in you. If you pretend to be writing for particular ideal readers just because they buy a lot of books, but your heart isnt in it, the quality of your writing will suffer, and you wont fool your readers either. But if you say, as Herman Melville did, I want to write a novel about a white whale, and I dont care if anybody else reads it, youll do all right. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Compared "to" or Compared "with"?Use a Dash for Number RangesStarting a Business Letter with Dear Mr.

Iraq War Annotated Bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Iraq War - Annotated Bibliography Example In addition, it analyzes the question of the beneficiary in broader terms by looking at possible ways, long and short-term impacts. It also considers economic and interest of China and US concerning the aftermath of the war. This article notes that China has emerged as the biggest economic beneficiary of the war by snagging five lucrative deals, hence helping the nation to overcome its security risks. It also notes that China displaced US as Iraq’s trading partner making them loose on many opportunities and trade ties. The article notes that Iraq-US war led to the death of over 4500 soldiers and over 30,000 injured and more than $1 trillion operational cost in the US. Similarly, US failed to establish capitalist democracy, making them loose. On the other hand, Iraq lost over 100,000 civilians and the displacement of over 2 million people. This was a loss to the two nations involved in the war. The book talks about grafts in the Administration of George Bush and the ways it went down as a lasting damage to the country. The book also outlines the decisions that Bush took to invade Iraq without any positive impact on the Americans. According to the book, the US was a loser in the war against Iraq, and it will take the nation decades to recover from the effects. The book notes that neither US nor Iraq won the battle since they all loss because there was material waste among other factors. US failed to achieve its control, but instead laid a framework for other nations such as China to take control of Iraq. It concludes by stating that political mileage was never reached as America had anticipated, and this led to their loss. The author of this book argues that the US-Iraq war was a blessing to the enemies since Iraq benefited because Shiite got power after eighty years of oppression and exclusion under the leadership of Saddam Hussein. There was power balance in Iraq as minority communities

Read below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Read below - Essay Example Such a status quo does not behove for a peaceful resolution of the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty or the Chinese ‘One China Policy’. Changes that have occurred in China in the last two decades that have the potential to propel it to the forefront in world economics and politics create a platform for China to be more accommodative to a peaceful resolution to the irritants that exist between it and Taiwan. Recent events, like the historic visits of the Head of State of Taiwan to mainland China add to the potential for. It is against this backdrop that the author lays down a possible political solution to the vexing issues of China’s insistence on only one China and the autonomy aspirations of China. The political solution suggested by the author is the â€Å"Greater China Union†, wherein the one China policy of mainland China is accepted on one hand and some of the autonomy aspirations of Taiwan are conceded by China. By worldwide acceptance of the fait accompli of a single state of China, the pride of China remains unaffected, which would find acceptance to the more realistic politicians in Beijing and also derive the benefit of concessions on autonomy aspirations of Taiwan. The author also lays out the status of Taiwan within the â€Å"Greater China Union† concept. The â€Å"Greater China Concept† calls for an asymmetric relationship between that of the federated state (Taiwan) and a greater larger federate power (China). The asymmetry lies in Taiwan maintaining greater internal autonomy and giving up some of its international autonomy in the potential Union of the two federations. The first element in the potential union is the demilitarization of Taiwan under international guarantees on the similar lines of the Finland-Aland model, already a real precedent in existence. The Aland Islands are demilitarized under international guarantees and Finland looks after the foreign affairs of the Aland

Targeting Teenagers Essay Example for Free

Targeting Teenagers Essay When taking a look around at the night life of any city of the western culture we may come to a conclusion that pubs and party places are stuffed with under aged children below 20 or even 18. These kids need more energy to survive the rush of the nightlife therefore it is not unusual to see them drinking energy drinks – or even mixing it with alcoholic beverages. Do the producers and marketers of such energy drinks like Red Bull or Monster think of the unhealthy effects of these drinks on adolescents? A perception can be made that such beverages are highly effecting and endangering the health of their consumers – teenagers and adults – however, their producers are targeting at the most vulnerable and willing to spend audience – the teenagers of the western cosmopolitan cities. The long term goal of producers and marketers of energy drinks is not less but to own as high percentage of the market share as possible, using any kinds of marketing tools, without taking into consideration ethics and the health risks caused by energy drinks. Health Effects. It is a well-known fact that energy drinks such as Red Bull or Monster contain ingredients that could be harmful not only for teens but for adults as well in the long run. According to pharmaceutical studies of Clauson et al. (2008) ginseng, taurine, guarana, bitter orange, and caffeine – key ingredients of energy drinks – may interact with each other in a way that can cause symptoms varying from headache, insomnia, high blood-pressure, stroke, or even heart attack. Various sources from the Internet show evidence that teenagers‘ health was harmed after consuming energy drinks. In Colorado Springs, several high school students last year became ill after drinking Spike Shooter, a high caffeine drink, prompting the principal to ban the beverages. In March, four middle school students in Broward County, Florida, went to the emergency room with heart palpitations and sweating after drinking the energy beverage Redline. (Parker-Pope, 2008) ‘Three years ago, Ross Cooney, 18, from Ireland, died after he shared four cans of Red Bull and played in a basketball match. ‘ (Nordqvist, 2004). In the mean time it must be mentioned that not only the ingredients can be harmful and risky for the teenage consumers but the lack of responsibility during drinking energy drinks plays an important role as well. While adults are – or should be – able to keep their limits, teenagers act in the most unexpected ways. ‘But the biggest worry is how some teens use the drinks. Some report downing several cans in a row to get a buzz, and a new study found a surprising number of poison ­center calls from young people getting sick from too much caffeine. ‘ (Johnson, 2006). Other sources underline that another factor effecting adolescents is strongly in connection with their behaviour. Energy drinks may negatively affect those teenagers, who are more aggressive by nature, ‘High consumption of energy drinks is associated with toxic jock behavior, a constellation of risky and aggressive behaviors including unprotected sex, substance abuse and violence. ‘ (Parker-Pope, 2008) Based on the above risk factors and several other additional ones numerous countries and states have already banned – or attempted to ban energy drinks, however, they were not able to sustain the state of rejection for a longer time span. For instance France, Denmark and Norway have banned Red Bull for a certain amount of time – the ban was upheld by the European Court mainly because the caffeine levels were considered to be safe and negative effects of other ingredients were not supported. The European Union enforced Red Bull and other energy drink providers to warn their consumers of the high caffeine content (Nordqvist, 2004). In the United States there have been several attempts as well to ban energy drinks – to protect adolescents, but the law does not make any restrictions possible. Energy drinks, which are classified as dietary supplements, are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). That means they dont have to follow the same strict limits that the FDA places on potentially harmful ingredients such as caffeine (a primary component of energy drinks) that soda makers must follow. (Park, 2011) Based on the above studies a conclusion can be made that even though energy drinks contain ingredients that can be harmful if consumed un-responsibly, the level of ingredients are still considered to be safe. Teenagers must be taught that consumption of such beverages should be kept below a certain limit or should be avoided. Attracting Teenagers Why is it so attractive for teenagers to consume Red Bull, Hell, Burn, Monster, or any other energy drinks? Most probably because these drinks are considered to be the drink of popular, young, successful people – mostly sportsmen. Goodman’s video about The Merchants of cool (2001) describes this situation clearly – being cool is essential to teenagers to be in the spotlight. Marketing cool became very popular these days, due to the well known fact that teenagers of metropolitan cities tend to use – eat, drink, wear – whatever they believe is cool and in the mean time their parents are willing to pay for these items. In the sudden a product becomes mass or becomes un-cool according to these teenagers, they are not willing to purchase them anymore. The teenagers who are willing to pay for the products represent a strong and rich audience. Therefore marketers should keep this in front of their eyes when designing new marketing strategies, mostly when talking about brands that tend to target the teenagers. If we take a look at what the energy drink brands represent, it is visible that they are either committed sponsors of extreme sports, other popular sports, (Ho, 2006) or position themselves in the centre of leisure and parties (Arlidge, 2004). This certainly is cool amongst adolescents. It can be stated that Red Bull, Monster, or other beverages are the representatives of cool. Which cool teenager would not like snow boarding, skate boarding, monster trucks, air shows, Formula-1, cross motors, car racing or any other dangerous extreme sport like skydiving? (Helm, 2005) Therefore these producers target teenage buyers exactly they way they should be targeted. Does this seem unfair, or is this an example of perfect targeting? It must me mentioned that these energy drinks give the message to teens never to rest and always do something – to be always on the move. Today a usual American watches television approximately 4 hours 45 minutes per day (Shea et al. 2010, p. 165) hours per day. By the age an average teenager reaches the age of 21 he or she has watched more than 20 000 hours of television already. Most teenagers use the Internet throughout the day, however, only 28% of them looks for fitness and health tips (Oblinger, 2005). It is also stated that over 155 million children are overweight world wide, similarly in the United States and in the European Union, approximately 35% of adolescents are considered to be overweight or obese. (Shea et al. 2010, p. 166) Red Bull spends annually billions of dollars on not only sponsoring sports, but also building its own sports teams (Ho, 2006). Varying from numerous different sport categories, Red Bull attracts millions of teenagers towards these sports. For instance skate boarders Ryan Sheckler, Zered Bassett, Joey Brezinski, or Nick Dompierre are well known endorsers of Red Bull. They have millions of fans worldwide and hundreds of teenagers started skate boarding because of them. We can mention thousands of examples where an energy drink brand sponsored sport idol became the hero of teenagers. Because of these idols teenagers later on started doing sports instead of just sitting at home. Should parents thank Red Bull or Monster for doing this? Red Bull can easily reach its target audience through showing them how popular and trendy it is to drink their beverages. In the mean time they give the message to teenagers never to rest, and to do some sports, therefore they can become the cool and popular actors of their environment. Etical Behaviour After seeing what product Red Bull offers to teenagers, and knowing how these adolescents are reached, it is essential to take into consideration whether marketing tools of energy drink providers are ethical or not. The American Marketing Association clearly defines what is considered to be ethical from marketing point of view, however, it must be mentioned that acting ethically is always relative, it depends on the values and norms what a certain individual, or what the society tends to understand as ethical. American Marketing Association states that norms are the following: do not harm; foster trust in the marketing system; embrace ethical values; while ethical values are: honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency, citizenship (American Marketing Association, n. d.). Let us take a look at these one by one through the actions of Red Bull. Do not harm: ‘This means consciously avoiding harmful actions or omissions by embodying high ethical standards and adhering to all applicable laws and regulations in the choices we make. ‘ (American Marketing Association, n. d. ) We have seen that even though we cannot state clearly that energy drinks are harmful for teenagers, they could have negative effects if they are consumed un-responsibly. Red Bull strongly covers its decisions of the ingredients of beverages through a legal perspective. Currently the amount of caffeine and taurine are below the unhealthy limits, therefore Red Bull cannot be questioned from legal point of view. On the other hand if we take a look at a can of Red Bull it is not described clearly how many milligrams of caffeine or taurine could or should be consumed per day, or how many cans of energy drink can an adult drink without risking his or her health. Just like on the package of cigarettes or alcoholic beverages it should be mentioned in a visible, obvious way that drinking more than one can of energy drink per day could have harmful effects on health. Red Bull does not harm its buyers, however, the consumers should be educated more about the beverage. In return for this action Red Bull could be representing the care towards consumers. Foster trust in the marketing system: This means striving for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process as well as avoiding deception in product design, pricing, communication, and delivery of distribution (American Marketing Association, n. d. ). Red Bull communicates towards customers that their drinks will ‘Give you wings‘. They position themselves in the centre of extreme sports and parties where extra energy is essential. The picture they have built throughout the years is representing values of the company in an obvious, clear, and fair way. When we take a look at the price of a can of Red Bull it also represents that this beverage somehow stands out from other non-alcoholic drinks such as Coke or Sprite (Helm, 2005). Therefore they clearly give the message that this drink is something special and should be consumed only when the human body needs extra energy and wants to be on the top. Embrace ethical values: ‘This means building relationships and enhancing consumer confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming these core values: honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency and citizenship. ‘ (American Marketing Association, n. d. ) Red Bull’s target audience is the male population, from teenagers to 25-30 year old adults (Helm, 2005), however, when looking at teenagers, those who really purchase – or pay for – the drinks are mostly their parents, of which Red Bull is confident, therefore they should give a message to the parents as well about honesty, responsibility, fairness, etc. Right now – according to previous studies of this paper – parents are the ones who trust the least these energy drinks and are scared of its negative effects on their teen children. Red Bull is honest, since what they state is true. Their beverage contains a high amount of taurine and caffeine that gives more energy and ‘wings‘. On the other hand it is hard to say they are responsible. They do not focus on telling their teen consumers that the drink can be harmful, and in the mean time they drag the adolescents to dangerous extreme sports. These surely will not win the trust of parents. Red Bull and other energy drink providers should win the trust of parents by either not letting teenagers drink their beverages, or create a certain type of drink that is – even if consumed un-responsibly – cannot have any negative effect on adolescents. All in all Red Bull’s actions of marketing are legally covered and they cannot be mentioned as an unethical company, however, certain restrictions and actions would make them appear in a much more positive scene. Conclusion and Recommendations We have come to the final conclusion that energy drinks contain ingredients that can be harmful for consumers – teens, adolescents, or adults – however; they are endangering health only if they are consumed irresponsibly. It is truly visible that the target audience of the highly caffeinated drinks are male adolescents (age 18-25), who tend to use more energy, or show the society how popular and cool they are. Sources have underlined that energy drinks are consumed by even younger teenagers, whose drinking habits may become dangerous, since they do not tend to focus on the healthy consumption of energy drinks. Red Bull and other similar beverage providers should put more focus on teenagers and provide them more details on how the energy drinks should be consumed. Marketers of Red Bull and other energy drinks focus obviously on gaining the highest market share possible, however, they are keeping all the necessary limits to be legally covered. Besides the possible unhealthy effects of the beverages these firm focus on sponsoring sports, which can help the health of teenagers in the long run, and attract them towards sports. The more they can effect teenagers to start doing some sports, the more helpful they can get for parents – therefore the presence of energy drinks on the market causes controversies. To avoid confrontation with parents in the future energy drink producers should focus more on educating consumers how to drink their beverages, and state clearly on the cans the ingredients of their products. The best possible solution would be to mention on the packaging visibly that teenagers below 18 should not consume energy drinks, or to create a product for younger teens that can be consumed without limits, at any time of the day. List of References American Marketing Association (n. d. ). Statement of Ethics. Available at: http://www. marketingpower. com/AboutAMA/Pages/Statement%20of%20Ethics. aspx (Accessed: 1 November 2011) Arlidge, J. (2004). How Red Bull woke up the teen market. The Guardian, 5 December [Online]. Available at: http://www. guardian. co. uk/media/2004/dec/05/advertising. formulaone (Accessed: 31 October 2011) Clauson et al. (2008). Safety issues associated with commercially available energy drinks. Pharmacy Today 14 (5), pp. 52–59. Conway, C. (2011). A Sports Marketing Success Story. Available at: http://www. sportsnetworker. com/2011/03/08/a-sports-marketing-success-story/ (Accessed: 29 October 2011) Helm, B. (2005). Energy Drinks Build Their Buzz. Bloomberg Businessweek, 5 January [Online]. Available at: http://www. businessweek. com/smallbiz/content/jan2005/sb2005015_8196_sb017. htm (Accessed: 29 October 2011) Ho, M. (2006). For Red Bull, Its Here, There and Everywhere. The Washington Post, 23 August [Online]. Available at: http://www. washingtonpost. com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/22/AR2006082201516. html (Accessed: 28 October 2011) Merchants of Cool, The (2001). Directed by Barak Goodman [DVD]. A Report on the Creators Marketers of Popular Culture for Teenagers. s. l. , PBS Nordqvist, C. (2004). French ban on Red Bull (drink) upheld by European Court. Available at: http://www. medicalnewstoday. com/releases/5753. php (Accessed: 29 October 2011) Oblinger, D. G. (2005). Educating the Net Generation. s. l. , s. n. Olson, J. (2011) For some kids, drinks can pack a risky punch. Star Tribune, 13 February [Online]. Available at: http://www. startribune. com/lifestyle/wellness/116136804. html (Accessed: 1 November 2011) Park, A. (2011). Energy Drinks May Harm Health, Especially for Children. The Time, 14 February [Online]. Available at: http://healthland. time. com/2011/02/14/energy-drinks-may-harm-health/#ixzz1cRphxGJE (Accessed: 28 October 2011) Parker-Pope, T. (2008). Energy drinks linked to risky behavior among teenagers. The New York Times, 27 May [Online]. Available at: http://www. nytimes. com/2008/05/27/health/27iht-27well. 13247828. html (Accessed: 28 October 2011) Sarasalin, K. , Watthanachai T. (2009). The internationalization process of Red Bull from the perspectives of global expansion. Master Thesis. Malardalen University. Shea B. , Harvey-Berino J. , Johnson R. (2010). Watching television: how does it influence the dietary quality of children?. Nutrition Bulletin 35(2) pp. 165-171. Academic Search Complete [Online]. Available at: http://web. ebscohost. com (Accessed: 1 November 2011) Sonneville K. , Gortmaker S. (2008). Total energy intake, adolescent discretionary behaviors and the energy gap. International Journal Of Obesity 32 (19-27). Academic Search Complete [Online]. Available at: http://web. ebscohost. com (Accessed: 1 November 2011).

Socially Responsible Corporations Essay -- essays research papers

Socially Responsible Corporations   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Socially Responsible Companies are those that put the public interest as a priority in everything they do. These companies range anywhere from the food industry (Ben and Jerry’s) to communications (Motorola). These companies are noted as philanthropists, and are the leading companies in their markets. They also, most of the time, have very loyal employees who love working at their companies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The leader in socially responsible companies is the Fannie Mae Foundation. This company strives to help minorities in purchasing their first home. The Fannie Mae Foundation purchases mortgages from lenders and then repackages them for sale as securities. This has enabled them to keep mortgage rates low, and help the normally overlooked homebuyers, become homebuyers. Also, most uniquely, they help those of the Muslim faith, who follow the Islamic law which bans paying or collecting interest on debt. By setting up monthly payment plans based on property price, the Muslims are enabled to become homeowners and still keep law.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second company listed as a major contributor as a socially responsible corporation is Procter and Gamble. Procter and Gamble has excelled in helping minorities and women, as well as aiding the needy in foreign countries. For example, P&G donates to the underprivileged youth in Vietnam, as well as providing for the fight against childhood...

Gender Roles Essay

â€Å"We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons†¦but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters,† (Gloria Steinem, American feminist). Gender roles refer to the set of social and behavioral norms that are considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex in the context of a specific culture (Wikipedia). Gender roles are expectations of how an individual should act, dress, talk, walk, etc. based on their sex, which is biological. Gender roles shape the pressures and expectations society places on male and female individuals. For instance in the old American culture men had to be the main source of income in the family, while women were expected to stay home take care of the children and do the domestic housework. In the short story â€Å"Girl† Jamacia Kincaid illustrates the feminine roles her mother taught her growing up and the expectations she needs to meet as a women, a wife, and a mother. In contrast with Kin caid, Michael Kimmel’s essay â€Å"Bros before Hos: The Guy Code† explores the code of masculinity that young men are expected to follow. Traditional gender roles influence many individuals in a positive or negative aspect as they grow and either resist or give in to the expectations within society. Growing up as little girl, my mother would always teach me the social expectations of the feminine roles associated with our tradition. I would always be playing with dolls, dressing in skirts, putting bows in my hair, pretending to be a princess and acting like Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz always clicking my sparkly red shoes. However, the pressures and expectations of the gender roles associated to your sex are more profound as you grow into an adult. As I grew into a young woman the expectations I had and still to this day have to meet are much more demanding and expected. Kincaid states, â€Å"This is how you set a table for dinner; this is how you set a table for dinner with an important guest; this is how you set a table for lunch; this is how to behave in the presence of men who don’t know you very well†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (385). Kincaid explains some of the feminine demands and expectations  her mother would teach her growing up. Similar to Kincaid experience, my mother would also establish the feminine roles and demands that I needed to accept and fulfill from the expectations that have been set forth from generations of women. However, the expectations I needed to meet to fulfill the duties as a wife and mother conflicted with my expectations of not wanting to be a wife or mother at all, but to establish and purse a stable career for myself. The view of femininity in the culture I was raised with compared to old American culture of the 50’s and 60’s. Women were seen as objects, accessories. Femininity was viewed as being fragile and weak, as well as having a â€Å"natural† mother like instinct. Women in my culture are defined as being dependent on a man, stay home do the groceries shopping, clean the kitchen, prepare breakfast, lunch, and dinner, iron their husbands shirt and pants, â€Å"wash every day, even if it’s with their own spit† (Kincaid 385), keep the household in order, and be the perfect wife, mother, and women or at least pretend to be. However, these traditional views of what feminine roles are defined as conflict with the mainstream American culture of today’s feminine expectations. Women in today’s culture are defined as either the main source of income or contribute the equal amount of income with their spouse. Women are seen as independent and many women have established stable careers. In â€Å"Bros before Hos† Kimmel asked a female college student what it means to be a women she stated, â€Å"’Nobody can tell me what it means to be a women anymore’† (462). In modern American society being a woman has no concrete formulated expectation or role that she is expected to fulfill. Although in today’s modern American society views women differently as they once did, my culture still views women in a more traditional aspect. These conflicts or being independent or dependent, pursuing a career or being a domestic house wife and mother affect both expectations I have to meet with my family culture and the culture I was born into. Being one of the youngest girl in my family I would observe my cousins and see them being pressure of the roles and expectations that where concretely defined in my cultures view of femininity. Their decisions of following the domestic housewife role  affected me to resist these pressures, while they did not and gave me the courage to fulfill my and modern American society’s expectations of what being a woman is and not just stay at home and spend all my husbands’ money because I have nothing better to do. Gender roles have always been a social issue that shape the way we think of others. These roles perceive women as fragile and weak, while men are seen as aggressive and show little to no emotion. Gender roles can vary from one culture to another and have different expectations associated with masculine and feminine roles individuals have to obtain. Gender expectation such as women have to stay home and do the domestic housework, while men are the source of the primary income can either conflict or reinstate the expectations of you. These roles can affect an individual either in a positive or negative ways, whether or not they want to override the social norm of what society says is acceptable or give into the pressure of the roles society established for each gender. The gender roles one’s culture establishes or society establishes becomes more overwhelming as we grow older, enforcing these expectations further. Also, your culture’s view of masculinity or femininity may conflict with mainstream American culture and a rise conflicts for an individual. It’s up to them whether they want to endure the pressures or resist the pressures of traditional gender roles or modern American gender roles. Word Count: 1,025 Reference Page Kincaid, Jamaica. Girl. Boston, Mass.: Bedford/St. Martin’s, (2013): 384-386. Print Kimmel, Michael. Bros before Hoes: The Guy Code. Boston, Mass.: Bedford/St. Martin’s, (2013): 461-471. Print.