Gender Roles

Gender Roles in Literature
In a society, there are set of accepted norms that expected to be met by everyone that is included within that society. As time passes, society begins to evolve and the standards change. What was once a normal standard of living in the early 1920’s may be seen as old fashioned and is no longer acceptable in the late 1980’s. These standards are the base of how one should live and are enforced through influences such as peers, media, and literature. Seeing women and male portrayed in a certain light in the media will reflect onto its audience and will form them into those roles that are presented. If one were to become defiant and stray away from these norms, it would be deemed unacceptable and unsuitable as the
It is seen as the way of life for males and females as their behaviour throughout their lives is centered around society’s gender roles. These roles vary from culture to culture and some are quite outdated for today’s modern society. Women are typically told to be feminine, dainty, and submissive in comparison to males. Men, on the other hand, are forced to be masculine, powerful, and to be the more dominant gender. These typical gender roles are still used throughout literature to portray the differences between the genders of the characters. The normativity of enforced gender roles in society has affected literature over the years as the standard for gender roles evolve. By constricting characters to typical female and male standards, gender roles are utilized in literature to present the stereotypical gender roles set in society and to set the base in which other characters will begin to defy these
Young children are easily influenced and are able to make the connection between how girls and boys behave in book and in reality. Yet, the including these typical gender roles in literature with an easily impressionable audience may “limit children’s choices, interests, and abilities” (Tsao). If children see actions that are not done by the characters they relate to, then they are more likely to not engage in those actions. However, in young adult literature, there seems to be a different gap settling between males and females. In the book series written by Diana Peters and Steve Pitt entitled Girlness: Deal With It Body and Soul and Guyness: Deal With It Body and Soul, they explain the explore the differences in girls and boys and explain how their behaviour differ from one another due to their gender. These books utilize gender roles to inform young and growing children about their role in society as a female and male. In Girlness, young girls are encouraged to gain confidence and to challenge their gender stereotypes (Robinson), which is much different from much younger children’s books that center around traditional feminine acts. In Guyness, young boys are told that it is natural and okay for young boys to be violent at times (Robinson). This