For example, In today’s society we can clearly see that there are many objects geared towards men that are not geared towards women and vice versa. Earrings is an example of this About half of the United States population wear earrings. From day to day I see men, women, teenagers and even babies wearing them, and it is clear to see that some are made for women and not made for men. The earring itself can be used to define a persons sexuality; wearing certain types of earrings could affect the way society looks at you. The general public is programmed to believe objects are gendered.
Without these preconceived beliefs objects would Just be objects and would not be used as a determination of human characteristics. From the readings that were assigned from my Gender Women’s Studies class and my personal experiences, I learned that objects can be gendered by color, shape, size, and even texture. This lead me to the conclusion that objects have no meaning until society gives it an irrelevant and often sexist generalized meaning. Gender can come unexpected at any time in life. The situation is that you have to know how to handle it when it sneaks up on you, like it did me.
I went to Walter one day, going to look for a pair of earrings, I was stuck in the isle for a while, contemplating on which pair of earrings I should buy. I was torn between two similar types of earrings. Although they were different prices I was still cautious on Just buying the less expensive pair. One pair were studs that had pink rhinestones on It and It was medium sized, while the other pair was less expensive and was also some studs that were medium sized as well. Pasting back and forth in the isle for almost an hour. I decided to call over a consultant.
This person was a male employee I ask him which pair of earrings did he prefer to buy and he said the pair that was the cheapest. I was very stunned that he chose the cheaper pair because those were the ones that had the pink rhinestones embedded in them. Thanking him for his assistance and moving on to ask a female consultant about which pair would she prefer to buy and she pick the pair that looked the best and also the pair that happened to be much more expensive. However, after getting their advice I was still puzzled about which pair to buy because I had gotten two totally different opinions.
Deciding not to buy any pair, I went home and thought about why was It so difficult for me to choose a simple pair of earrings. It finally donned on me that men and women were confronted with different obstacles. Men are constrained by things that women are not constrained by and women are constrained Day tongs Tanat men are not constrained Day. History Itself shows this For example, women are expected to be the homemaker and the nurturer in contrast with men who are expected to be the bread winners. Americans have been programmed so well that their beliefs become innate. Its similar to Pavlov’s experiment with the salivating dogs.
He would ring the bell whenever it was time for the dogs to eat and the dogs became so used to it that they would start to salivate whenever they heard the bell ring because they knew it was time to eat. Humans have been trained the same way. We have been programmed since birth to follow these ideals. Even newborn babies are dressed in either blue or pink blankets to display their gender. Courageousness becomes a sign of femininity and muscularity becomes a sign of masculinity. Humans becomes so well trained that muscular or on-curvaceous women are considered to be unfeminine and less attractive to men.
The ideals set by society start to control are beliefs and in turn start to control are actions. While sitting at home I stumbled across a book entitled, Introduction to Women’s Studies, written by Internal Grew and Careen Kaplan; it had several articles relating to the roles of men and women in human society. There was an article called ” Gender and Consumption,” composed by Bruce Babcock, and it spoke about how men were the production; the ones who produce themoneyand the women were the consumption; aid to spend up all the money.
There was a part in the article where is stated that ” Production was active, led men earning money, and provided them with some form of power exercised through newly created trade unions, for instance” (329). However, it also implied that ” Consumption was more passive, involved spending money, and did not lead to any publicly recognizable forms of power” (329). After reading this article, it had me thinking about the pair of earrings that I left in Walter It left me with the question of what makes men and women different. Men do not care about assign, but when they do it seems that they are categorized as being gay.
In this case the government has manipulated the citizen’s minds in society to have them think that certain looks are only for certain types of people. But most times men tend to Just buy what every appeals to them the greatest. This is why the male employee chose the cheap pair of earrings, not because he liked pink, but because they were cheaper. Women on the other hand are expected to like more expensive things, so society would refer to them as ” gold diggers. ” A lot of advertisers target women cause they know how to manipulate women into buying the most expensive merchandise.
A piece called, ” On Gender and Things,” by Newly Dishonor is located in the Gender Women’s Studies reader. What Dishonor expresses in this piece is that ” objects can become gendered because innovators anticipate the preferences, motives, tastes, and skills of the potential users, and the cultural norms in society at large” (Reader: 65). Dishonor also implies that, ” due to the norms values that are inscribed into a technical artifact, objects can attribute and delegate specific roles, actions, and responsibilities to their users” (Reader: 65).
Another article in this book, called, ” Woman is an Island,” written by Judith Williamson, sells a product, which is pond’s cream cocoa butter, and it is made for women only. This product and the earring is related to one another by directing their viewing to a specific audience. For example, in the text of the article, it says that it is meant Tort women to prove teen wilt n ten smoothest Ana sorest silk ever. As Tort a certain type of earring, like the hoop for example, is meant for women only.
Men were not looked at in this case because they are looks as being masculine, which means that it is mandatory for their skin to be so called ” rough. ” Well, that is what the government says, and the society Just feeds in on this nonsense. For instance, in the article it states that, ” with colonial economies as with thefamily, capitalism feeds on different value systems and takes control of them, while nourishing their symbolic differences from itself” (314). This again leads me back to earrings because earring type wore can also be based onculture.
I wonder if the consultants at Walter knew that the earrings were gendered and that each pair was meant for a man and a womenI believethat things like this often go unnoticed. We often fail to notice the sexism involved in the things we do not even realize we believe in. In this 21st century, femininity and masculinity is greatly support by what the government proclaims. Humans constantly let society define what they believe This can all be seen through a simple pair of earrings. Objects are just objects you ultimately decide what they mean for you; they do not have meaning unless you give them meaning.
