Gender Differences
Gender DifferencesI was surprised finding out that the topic for our paper was about our
feelings of belonging to the other gender. I think the title of the book
"Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus" by John Gray applies to how
different men and women are in their attitudes, feelings and lifestyles.
This experience for me will be enjoyable for me since I have never thought
what it would be like to be a female and also to hopefully give me a
better insight on a few questions that have interest me about women since
I was a little kid.
Both, men and women, are constantly concerned about looking "good" even
though they are physically different. In order to look appealing to
others, men are supposed to be big, strong, and athletic, whereas women
are supposed to be thin, pretty, and big-breasted. I often wonder why we
put so much emphasis on the way a person looks. I think females feel more
of the pressures of looking "good". In the past, I've talked to some of
my girlfriends and they told me that the pressure and competition they
are faced with is stressful and painful. I told them that I am not too
critical when checking out girls and when it comes to seeing other males
bigger or stronger than myself, that I don't feel too much pressure of
trying to look better than them. I am rather more concerned of my own
health and ways to improve it. I was really surprised when they told me
that other girls are the ones who usually criticize or pressure them.
When I was aware of this, I did notice, at times, while walking around
casually with my girl friends, when they weren't looking appropriate,
would get stares, hisses or comments from other females. I was even
surprised when I heard my girlfriends talking about other girls right in
front of me, even though most of these times I didn't notice anything
wrong or different about the other girls they were talking about. From
this observation, I think the pressure of always looking good would be
greater if I was to be a female. I would always try to look good and to
please others. Girls, I think, are faced with enormous pressures to look
good. Television, for example, almost never features old, heavy, or
unattractive women. Even if a character is a doctor or a scholar on
television, she looks like a Playboy bunny.
When it comes to sexuality, I think there is great confusion for both
males and females. One contributing factor is the double standard still
existing. For instance, the same girls who are pressured to having sex on
a Saturday night are called "sluts" and "hoes" on Monday morning. The
boys, or the "studs", who coaxed them into sex at the parties avoid them
in the halls at school. Also, our society doesn't have clearly defined
and universally accepted rules about sexuality. We live in a pluralistic
culture with contradictory sexual paradigms. We hear diverse messages
from our families, our churches, our...
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