Feminism Essay

To what extent do you agree with Judith Butler's theory that gender roles are socially constructed? Use examples from the media in your response.

Judith Butler talks about how traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into men and women gender behaviors, as they are not biologically. She argues that that dividing society like that is just reinforcing the differences between two genders. And that actually gender roles are performances and behavior that is socially constructed. Where to some extent I do agree that gender roles are socially constructed, as traditionally women are “expected” to be caring nurturing etc. And men are supposed to be the breadwinners and strong etc. However in society today we have women opening their own businesses and earning more than their husbands and men are men are apparently helping out more in the domestic side of the relationship. This shows men and women are not born with these characteristics but they are socially constructed.

Examples and ideas that show Judith Butler’s theory on gender roles being socially constructed are advertisements for boys and girls.  As a big example could be “Lego” as how over the years Lego’s advertising campaign aimed at certain audiences have changed. Such as at the beginning it was aimed at families, then it was aimed at boys and girls and finally just boys. However, recently Lego have released a new product range just for girls. And surprisingly it’s all about pink and fashion. Whereas the boys product range, actually encourages skills such as competition, creativity and independence to build and control their own world. But in the girls products it’s all about fashion, cooking and if there’s a problem in the city that’s right you call the boys to help. This shows a clear point on how the same toys can be advertised differently to the genders and represents different skills. As boys are encouraged to be the leaders the girls are supposed to take a step back and let the boys save them. This reinforces the traditional roles of men being the bread winners and women being the house wives, showing how gender roles are socially constructed.  As not only Lego toys but other toy advertisements such as superhero toys, power ranger toys or any other building toy. Which actively encourages them to fight and be aggressive whereas the girl toys are more about child rearing and domestic work. This could relate to uses and gratification theory as children who are younger than 12-13 would find it hard to use the media to their liking and during the secondary socialization use the media as an identification process, as in the adverts for boys the main protagonist in the advert is a boy, where other boys in the audience would identify with that wanting to buy that product and behave in that dominating where, same for the girl.

Another point that shows gender roles are socially structured, are in movies. As Hollywood is the biggest institution in producing movies and due to Americanization their construction of the gender roles have a big effect on society as that’s society’s main media consumption. An example could be Sweet home Alabama where in the first opening scene the 2 kids have highly stereotypes gender roles such as the boy protecting the girl and the girl talking about their marriage, showing the stereotypical roles of the brave man and timid woman. This has an effect on the audience as with uses and gratifications audiences will be able to identify with their gender role and due to hypodermic needle the traditional gender roles will inject into their mind. Leading, to them behaving in that way.

However in argument you can say gender roles are not socially constructed, as traditional gender roles make the woman a caring, nurturing housewife and the husband the breadwinner and a strong individual. However in society today women are becoming the breadwinners and are taking the role of the independent women. As how McRobbie a cultural theorist analyzed magazines aimed at women and teen girls in 80/90’s, where she found over that the connotations and messages of these magazines had changed and they reflected a more empowering and independent image for women.  For example in sweet home Alabama Reese Witherspoon is shown to be a working woman in New York City, she is shown to the boss rather than the employee of a male boss. This shows how the roles are not socially constructed as she’s the boss. This affects the audience as for psycho graphics aspirers within the female gender will aspire to be like the empowering female, which results in them behaving that way. Another example is Sandra Bullock in “the proposal” we see how she is a strong independent female and she doesn't need a man in her life, which shows that roles aren't socially constructed as how from a young age girls “traditionally” taught to be dependent on her husband and to always think about a married life with kids.  

But in contrast even though there are some examples of how roles are not socially constructed. I strongly believe that roles are socially constructed as even in the examples I have given of the strong female individual at the end of the movie the women go back to the male protagonist and get married have a happy married life, with the female being a housewife. Reinforcing the traditional roles and teaching females that even though u defy the traditional roles, at the end you will go back to them which isn’t very encouraging.

So in conclusion to a great extent I agree with Judith butler, as to the exception of some example and statistics that, women are becoming more independent and going against the traditional socially constructed roles. At the end they aren't very surprising or very encouraging as society still stays patriarchal and females still follow the traditional roles. As with secondary socialization being an important aspect in a child’s life, the media play a big role in influencing how children behave from a young age. And with TV programs reinforcing stereotype of females and males audiences inject these roles (hypodermic needle) and then behave in that certain way. However arguably I do agree due to the uses and gratification theory people can use and manipulate the media for their benefit, such as using it for escapism, personal integrative needs or social needs.  Therefore, rejecting the characteristics and values (preferred and oppositional view). However I do believe that roles are socially constructed, as females and males are expected to behave in a certain way and if they don’t the audience do view them differently.  As feminists that oppose these traditional roles, are seen as crazy or rebellious e.g. radical feminist . This shows how in society accepting these roles are considered as good and the best for society.