Blog 2

A central theme of this week was the inherent inequality present in our society with regards to Gender. Gender was defined in class as "the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being a female or male". So basically, gender refers to how society defines what it means to be male or female, as well as what is expected of both. This leads to much inequality, particularly when it comes to how society treats females. In earlier days of our country, females were often confined to the home and had the responsibility of taking care of children while the men worked. While these older views are changing, there are still some who believe that women should focus on housework and avoid careers in politics, business, or even becoming doctors. An issue of confusion in society is when people aren't sure whether to classify someone as being of male or female gender. This makes people very uncomfortable and can cause problems in people being conflicted on how to interact with individuals that they can't classify.

I chose this clip as, while it is comical, it does show what happens when someone mistakes an individual for another gender. Peter believed that the woman berating his son was actually a man, so he felt secure in hitting another man as this seems to be generally accepted in their society. When he begins to realize his mistake, he becomes visibly nervous, as the people around are now judging Peter due to his failure to comply with society's rules about how one should treat a woman. While obviously making the situation more extreme, Peter's folly is one that many people face when they fail to decipher if someone identifies as a man or woman. This can make communication difficult, as well as being unsure about how to behave, similar to the "Pat" clip that we watched in class.