While we enjoy doing what we love, our social construct only
allows for us to partake in what society deems is ok for us, or so we’re taught.
We often are full of judgment when we see a person doing a job that we feel
that they can't normally handle, or if they can handle it, it's because they
must be out of the realm of cis-gendered things. An example that I want to share is the
interesting look that was taken at female firefighters. A job that is primarily filled by men, and
not just any men, men that enjoy being in a very tough and dangerous job. Men are known to feed off of the gender or
masculinity of other men, in the book it’s known as “performing virility”. So, it really throws off the masculine growth
when we have women enter the field, many egos will no longer grow at the rate
they once would’ve. So it’s very hard
for a women firefighter to be accepted as the men are subconsciously thinking, “I
have nothing to learn from her.” It’s well
known that a smart firefighter beats a brawny firefighter any day of the week.
This really doesn’t fit societies view on what women should do for a living and
it really should make us question our stereotypes. When it comes to communicating, people
believe that women in this career would probably be emotional wrecks and not be
able to handle the job and would be a strain on the team’s resources. According to the article I’m using as the
supplemental reading,” The masculine heroism associated with firefighting has
been attributed to its military overtones according to Greenberg.” I feel that a lot of the sexual harassment
that the chapter speaks about can happen in some less normative ways, ways that
are more unspoken and are stagnant in the brains of a lot of people; it’s a feeling
that we perceive things and don’t really acknowledge that we’ve done
anything. A good example of the harassment
is the original hiring of an individual, why they are in the position is often
based on the role that someone feels will fit well at one firm or another. Firefighting is extremely interesting when
learning about how we communicate between genders, many of these women can’t be
themselves, or are constantly performing their gender.
Is it wrong to say that some women are doing the
career as a form of resistance? Does it
empower some women to go through life working a job that most would deem out of
the cisgender norm? Here, Patricia Buzzanell reminds us, “focus more on the ways
that people incorporate resistant thinking and behaving into their identities
and interactions. Resistance takes many
forms.” (DeFranscisco and Palczewski, 2014.
p.4725). So really, people have
a hard enough time dealing with women and their roles in the military; so this
job, which is in close relation, in theory, is pretty close to that feeling
where women just don’t belong. A problem
that occurs in these occupations is how management goes about meeting the quota
for diversity in gender employment.
Since people feel that there must be a fair representation of the female
gender, management goes about filling the void with an attitude and aura that
says that women are just needed for that sole reason, to fill the quota, not
that they would be a good addition to the team; at the same time, sometimes a
woman is hired to has very masculine traits and is more like one of the guys,
this allowing the team to feel more aligned with safety, as the more masculine
female could probably manage to do better work than a more feminine
counterpart. The way that communication
goes, people are unknowingly being guilty of becoming a hostile work environment,
this is because of the perceived coercive action in that these women have to
play the role they were hired for. So
when it comes to communicating, a lot of women in the field feel that they are
trapped into playing this role they are hired into. Often, a more feminine woman in the field would
be a victim of girl watching, a trivial thing to men, but a real form of sexual
harassment for women, objectifying them in every way. Since the woman is viewed as a “game piece or
object” instead of an integral role in the field. I posit that, as the book says, norms can be
altered, and they change over time, but what’s slower to change is our view on
the binary; how different sexes can adapt to a job can be just as inflammatory
and hard to swallow in our society as any other issues we have been brainwashed
into holding as our own thinking or the “way it should be”. For some women to come in and intentionally
change the way we look at some careers, like these brave female firefighters, we
should try to spread the knowledge that any gender is more than capable of
stepping out of their societal norms and being able to possibly have a hugely
positive influence on very tough jobs.
Women don’t need to become more masculine to do a job, this is society,
women who stick to who they are can change the way things are done, for the
better, because of fresh thinking, a lot of good can happen. The reward that a female can get from doing a
great job as a firefighter is cut short by them having to play a role, now,
doesn’t that sound really wrong?
1) Why do we feel that certain jobs don't allow multiple genders to partake?
2) Heroism, is it masculine? Why do we feel so aligned with a masculine view of heroism?
3) Sexual harassment, is unspoken harassment worse than the plainly obvious verbal harassment?
1) Why do we feel that certain jobs don't allow multiple genders to partake?
2) Heroism, is it masculine? Why do we feel so aligned with a masculine view of heroism?
3) Sexual harassment, is unspoken harassment worse than the plainly obvious verbal harassment?
In the book, it states that many jobs are sex segregated such as males being firefighters and women being nurses. If an occupation is female dominate, it tends to be less prestige and less opportunities for advancement. Work that is more emotional is not acceptable for a male because men are not supposed to cry or show fear. Since women are considered to be more nurturing, those are the jobs that women are better fit to do. We place gender expectations to jobs that we think men should take and women should take and when you violate those expectations, it’s going against the norm.
ReplyDeleteI think heroism is neither masculine nor feminine. Growing up, we looked at heroes such as Abraham Lincoln and how he stopped slavery and Martin Luther King Jr. for his heroism for his I Had a Dream speech. We focus on men as the hero’s when everyday; women are heroes as well. In the army, we don’t focus on only the men that are in the line of battle but the women as well. If a man or woman doctor saves someone’s life, they are the heroes for saving that person’s life. We over look what heroism really means which is someone who shows bravery and courage.
I think that both nonverbal and verbal sexual harassment is equally bad. People of color get harassed because of racial stereotypes, which leads to discrimination. Race plays a role in sexual harassment with women. African American women will not report harassment because of the racial stereotype. Black women would rather quit their jobs than fit into the stereotype that they are over emotional angry woman. Where if a man has more feminine traits, he gets harassed for being gay. I feel that more times than not, nonverbal harassment does just as much harm as verbal because even if they are not being verbally harassed, they are still being treated disrespectfully.
1. I believe certain jobs don't allow for multiple genders to partake because of historical and stereotypical reasons. Women were thought to be great homemakers and that is the type of work women took on. Some women weren't allowed to work and because of that certain jobs weren't available to women. Women who belonged to certain ethnicity's took care of other peoples children and cooked and cleaned for families that weren't their own. Privileged women stayed at home and cooked and cleaned their homes, essentially a woman's job regardless of race was take care of home. fast forward to today's time and you'll see that that sometimes is still the case, women take on jobs as the caregiver like nurses and support jobs such as administrative and clerical positions and education. Women are viewed as delicate beings who aren't capable of doing hard labor or work that involves not putting too much emotion into whatever the job is. So as a firefighter women are viewed as unable to handle such a stressful and dangerous environment. To certain companies women are not the ideal candidates because women are viewed as not being strong enough or a burden that the men will have to look out for.
ReplyDelete2. Heroism is aligned with masculinity because we tie heroism to strength. the stronger you are the better and oftentimes women are not looked at as physically strong. I believe heroism involves both mental and physical strength and that is something people don't take into account. In movies the hero is usually a man and when it is a women she is called a shero, not a hero. Usually there is a man that is saving the day but women are just as capable of being the hero as men.
3. Both types of harassment are equally painful to the individual being harassed. No type of harassment is better or worse than the other because someone is being hurt at the end of the day. I think sexual harassment involves a lot of shame as well as verbal harassment. I believe people who are being harassed either sexually or verbally may have some of the same thoughts running through their minds such as should I tell someone, is this right or wrong, and so on.
Agreeing with my peers, I believe that jobs do not allow multiple genders to partake in the workplace because of how gender in the workplace has always been percieved. It comes again to where in the nuclear family, a woman is not know as the person who goes out to make the money for the family, the man is. As we have also read in the education as well, women were barely given the opportuniy to get an education to even have the skills to work. Just from the history of gender in any institution, women were always looked at as not being able to work but the nurture of kids and always being the homemakers etc. I honestly still believe that jobs still do not allow for multiple genders to partake but that is just my view.
ReplyDelete2. Heroism is known to be a masculine thing because of the root word hero. Yes its definition tells that it is a male type that has strength and courage. But I belive that heroism aligns with a bit more of muscle and strength, and someone who can actually have the physical to fight or get through obstacles with less weakness. In society we look at heroism as being a male type and we have grown to know that. We definitely women who are know as heros and just to name one, Rosa Parks who was a part of Civil Rights and paved the way for not only African Americans but the nation.
3. Both types of harassment are not okay to be displayed. Sexual harassment is bad because sex tends to be something that becomes more a physical abuse and destroying inner self body and affecting them mentally. Verbal harassment tends to stray away your focus because of how it is percieved. Many people in society today sometimes cannot even tell the difference between the two but there seems to always be strict and strong policies in the workplace and in education about harassment. However, neither is acceptable in any institution or anywhere else.
As we continue discussing the topic of gendered work and its environments, I did find the supplemental article on women gendering masculinity particularly interesting. I had been a certified volunteer firefighter up north in a small town that I lived in. Because of my awareness of the environment, frankly, I didn't really agree in the perception that a firefighter would be considered a masculine position. However, it is clear to all of us I think that this culture is a reality; the male hero stereo type that is. Furthermore, our fire department didn't have any females on it but, regardless; our ambulance was within the same department and did have females that were volunteer. But again, I didn't see a difference in gendered masculinity between the two positions. In other words, we were all volunteer gendered servants for the cause of emergency or rescue. But the male culture; I can write from experience, does fits the criteria for the research in the article of gendering masculinity. As I went through the article and encompassing the chapter reading; and my life experiences especially in construction, my developing thoughts were that there are certain jobs that females really are not cut out for without an extreme masculine transitional adaptation; they are muscle body builders for example in construction. There were situations that required extreme physical force or power to achieve the tasks and would only be handled by those who would be capable. Also, If it still isn't in affect, the military would not put women up on the front lines of battle. This exemplifies the culture that masculinity is at the for-front of protection; women and children come first, men come second. I think this is they way it suppose to be, and this another example of why I struggle with the idea of trans-gendering certain contexts. Nevertheless, when it comes to Tran gendered scenarios or aspirations, if a transgender situation as with the gendering of masculinity/or feminine is to be exercised, those practicing the gender must be able to deal with and adapt to the environmental culture that they are delving into. They can't expect to have things both ways. If your in a mans world, your like a man, and vise versa; as with maybe the firemen’s environment or in construction or in the military, but its like a mans world. It's not going to be pretty, and believe or not, it might even get kind of ugly because like in the "men’s culture"; can't write for the women’s, they can be pretty crude and you have to be able to take that if you want that environment. We had a student in our class speak of a feminine environment and equally one must adapt to that environment if your going to fit in. It takes time to communicate this culture change to the environment. A good movie that's a favorite of mine gives an example of this cultural change; G.I. Jane with Demi Moore as a Navy Seal candidate that went through Hell to earn her respect.
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of heroism, there were great historical famine heroes; great queens, social activists, educators, influential great wives of great men. To name a few; Queen Elizabeth, St. Joan of Arc, Ida b.Wells, Rosa Parks, Helen Keller, Abigail Adams. There is a saying that behind every great man, there is a great woman. Presently, Michele Obama, Hillary Clinton. There's real good reason that Presidential candidate John McCain choose Sara Palin for Vice Presidential candidate; she has the capability of being the president of the United States maybe to some peoples surprise. Barbara Bush was one of the public address speakers we studied in that class that I covered because she is the husband and the mother of two of our Presidents. She was invited to speak at Wellesley College (all girl college) in place of Alice Walker; author of The Color Purple.
As has been noted, certain careers have been gendered masculine and feminine, and thus ascribed to men and women, through our societal constructions of gender. For instance, jobs with more nurturing characteristics, such as hospitality work or early-childhood education, employ a predominantly female workforce due to their perceived feminine nature. Conversely, jobs with rigorous levels of physicality such as construction work, or requiring high levels of rationality or assertiveness such as management, have been dominated by males through similar masculine perceptions. Deviating from either of these paradigms through career choice is in turn a deviance from gender-norms, and thus disciplined by disproportional treatment of such individuals by their respective workplace organizations in terms of communicative behavior and earning opportunities.
ReplyDeleteHeroism is masculine, though the distinction should be made that not all heroes are men. In fiction, Wonder Woman is perhaps the archetypal female hero. Yet, she possesses very masculine traits such as high levels of bravery and physicality. It is this departure from gender-norms that illuminates the gender of the hero. The same is true of female fire fighters. Since this heroic career involves high physicality and bravery, it is therefore male dominated. While I do not think anyone would look twice at a female EMT (though a related profession), the image of a woman running into a burning building seems out of place in the cultural psyche. I think a critical note illustrated by Ainsworth, Batty, and Burchielli (2014) is the implications of the word “volunteer.” When we think volunteer, we think of helping, which is a feminine trait. Thus, the intersection between “female” and “voulenteer” fire fighter increases the feminine perceptions of women in a male-dominated institution, despite the heroic nature
Congruent with the class’s sentiment, I feel neither verbal nor nonverbal sexual harassment are acceptable behavior in the workplace or any other organization. However, when making a valance judgment of each behavior, I would argue that verbal harassment is in fact worse. While objectifying gaze from co-workers is detrimental to the ideal of an individual and their positioning within an organization, direct, verbal harassment has potential implications for psychological distress. Though affording an individual their agency is important, the act of verbally harassing (sexually or otherwise) an individual can disrupt their physiological state, which at the end of the day I feel is more damaging.
1) Maybe certain jobs underestimate the skills and abilities that individuals have due to their gender. They may feel that certain genders may be mentally and or physically stronger than other genders. Also, society has put a definition on what is acceptable and unacceptable for certain genders to partake in certain jobs. Employers may not want to go against the norms and may be afraid that it will cause controversy. Society has put a label on what is considered to be men’s work and women’s work and this can influence what employers are looking for. Also, certain companies can have an image that they want to uphold. They might choose an individual over another solely because of their gender and the abilities that society has identified with that certain gender.
ReplyDelete2) I personally do not feel that heroism is masculine. If you are a hero in any type of way then it doesn't matter if you are male or female, it doesn't make you more masculine. Once again, due to the definitions that society has formed and associated with certain terms, we tend to view heroes as masculine. When we think of heroes and heroism, we also think of someone who is strong, brave, and courageous. We also tend to align those same terms with the definition of masculine. That is why I think we sometimes align heroism with masculine because of the definitions we place on certain terms.
3) I feel that nonverbal and verbal sexual harassment is on the same level. I also feel that it depends on how the victim sees the sexual harassment that will depend on which one is worse than the other. Although I don't feel that any type of sexual harassment is appropriate, I do feel that depending on the verbal and nonverbal harassment, one can be worse than the other. For example, the book discusses “girl watching” as a form of nonverbal. If someone is staring at me, I feel that it is awkward but I feel like it isn’t as bad as if that person said something that was inappropriate towards me. Although, if someone were to display a nonverbal action by physically touching me then I feel that is worse than the verbal. As I said before, I don't find any of it appropriate.
1) I feel that certain jobs don't allow multiple genders to partake in them due to historical views of gendered expectations. Strength in labor has been historically associated with being male and masculine, and any job where one needs to endure heavy lifting, "dirty" industrial work, or anything that deals with the risk of danger, has been offered to men and they are more easily hired for those positions. Women then have to then prove their strength and ability to perform duties as man would, because in earlier generations many women did not display such strength or ability that many women are very capable of.
ReplyDelete2) Heroism has a historic significance of being associated with a man or a masculine figure. But heroism comes in all types of forms, I think heroism can be seen in anyone who truly physically or emotionally helps someone or a situation. Heroism has been long seen as a physical attribute of a person, such as Superman or a strong muscular person who can lift a woman up in the air saving her from danger, a large man climbing a tree to rescue a helpless animal, etc. We feel so aligned to this type of view because this idea has been installed and maintained in our mindset of what a hero is and what a hero does, and as a society we tend to lean toward something with strength, power, and a lack of vulnerability to be our heroes.
3) I don't think that any type of sexual harassment can be compared as being better or worse then another. Sexual harassment is never okay, whether unspoken or spoken. No person deserves to be harassed for their sex or gender, or put in a position where they feel objectified.