Proposal #2

Title: Men and Women in Society

Author: Billy Drury

Date: 11 November 2012

Topic: Ways in which society promotes certain values based on gender.

Exigence: Society might discourage men or women from following their goals and/or desires.

Intended Audience: General Public, especially those who believe gender to be the ultimate roadmap for life.

Purpose: To inform readers that people, regardless of male or female, are capable of achieving similar goals.

Claims: 1. Society encourages people, based on their gender, to follow certain jobs, hobbies, professions, or other areas of activity. 2. Society sets a standard for people to live up to, based on their gender. 3. People can overcome the norms of society to obtain what he or she truly wants from life.

 

Claim 1: Society influences people to exist as they are, especially upon the person’s gender. Society includes family, community, and culture, all of which promote a certain guideline for males and females. In the male aspect, family may encourage boys to succeed in sports, perhaps even certain sports, to be considered a good man. Some parents may be more proud to introduce their son as an all-star football player rather than a video game wiz. In the female aspect, some parents may likely favor their daughter to be an active dancer rather than the rebellious punk rocker. Athletic activities are common influences for children to be considered “good” or “bad” in society. Eventually, as these children grow older, they may be influenced to take certain jobs. As I have personally seen in society, men are prone to pursue jobs such as construction, which resemble strength and hard work, characteristics that fall into the realm of manhood. Women, on the other hand, are encouraged to pursue jobs that are more feminine, such as modeling, fashion, and other areas that fall into the realm of being pretty. Also, women may even be discouraged to centralize on a profession; they may abide by the traditional value to stay home.

 

Claim 2: In several different ways, society sets an ideal for men and women to follow. One of the primary and most effective ways in which society sets the gender-standard is through advertisement. People ordinarily consume time by listening to or watching advertisement. Television and radio ads are so commonly involved in a person’s life that the person regularly hears messages from the advertisement. To name a few, men are told to bulk up, drive better cars, and show power. Women are constantly told to be pretty; some ads may cause women to apply great effort to maintain beauty, such as by losing weight to achieve a standardized image of beauty.

 

Claim 3: Society unquestionably provides pressure for both men and women to live up to certain standards and ideals.  If a man or women decides to oppose these standards, society might identify him or her as different, weird, or strange. For example, if a woman adopts the manly characteristic of working out frequently, she might display an image that contradicts the typical female image of slim and pretty. Consequently, because she displays a “wrong” type of body image, she may receive disproval from others. However, this disproval should not discourage either men or women to follow his or her goals. If a woman wants to indulge in a manly activity, or vice versa, he or she should rightly be able to do so. For example, in the past, women were not allowed entry into the military. Now, as things have changed, a woman may enter the military if she desires to. Although most military activity is considered a man’s job, women should not be discouraged to counter the social norms and join the military if she wants to.