I was reading the "Egg and Sperm" reading for class tomorrow and I kept getting distracted back to the first couple pages with all of the stereotypes of the egg and the sperm; the egg as a damsel in distress waiting for the masculine sperm to come and rescue it. It makes me think that the stereotypes of women and men today still resonate due to these descriptions of our anatomy. Women are helpless and "float by" unless they are "rescued" by a strong man. Women are constantly named as being a bitch or cold if they are independent and strong on their own, or if we express our sexuality the same ways men do we get named as whores or sluts. Pop culture has tried to debunk these stereotypes with "women power" songs such as the Destiny's Child anthem "Independent Women" and "Survivor" or Christina Aguilera's "Can't hold us down" and "Fighter". I'm sure many women love these songs just like I do, but there are women as well that listen to the lyrics but do not believe them. This stereotype of passive women and strong men has been driven into our minds for so long that even though we may want to believe it, we cant. Are women ever going to not be "held down" or be accepted as "independent women" or are we destined to live under the wing of a "masculine" man?
Egg and Sperm
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This page contains a single entry by jerseygrl published on September 19, 2010 5:22 PM.
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I think that women are not destined to live under the wing of a "masculine" man. Looking at people today however, i think that that it is still a stereotype or a norm that society reiterates over and over in the minds of our youth. Even in cartoon characters such as Gaston in Disney's Beauty and the Beast. He was the super masculine man that all of the girls fawned over. Even such characters like Tarzan and Hercules are good examples. Both of which were very strong muscular men who were constantly saving their damsels in distress. This is a concept that is taught to our children from a very early age. I do think that there is still hope though. I don't believe women are destined to forever be the ones being rescued by courages men. As time passes i imagine a time where women are very much so thought upon as equivalent to men. This goes for everything such as equal pay in jobs, or equal opportunity for advancement etc. When will there be Disney movie made where its the heroic woman rescuing the feeble man?