Feminism Essay New

To what extent do you agree with Judith Butler's theory that gender roles are socially constructed?

The 21^st century in which we live in, plays a massive role in influencing different attitudes and behaviour of those within it. These differences are reflected in society where primarily the media plays a big part in the advance of certain gender-related social roles and behaviour traits. In this essay I shall discuss the debate whether gender roles are socially constructed or not 

Judith Butler, a post-feminist believes that traditional feminists are wrong to divide society into ‘Men’ and ‘Women’ and argues that gender is not biologically fixed, and that by dividing men and women, Feminists accidentally reinforce the idea of differences between the two genders. Butler further believes that gender roles are a ‘performance’ and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology.

In society today, the feminine is usually characterised by nurturing, innocence and compassion, whereas the masculine, however, is characterised by strength, independence and intelligence. A clear representation of this in today’s society would be the media, where it plays a big part in supporting Judith’s Butlers theory about gender roles being socially constructed, adverts targeted at men showing how men should act and behave, being the ‘breadwinner’ by default, reinforcing Butlers theory about gender roles being socially constructed. Similarly adverts and magazines portray women in a sexual way but showing their compassionate and nurturing side.

This type of social construction of gender can also be seen within the print platform where a recent Guardian blog on children's toys in Morrison's is an excellent example of reinforcing Butlers post-modernist view that gender is a 'performance' and that male and female behaviour is socially constructed rather than the result of biology, this is explaining how due to socialisation, we receive our own identity where colour is one factor which separates boys from girls, as seen in this article where the colour blue symbolises the boys toys and the colour pink symbolises the girls toys. This does not empower women, instead does the opposite as the kind of toys you would see on those shelves would be doll houses and baby dolls, which may connote the typical housewife which stays at home and looks after the kids.

Social construction of gender can also be seen within politics, where some women have gone against the norm of the typical gender role. A recent example would be Julia Gillard, who has recently been in the news for defending her position as PM for Australia by slamming down opposition Tony Abbot over sexism. This has gone against the theory that gender roles are socially constructed as she has disapproved the label attached to women that their sensitive, emotional, compassionate women and has proven that women can be strong and independent.

In conclusion because of this societal influence, girls and boys act the way they do because of the way they have been socialised, the media being a major factor/influence in the decisions we make. Examples such as the Morrison’s article reinforces the way gender roles have been socially constructed as colour blue and pink have been used to identify gender, blue being for boys and pink for girls. Therefore supporting Judith Butlers theory about gender roles being socially constructed