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Topic/importance

My topic will be about fighting against gender stereotypes and gender roles, and gender identity that a culture incorporate for male and female, but the more concern is about females’ gender roles, gender identity, and gender stereotypes as described in chapter 7 and page number 150. Pai is dared to confront the cultural traditions about gender roles and gender stereotypes that are the hurdle in her way to adopt her own actual personality. This confrontation is the soul of the film and this theme is really important because this theme is so broad that every culture depicts this kind of the theme and every culture has its own defined gender stereotypes and gender roles. The importance of this topic is to evaluate the gender roles in every culture because without this evaluation we cannot put right people on right place to move ahead towards success of the people and the whole community.

Film description

At the East Coast of New Zealand, the people of Whangara believed that their existence was based on a purely brave prophet-Paikea, who did ride on the back of the whale in order to escape death when his canoe was capsized in the sea. Based on that believe, Whangarra chiefs had the belief that the only first born males were the directly the descendants of Paikea (Whale Rider, 2002). The protagonist in the movie is Paikea Apirana who is aged 11 years old girl born in this patriarchal tribe. Being a girl is shunned down by the society because of her mother, as well as her twin brother, died at the time of delivery, therefore, leaving the girl as unfavorable to Koro- her grandfather. She says that she was not glad when she was born as her twin brother died and took her mother away. The hope of the family was the boy who could lead the family (Whale Rider, 2002). The traditions bound her grandmother to choose a male leader in the society. The girl loves her grandfather than anyone else. Pai has to fight her grandfather as well as thousand years of the tradition in order to fulfill as well as meet her destiny. Pai shows great courage to collide with cultural norms and especially gender roles are very important to analyze to evaluate the direction of culture as far as the credibility and authenticity of gender stereotypes and gender roles are concerned. Moreover, the evaluation must be done to analyze the need to establish cultural gender roles and gender stereotypes. The persistence of Pai is another important feature of the film. The way Pai transformed from her outcast to the chief of the tribe depicts that cultural stereotypes can be defeated if a right person fights with his or her ability and persistence. The love of Pai for her tribe, grandparents, and the lifestyle of the tribe make her prominent from other children because other children love the modern and urban lifestyle. Pai persistently achieves the leading role of her tribe and proves that women shouldn’t be underestimated. They can rule and lead the communities.

Thesis

My thesis is that cultural gender stereotypes and gender roles are baseless, ambiguous, and a hindrance in the way of people’s thought process which creates trouble for them to adjust their selves within the culture which turns them into a revolutionary character to act against the cultural gender stereotypes and gender roles.

Two external sources

Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles.

Authors: Eagly, Alice H.; Steffen, Valerie J.

Source: Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 46(4), Apr 1984, 735-754.

doi:10.1037//0022-3514.46.4.735

#2- Description and Prescription: How Gender Stereotypes Prevent Women's Ascent Up the Organizational Ladder

Authors: Madeline E. Heilman

Source: Journal of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, Volume 57, Issue 4, pages 657-674, winter 2001.

DOI: 10.1111/0022-4537.00234

Two external sources

I am going to use these two external sources because these sources analyzes the gender stereotypes of cultures and go along what the film depicts about gender roles and gender stereotypes. Cultural gender stereotypes don’t allow women to thrash in the society. Women are supposed to be in the lower ranks than men when it comes to lead the family for a bright future. Cultural gender stereotypes and gender roles assign the duty of leading the family to men which are supposed to be stronger, wiser, and diplomatic than women. This cannot be true in both perspectives of women and men. The film describes the hope of the family to have the boy who could lead the family. The family doesn’t consider Pai to be able enough to lead the family and the reason behind their consideration is gender stereotypes and gender roles of their culture.

These two sources go against the gender stereotypes and gender roles which diminish or lessen the active, effective, and leading role of the women.

Source # 1

The article includes experiments about the communal and agentic nature of males and females. The experiments of the article disqualify the stereotypic belief that women are more likely than men to hold the position of lower status and authority. Moreover, the article also clarifies that women, definitely, want to master in the field they like.

The article is well written and proves that the gender stereotypes must be redefined and analyzed especially about women perspective. The article’s conclusion backs up the thinking of the protagonist character of the film “Pai”.

Source # 2

The articles analyzes the scarcity of women at the upper or higher levels of organizations and poses the reasons behind this scarcity as gender stereotypes and gender roles that culture assigns to its population. The gender bias hinders women to proceed as much as they have the ability as compared to men do in their life.

The article’s context is wonderful and it totally agrees with my thesis. Gender stereotypes and gender roles are killers of women success and their actual abilities to thrash in their life.

Course concepts connections

The best description about gender stereotypes can be finding in the textbook’s chapter 7 on page 161, the Adjective Checklist Study of Williams and Best suggests that gender stereotypes are baseless and ambiguous because study mentions men to be more active, aggressive, extrovert and open as compared to women, but the uncertainty about the basis of the development of gender stereotypes still remains alive. No one knows the factors and boundaries of gender stereotypes. The context of chapter 7 thrashes the gender roles that are based on cultural stereotypes and makes a statement against them. Gender roles are not based on the personal abilities of women or men. Cultural incorporates gender roles from nowhere. Women are equally able to have the leading role as men. By defining the terms gender roles, gender stereotypes, and gender identity gender role means the extent to which a person adopts the gender specific behavior defined by his or her culture. Gender stereotypes means psychological and behavioral characteristics attached with men and women and gender identity means the extent to which a person has awareness that he or she adopts the gender role. But the question is there any credibility of gender role and gender stereotypes that the culture propagates through generation after generation defined by our textbook? The answer is simply no. That’s what the film depicts and proves the concept of gender roles in her culture wrong by becoming the leader of her tribe.

Real life issues

Gender stereotypes and gender roles are literally the issues of real life. Women are being affected by the cultural gender stereotypes and gender roles. Different countries have different gender stereotypes. For example, in Afghanistan, girls are not allowed to go to schools especially in those areas where there is an influence of Taliban. This is totally wrong concept. Taliban cannot give any factual reason behind this stereotype except their vague and pathetic mentality.

Secondly, the leader of the family is supposed to be the man in most part of the world. This is even a gender stereotype which restricts women to be the housewives with no other available profession. Moreover, we can calculate the number of women who are leading the countries as the head of their state. The numbers of women who are the head of their countries are less as compared to the men in same situation. Hillary Clinton competed in the election but failed. There can be some other reasons behind her defeat and those reasons are not the part of our paper, but Britain, Germany, Bangladesh, and Poland are the countries who have female head of the government as I remember. The reason behind this is also the concept of gender stereotypes and roles. There is the mentality of people which prevails is that females are not able than to lead the countries.

Future research

After watching film and analyzing the external sources the gender stereotypes and gender roles demands research on their factors and boundaries. There is a need to evaluate as much cultures as possible to know why the people develop and believe in their gender stereotypes and gender roles while not knowing the reasons behind those gender stereotypes and gender roles.

DQ and Discussion

What are the factors which develop gender stereotypes? Is religion one of the reasons of gender stereotypes? What does the comparison between monotheistic, polytheistic, and atheistic societies suggest about the presence of gender stereotypes in each society respectively?

What would be the positive outcomes if there are some effective interventions started to eradicate gender stereotypes? Do female leaders of some countries like Britain and Germany quantifies the negation of gender stereotypes?

Conclusion

To conclude, gender stereotypes and gender roles are needed to be redefined and reevaluate for the best of the people’s prosperity. Until now, gender stereotypes are totally baseless and ambiguous. The film, two external sources, and the chapter 7 of the textbook describe similar perspective which goes against the practice of gender stereotypes and gender roles. Every connection, whether external connections or course connections, describes that cultural gender stereotypes and gender roles need concrete basis to be established in any culture with dignity and credibility. Until now the cultural gender stereotypes and gender roles are baseless and ambiguous because there is no criterion mentioned to judge anyone’s ability to hold the leading role. Cultures are wrongly assigning male members right to have the leading roles in culture just because there role is admitted in the culture as a stereotype.

References

Film

Whale Rider by Niki Caro, 30 January 2017

#1- Gender stereotypes stem from the distribution of women and men into social roles.