A Book Series About Gender Roles And Stereotypes
Down To Earth by Veronica Schwarz
Series Excerpt
The first thing that we notice about anyone is what sex they are. Once the baby’s sex is assigned, that little person’s destiny is pretty much decided. Almost everyone starts to assume and look for the differences.
Societies assume that little boys will be more active, rougher, tougher, and adventurous, and later they will be good at Maths and Science and will grow into men who will be strong and in control, and good at sport and perhaps a bit aggressive and authoritative and take charge of things and be explorers and pilots and plumbers and doctors and lawyers and carpenters and prime ministers and presidents. Now, all those things are true of some men and boys some of the time. We probably all know men and boys who have some of those qualities. We also know others who do not.
On the other hand, we assume that little girls will be gentler, better behaved, more docile, sweet, and pleasing. Because they are girls, it’s assumed they will be less active, and not interested in, or good at, Maths and Science: Allergic to Algebra as one T-shirt available for girls proudly proclaims. They will grow into women who will take care of people. They’ll still get a job. Many of them will also have babies and look after the house and children and husband. They may need to get part-time or casual work, so it doesn’t interfere too much with looking after the house and children - and the husband if they are not single parents.
To fit in, women need to be feminine, to be likable and to be loved or desired by a man. Most of the requirements to fulfil this image are external. They involve your bodily appearance, looking pretty, being sweet, and, in Western civilization in the current era, being slim. Then there’s feminine behaviour to conform to: not being loud or “opinionated”, being pleasant, non-aggressive and slightly diffident, caring for other’s emotional and physical needs, and smiling. These are all part of the feminine job description. Never upstaging a man is also a subtle requirement. It makes everybody, particularly the man, feel very uncomfortable if a woman does this. The upshot of all this feminine preparation for “the male gaze” is the assumption of the inevitable rivalry of women. We’ll explore this in Chapter 12: Women are their own Worst Enemies (Let’s You and Her Fight.)
Not a moment to be lost then. The lessons begin as soon as you arrive. What you learn will stick better if they get you when you’re young. Until the age of six, our minds have no filters. We believe what we receive. The Jesuits, way back in the 1500s, knew this when they said, “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will give you the man”. Aristotle said it even before the Jesuits, about 2,400 years ago. The beliefs we learn before the age of seven are embedded in our minds. They resist all logic and any efforts to shift them. Depressing really.
Like training young elephants. Baby elephants are tethered to a stake when they are young and small. They pull against the tether, but they cannot break free. As they grow bigger and stronger, they give up trying and, by the time they are strong enough to pull the stake right out of the ground, they still believe they cannot. The same tether they were tied to as babies, still holds them in place despite their enormous strength as adults.
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