Gender Norms

                 

                  In the essay “On Becoming” a young Dominican woman describes her cultural gender norms. The essay is about a young Dominican woman living in the United States. She does not conform to her culture’s ideas of femininity. In The essay, Nelly Rosario mentions that she did the opposite of what her family expects to be lady-like. Her family believed young women should never move away until she got married, they believed the young women were not allowed to be too independent until marriage. They also believed in premarital sex for young women. Nelly did just the opposite, she moved away for college where she educated herself and became very interested in politics. When she returned to her family, they were all surprised at how outspoken she was, especially pertaining to politics. Her family was surprised because they believed that it was not very feminine for a woman to discuss politics. They Believed that was for the men. What I particularly liked about this essay is that Rosario did not conform to the gendered norms of her culture. She was confrontational about it and chose to do what she felt was right and what she wanted to, whether it was going away for college, moving out, or being passionate about politics.

                We also see Latinx individuals not conforming to cultural gendered norms in the podcast “Blogueras: Latina Body Image”. This podcast discusses how others criticize Latinas and their body image which causes them to feel pressured to look a certain way which would be deemed appropriate by their gendered norms. I like that these issues are being brought up both by the essay and podcast, but it brings awareness, and motivates other Latinx individuals to step out of that routine of following gendered norms. In the video showed in class, the man describes how he was raised. He was raised learning that cleaning is for women, boys couldn’t play with heels or dresses, or that boys got more privileges than girl. After going through that, the man decides to not conform to the gendered norms by doing the exact opposite of what was a woman’s job, such as cooking and cleaning. He also goes on to say he will not teach his daughter the same gendered norms. It is important that we recognize this issue and know that it’s fine to have free will, free choice, and to step away from the gendered norms by doing what makes us feel good, and not what makes us appear good to others.