Assigned gender should not determine career and domestic roles

It seems in today’s society we put a lot of emphasis on gender and the roles we are supposed to have as men and women.

Why should the gender given at birth be the determinant in what a person is going to do with the rest of their life?

Stay-at-home mom and the “breadwinner” father are the roles we are supposed to fall into even though I know a lot of women who work more hours than most men I have met, raised a child without a father and altogether break the norms of society. And fathers who stay at home either by choice or because of health reasons.

My best friend’s mom is like my second mother and she has remodeled her entire house, built a huge playhouse for her granddaughter, owns a cabin at Patoka Lake, sews as a hobby and raised my best friend all while working 40 or more hours a week as a nurse practitioner.

Clearly many women do not do these things but she breaks the norms of society just because all of the things she accomplishes are what she wants to do.

Men are supposed to take care of women so women can stay at home and take care of the children, however look at what happens when a man stays at home to take care of the children while the mom goes and works to pay the bills.

It tends to be looked down upon in society because again men are supposed to bring in the money and women are supposed to stay at home and do housework.

I remember when I was growing up I loved “King of The Hill” and in the show there is a character named Cotton he is an old man who fought in World War II and is constantly making sexist jokes such as cleaning dishes and cooking dinner is “women’s work.”

This kind of outlook is outdated. This is the 21st century, marriage has changed, the economy has changed, women are in the workforce and tons of other changes since this country was founded the nuclear family model was the most common form of family.

Today you have single mothers, parents who are not married, single fathers, lesbian and gay parents and a ton of different combinations that allow and encourage gender roles to be broken.

Maybe it is because I am gay that I see things differently or maybe it is because my family was not the standard model. My dad was disabled and stayed home more and mom worked all the time.

We need to get this model out of our heads because with it I feel like we limit ourselves and both sexes miss opportunities in children, work, networking and a bunch of other fields.

I am a guy and I have worn dresses and skirts, I wear women’s perfume if I like the way it smells, makeup, cook, clean, show emotions and wear tight clothing.

I break gender roles, and I would be happy to be a father one day, but I don’t want to stay at home and I don’t want my husband to either, it should be a 50/50 role not one does all this and the other does all that.

Society should not define what each sex does in their life, the person should decide that.

By BRYAN JONES

Senior Editor

jonesbry@umail.iu.edu