Gender Differences In American Culture

Culture is a set of learned rules that humans carry in their heads that in turn generates behavior and creates assumptions about the world around us. Culture is not the same as instincts, as it differs from one society to another and is only shared by members of that society. One could say that these cultural rules that every human has is a rule book that dictates how we live our daily lives. Cultural rules tell us how to think about ourselves, those around us, and the world that surrounds us. When repeated behaviors are observed amongst those who share a culture, the mental, cultural rules can be derived. The observations I made on October 16th, 2015 around two in the afternoon at the Anderson Mall in Anderson, South Carolina prove this to

After observing the behaviors of females that differed from males and children it was evident that women in American society are expected to present themselves in an attractive manner. There is a lot of pressure on females in America due to gender roles that have been culturally in place for a long time. The changing of hair color, nail color, and wearing cosmetics all show that women are not necessarily accepted in their own bodies, although men and children are not put under this same social pressure. These gender roles are also reflected through male behaviors seen, such as carrying bags and food trays although females are capable of carrying them without assistance. It is interesting how many items I saw men carrying for the women they were with, yet I never saw one man carrying a purse or handbag for a woman. It's unusual that in American culture carrying a shopping bag for a woman is polite, but carrying a handbag is a silent taboo that would indicate femininity. This further shows that women in American culture are seen as the less dominant or weaker sex. Although perceived as less dominant, women were the ones I observed carrying or strolling their children around, not men. This also reflects that within the nuclear family in American culture, women are the caregivers and nurturers. These connected behaviors reflect a single cultural rule about gender and implications of being associated with a particular gender as well as prove that culture is integrated. Furthermore, the behavioral differences between age groups indicated several aspects of culture.As previously stated, young adults, or teenagers, were seen socializing majority of the time with those who were in the same age group. Older adults, I observed, behaved the same way. By spending time with those similar in age, there is less judgement and more acceptance when expressing opinions and taste.