Masculinity Or Femininity: What Is Favored?

Andrei Manila

Mrs. Rhine

English 103

2 March 2016

Masculinity or Femininity: Which is Favored? Finding the exact definitions for masculinity and femininity has been an ongoing process for society. Societies in the past have generally agreed that masculinity can be defined as male characteristics that imply dominance and femininity can be defined as female characteristics that imply subordinance. Hundreds of years have been spent categorizing what is to be considered masculine and what is to be considered feminine. But even though society doesn’t admit to place one above the other, society seems to view masculinity more is a positive light rather than femininity. In the social realm, masculinity is valued more in our society due to of the projection

The origin of masculinity and femininity originates from a history of males being projected as more of the power holder rather than the female. In Greek mythology, there are many fables of male heroes overcoming the challenges put in front of them, but no female is ever given the role of the main hero. Achilles, Odysseus, and Hercules are just to name a few of the male heroes in Greek mythology. All possess the characteristic of strength. Strength, physical or emotional, is respected by most cultures, while weakness is commonly shunned upon. Strength, synonymous with masculinity is valued more because it is also synonymous with power. Usually, males have always had the title of “the protector”, protecting all his people and all his family, while women do not have a title of protecting. The U.S Army had no females enlisted in its system until its first female joined in 1901, which wasn't that progressive because she was a nurse, not a frontline operator battling in combat. This disproportional amount of men in combat then lead to the assumption that women were

This can be highlighted by the fact that women are starting a trend that includes taking jobs and roles that are usually taken up by men. Catalyst, a nonprofit organization for women in business, states that 22.5% of women are senior officers in the male-dominated branch of utilities (Catalyst.org). 22.5% is a sign of progression in the modern day where the genders are viewed as more equally. But, the rise of women taking up male dominated jobs is because our society views masculinity more positively over femininity and women are adopting male characteristics in spite of the gender disproportion in jobs to combat it and have a more equal stance with men. However only a minute number of men are entering female dominated professions. For example, only 1% of U.S preschool teachers are male. (Gordon). Michael Kimmel, executive director of the Center for the Study of Men and Masculinities at Stony Brook University, said even though "(W)omen have said, 'Wait a minute, we are competent and assertive and ambitious men have not said, 'We're kind, gentle, compassionate and nurturing.'" (Reyes). Both sexes in our society value masculine traits more than feminine because males get the upper hand in job pay and because femininity involves and implies passive support. Traditionally, a