Mernissi Gender Roles

Since the beginning of time, both men and women grown up and evolved together throughout history. However, as times continues, their perceptions of gender and attitudes grew larger as in different time periods. For example, in the beginning of birth, the roles of women and men has been predetermined by the society that surrounds them, whereas males play a dominant role in competitions with other males for supremacy while females take a passive role, allowing males to take charge. However, in many occasions, men showed their masculinity and manipulate how the females should act in public and personal space. In particular, Fatema Mernissi’s “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” demonstrates how males manipulate the coexist of females in public

However, on the West, she identifying the dominant role as “dangerous and cunning”, (Mernissi 221) because of their way of domination. According to Mernissi, she believes that male domination in the West manipulates “time and light” (Merissi 221), using females’ age as the equivalent of beauty, thus deploying the conclusion that these western manipulations are worse than the Muslim veil. In my opinion however, Mernissi’s argument is flawed due to the fact that she considers the ideal western beauty as men interference and their way of oppression toward women. As a result, an analysis of Mernissi’s essay reveals that even though men’s control and power is true for the case of the harem, western beauty is irrelevant towards men’s

For example, she argues that if a Western woman wants to be beautiful, she must be “childish and brainless” (Mernissi 221). Thus proving that according to Mernissi’s statement, in the western world, bigger and older women are not mature and beautiful and that they are considered ugly. As a result, Mernissi is linking maturity with size, explaining that being mature is being ugly, which is a huge misconception of her thesis. Therefore, maturity should be based on age-related, not what society puts you into and whether if you are