Pop Culture Gender Roles Essay

Pop Culture and Gender Roles

The term gender roles refers to the role or behaviour considered to be appropriate to a particular gender as determined by prevailing cultural norms. Women, for example, are seen as hyper feminine, sensitive and emotional. They are associated with the colour pink, skirts, dolls and cooking or cleaning. Contrastingly, men are described as competitive, independent and emotionless, who enjoy sports, cars and the colour blue. Pop culture, since the 1900s, has evolved in a way that people interpret gender roles and standards significantly. Through pop culture, feminist issues have been made more relatable and accessible, television has greatly impacted gender norms and many celebrities/artists have helped blur the lines

The second wave of feminism, from the 1960s through to the 1990s, brought women who created well-planned public identities that promoted feminism and challenged gender stereotypes (Jones, 1963). This time period had an emphasis on unity and sisterhood. For groups that had historically been largely marginalized, music was a way to challenge and protest inequality. The song ‘You Don’t Own Me’, made in 1963 by Lesley Gore, is a great example of this (Jones, 1963). Jones argues that younger women found inspiration in the song's lyrics, which are sometimes credited with helping to spark the second wave feminist movement. In addition to rejecting the idea that a man "owns" a woman, the song "You Don't Own Me" also focused on people battling entrenched inequity and gender norms (Jones, 1963). Goes sings “You don't own me, I'm not just one of your many toys”, which demonstrates the challenge to inequality and traditional gender roles, making Goes incredibly useful’. Gore said, "My take on the song was: I'm 17, what a wonderful thing, to stand up on a stage and shake your finger at people and sing you don't own me." Journalist Neda Ulaby, agrees that this song was inspirational by pointing out that ‘Many have taken up the song as a symbol of women's empowerment — like when the female cast of Saturday Night Live sang "You Don't Own Me" with actress Jessica Chastain the night of the 2018 Women's March’

Educator Pimpatchanok Manaworapong from the university of Bangkok, agrees in a report regarding the relationship between gender roles and television that “Movies can implicitly promote social and ideological norms on a mass scale, making them powerful socialization agents, especially among children” (Manaworapong, 2022). In this research report Pimpatchanok analyses the well-known Disney Princess movie Mulan, made in 1998, in order to show how movies that don’t necessarily follow gender norms or stereotypes can change the way we view gender roles. He states that “Mulan is unique in the world of Disney princesses, as she moves between male and female spaces, resisting gender stereotypes as she does” (Manaworapong, 2022). Similarly, in an article titled "FEMALE MASCULINITY OF MULAN AND ITS EFFECT," Retno Sulistia, an English and Literature professor at the state university of Serbia, expresses a similar point of view. She states that “Mulan is not a feminine girl, she got disinterested in how women are supposed to act.” (Sulistia, 2019). She continues, “Gender is divided into two main characters which are feminine and masculine, so here are the characteristic of feminine and masculine that is constructed by society and Mulan is neither one.” (Sulistia, 2019). In this article Sulistia compares Mulan to some of Disney’s older less inclusive movies. Concluding that, “Based on the analysis,