Gender Roles: Milkie and Anderson

Many of the aspects explored in Melissa Milkie's article, "The Impact of Pervasive Beauty Images on Black and White Girls' Self-Concepts," are all too well known realities in the lives of every female regardless of age. Being a part of the "white" girl social category (despite my Puerto Rican and Middle Eastern background), I can say that I have and still do deal with body issues. It is not only because there are women on the cover of every magazine and women who are paraded around in media who represent an "unrealistic" portrayal of what a woman is supposed to look like, but there are "normal" women in our society who strive to look like that as a result of the pressure. I, just like any other social being, want to fit in. What I completely disregarded, mostly due to my bias thinking that every women must feel like this, is that minorities do not vie with this image and create their own image in which to live by. Unlike "white" girls' perceptions of a women's body, "a wider range of physical appearances and body shapes that the black girls seemed to accept as good-looking in themselves and others was related to a more inclusive beauty ideal (Milkie 127)."

        In Eric Anderson's article, "Varieties of Masculinity in Male Cheerleading," he explores to degree of masculinity within the field of men who participate in cheerleading. I never knew how serious some men take the sport and it is refreshing to know that masculinity has morphed from "homophobic and antifeminine-acting attitudes" to men who now say "Why should people care if I'm straight?" and rejecting the idea to "devalue femininity" (Anderson 284-5, 289). Its transformations in these social roles that move our country forward and propel us towards a more open-minded society.

        After reading these articles, I learned that gender roles and preconceptions are different among different societies and are constantly changing. Not only are roles being blurred between men and women, but there are different standard that are being applied, a symbolic shift, if you will, to how we now view what a man or women should do, look like and act.

Adler, Patricia A., and Peter Adler. ""The Impact of Pervasive Beauty Images on Black and White Girls' Self-Concepts" By Melissa A. Milkie." Sociological Odyssey: Contemporary Readings in Sociology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001. 120-28. Print.

Adler, Patricia A., and Peter Adler. ""Varieties of Masculinity in Male Cheerleading" By Eric Anderson." Sociological Odyssey: Contemporary Readings in Sociology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001. 283-91. Print.