Gender Roles in Society
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Gender roles create a script by which we are to live by. Being Latina means that my role has been laid out for me for hundreds of years, not only am I to have a be a well mannered young lady but I have to like to cook and clean and serve everyonethat's the stuff my grandmother used to feed me. I have two older brothers and when it was dinner time she would have me serve their food first and then after they had everything they needed I was then able to eat.
I rejected her values and would refuse to serve anyone but myself, it got to the point where I was labeled a brat and I was constantly being punished. They did not understand that I was Americanized, I did not take a back seat to any man and as I grew up they learned to accept my feelings.
Later as I got older I still wanted my independence as and American women but I also wanted my door opened for me, my seat pulled out and the check picked up, we have to keep some old fashioned values do we not? I get that I am confused and I do not know what I want but I believe that I know exactly what I want: I want my cake, I want to eat it and I want it to be chocolate and I want it picked up by my man.
I do not know how this new role pertains to American women that are not Latina, but I know that many of my friends face my same dilemma. We are a new breed and the world is not ready for us, one of my friends yells and I stop to think about what she said and I think she is right. Gender roles make up our society, they tell us who we are and how to behave but just as the world changes so do our roles and perhaps my attitude is not that of a rebel but that of a new role that is just surfacing maybe there is still hope for me yet!..