Post 2

When I first started reading this reading there was immediately one quote that stood out to me. It was in the first few lines of the intro and read, “That artifacts are themselves shaped by gender relations, meanings and identities was demonstrated – from refrigerators to contraceptives, from houses, cars and cities to word processors and weapons” (Wajcman – Preface). I took a history class last semester and it talked a lot about gender equality. Reading this first quote immediately made me think of the things I read about how gender roles throughout history completely shaped our society and outlooks on life in terms of gender to this day. From what I’ve read, a gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role surrounding a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based on their biological or perceived sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity, although there are often exceptions and variations. The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may vary widely among cultures and time periods, while other characteristics may be common throughout a range of cultures and history. There is always an ongoing debate as to what extent gender roles and their variations are biologically determined, and to what extent they are socially constructed. With having such high standards, beliefs, and a constant need to live up to the standards and stereotypes a women was given during any time throughout history, made up for a very unfair living situation socially, economically, and politically for women. Social construction has always split these two genders into a list of stereotypes while both are pretty much capable of doing each other’s stereo-typically given roles in life. Patriarchal values also promote the binary oppositions of what a proper and unproper female must be. In terms of this ideology, females are supposed to be “clean” and “proper”. It is often frowned upon when females have multiple partners or are seen doing anything “wild” or “savage” due to these given stereotypes.