12/11/2012
Gender Roles In addition to the geographical directions that we use to look at the world, we have a multitude of learned views. What angle we see the world from or what lenses we use are often taught to us. Gender roles, in general, make it harder for women than for men to see themselves as subjects or “the center of the world.” Boys and men are supported much more than women in their own sense of themselves and the world.
Girls and women are encouraged to see their behavior from “the
other’s” point of view, and often develop a feeling of shame in connection to seeing the world from a center in themselves. It is consistent with the philosopher Simone de Beauvoir38), who writes about this in her substantial work “The Second Sex.” “Women see themselves as objects or instruments for others.” Taking responsibility for how one’s own actions can have consequences for others is a good attribute, but not when it deprives oneself of an individual standpoint. In most cultures a man is still a human being, while a woman is considered a gender. Thus, women are reduced to being a man’s es**rt instead of an individual subject. It does not help to take away the female endings of words (in some languages) in the objective to neutralize titles in certain professions. We have waiter or waitress, or the word female poet or poet. Using the word waiter or poet with no gender preference, will often still produce an inner picture of a man. Because women so often are employed in health and care professions, this will also deepen the experience of “not being in the center” in their own bodies and lives.
We are talking about big, old collective belief systems. And yet, all people are basically their own independent universes, even if they are all connected with everything else around them. It is from one’s SELF one can make one’s choices.
The earth’s gravity, the universe’s rays and the body’s anatomy will
also influence the way we build our mental directions in our own aura
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