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Jack Freeman
Professor Jon Beadle
English 115
31 October 2016
The Perception of Equality
The leaders of the society we live in say that women and men are treated with equality,
but the gender roles society has for men and women says otherwise. Is it fair that even though
men and women are both human, masculine traits are favored over feminine traits? Society needs
to change the perceptions of masculine and feminine traits so equality can be reached. In reality,
society treats women as inferior to men and pressures men and women to conform to masculine
and feminine traits. Examples of this inequality and pressure society forces on people can be
seen in the media. The society we live in creates negative gender roles for women and on the
Instagram account, spitta_andretti there is a picture that depicts negative gender roles for
women. The image displays negative gender roles for women because there is a girl in a pose
that portrays how women are considered inferior to men. The pose the rapper, Curren$y, has and
the accessories he is wearing in the picture shows how men are considered superior to women.
Pictures like this are the reason why women are truly thought of as unequal to men in society due
to masculine and feminine traits. Examples like these in the media also cause men and women to
adhere to these traits for their gender so they can be accepted into society.
The media continuously portrays women as inferior to men through social media. The
rapper Curren$ys Instagram account, spitta_andretti, contains a picture that blatantly displays
societys belief that men are superior to women. The picture is of him wearing jewelry and
standing by two very expensive classic cars with a girl squatting down below him wearing very

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tight clothing while holding onto his thigh. The girl holding tightly onto his thigh represents the
feminine trait of dependence by showing that she is dependent on him for financial support
because the image displays him as a wealthy man which means he would be able to support her
financially. This supports the belief that women are believed to be inferior to men because they
are commonly thought of as dependent and men are typically thought of as independent. The
article, Rethinking Womens Biology by Ruth Hubbard states that women were considered
inferior to men in the past because they were thought of as being physiologically incapable to go
to school and get a good education. Hubbard was discussing the topic of education for women
when she stated, In the nineteenth century, when women tried to get access to higher education,
scientists initially claimed we could not be educated because our brains are too small (Hubbard,
46). This belief would cause them to become dependent on men because they wouldnt be able to
get educated and use their education to get a good job. The media hardly ever displays women as
educated and independent which is why women are given negative gender roles. Young women
will see pictures like this in the media and think that is how they are supposed to be instead of
thinking they should be educated and independent women. The girl in the picture is also
squatting which shows that she is below the man, Curren$y in society which once again circles
back to how men are considered to be above or superior to women. This causes people to see this
and think that women should be treated lesser then men which in turn causes inequality between
men and women in society. Men tend to feel the need to act aggressive or powerful to be
considered masculine.
Men tend to be pressured to conform to the common traits that are associated with
masculinity like aggression and power. The article, The Value of Participatory Visual Methods
in Young Masculinity Research from Procedia Social and Behavioral Science by David

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Blackbeard and Graham Lindegger displays how men are pressured to conform to masculine
traits. In the article, a boy was describing what he thinks about cars when he said, Ever since I
was young Ive had a passion for them the sheer power something about them it makes me feel
like a young free South African man Im not sure what it is. The statement shows that for the
boy to feel like a man, he needs to feel powerful which causes boys to think that to be masculine
they need to be powerful. Later in the article, the boy answered a question about how the car
makes him feel independent when he said, Yes cause it gives you a sense of independent. This
shows that men are thought of as needing to be powerful and independent so they can feel good
which is due to society portraying masculine traits as powerful. This causes a pressure for men to
act powerful because they want to be accepted into society, but they know that they will only be
accepted as masculine men if they are perceived as powerful. This relates to Aaron Devors
Article, Becoming Members of Society because he believes that society forces masculine traits
on men who demonstrate the characteristics that are associated with power and aggression.
Devor was talking about masculinity when he stated, These two clusters of attributes are most
commonly seen as mirror images of one another with masculinity usually characterized by
dominance and aggression (Devor, 39). Devors claim shows that the common belief about
masculinity is that masculine men are considered aggressive and dominant. The visual of
Curren$y is another example of how men are pressured to be masculine because the rapper
displays many traits in the picture that are considered masculine in society which causes men to
desire to acquire those traits so that they can be accepted as well. Society creates this image of
masculinity through the media. Another trait that tends to be heavily associated with masculinity
is aggression.

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Some people may say that even though men are aggressive, they know how to maintain
their aggression and not turn it into violence. However, those people are wrong because when
men are encountered with a frustrating situation, they tend to react with violence against objects
or people to deal with their frustration. The article, Different Defense Mechanisms Among Men
with Different Sex Role Orientations from Sex Roles by Thalma E. Lobel and Guy L. Winch is
about a study on how aggressive, masculine men react to a frustrating situation with aggression
instead of dealing with a frustrating situation with logic so they can avoid violence. In their
conclusion of the study they stated, These results suggest that masculine men, as compared to
feminine men, deal with conflict and anxiety by externalizing and by behaving in a more
aggressive/assertive manner. This shows that masculinity makes men act aggressive and it
makes them deal with frustration in an aggressive way because men feel that they need to react
that way so they can maintain their masculinity. Reacting to something frustrating with
aggression as opposed to logic can be very dangerous and unethical. Aggression can be seen in
the image of Curren$y of the rappers Curren$ys stance because he is standing holding a drink
in his hand with his expensive diamond rings clearly visible and he is standing in an upright
position. This demonstrates aggression because he wants his jewelry and position to intimidate
other men. This can affect men because they see these examples of aggression in the media and
think that they need to act aggressive as well to be accepted into society. This aggression that
men possess leads to violence very quickly. The video, Tough Guise by Jackson Katz, activist
against violent masculinity, stated that aggression impacts society in the way that the majority of
rapes, homicides, and violent crimes are all carried out primarily by men. This need for
aggression to be considered masculine must end because many people including men are being
harmed by the backlash this aggression in men causes.

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In sum, the portrayals of favoritism of masculinity over femininity and inequality
between men and women can be seen in society in many different cases. This favoritism of
masculinity over femininity creates inequality between men and women and it also pressures
men and women to conform to masculine and feminine traits. The pressure to conform to a
persons respective gender roles are created because people feel the need to obtain these traits
and demonstrate them in their daily lives so they can be treated as their gender in society. The
media has a big influence on how men and women should conform to their gender roles and the
media makes men believe that they need to be aggressive and powerful to be considered
masculine. If society treated both masculine and feminine traits with equality and didnt focus
masculinity on power and aggression, the world would be a much more fair and safe place.

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Works Cited
Blackbeard, David, and Graham Lindegger. "The Value of Participatory Visual Methods in
Young Masculinity Research." Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 165 (2015):
85-93.
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender. Gender
Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality, Composing Gender, Edited by Rachel
Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford/St Martins, 2013, pp. 35-45.
Franklin, Shante. (spitta_andretti). Twas a cool lil Saturday. Instagram, 2016,
https://www.instagram.com/p/BLCsik2D0tx/.
Hubbard, Ruth. Rethinking Womens Biology. The Politics of Womens Biology, Composing
Gender, Edited by Rachel Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford/St Martins, 2013, pp. 4652.
Katz, Jackson. Tough Guise. YouTube, 2006,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=3exzMPT4nGI.
Lobel, Thalma, and Guy Winch. "Different Defense Mechanisms Among Men with Different
Sex Role Orientations." Sex Roles, 15.3 (1986): 215-220.