Ajusting gender's role, trauma or not? (rd1)

Thanh Nguyen
Sep 10, 2010
Ajusting gender's role, trauma or not?

    
                Gender bias has been an issue for decades. In the past, the role of a woman is to take care of the children and the house works. They were seen as less important comparing to men. They have very little influence on the society in the past. However, as time goes by, women roles have bigger influences on the society. Today, many important roles are held by women. [THESIS] Even though woman today are more accepted as being equal in social status comparing to men, they are still suffering trauma in adjusting to their gender roles between their adolescence and menopause stage.[THESIS]
                Women under a different life-style, and circumstances, experience different types of trauma. Studies show that in the adolescence period, females have higher incidence of depression. This the time when females' role change dramatically. They will have to go through a lot of challenges confronting their physical and mental changes.
               When hitting that age of the beginning stage of woman hood, females began to think differently. Their feeling about themselves and how they think about the society expects them to be will changed. There will be a lot of pressure on woman reaches this stage of life. This could be one of the life changing events for them. Therefore, they will have to face the social constraint with the onset of this cycle. During this cycle of age, females will try to remake their images. In the other words, they will try to achieve their authentic identity. Before females reach this stage, females are care-free. They worry less about themselves like what they do, what they wear, and how they behave. But in adolescent cycle, female would literally stress out about what they wear, how they talk, the way they look, and what the society think about them in general.
                In the Dialogue "Sampling in the storm" written by May Pipher, Poly - a character in the story, from a energetic, and care-free girl changed herself and become a quiet and more lady-like person when she reached her adolescence. "She danced, did cart-wheels, and split...". And then Poly has her first period when she started junior high. "she was called tomboy for not acting lady-like" From this image of a young Poly, we can see how society has an immense effect on females when they reach their onset of adolescence. Reading this story from Mary Piper, I recall about my younger sister. She was once an energetic girl when she was a preadolescent girl. She used to like to have a short hair cut, dressed like boys, played same sports as the boys, and hung out with a group of boys about her age. But when her age reached about 13, her personality changed totally. Boys in her class made fun of her for the way she dressed, and how she talked to students in her school. Ever since then, my sister’s personality began to change. She was like a totally different person comparing to her own image back then when she was a preadolescent girl. My sister became calmer. She began to talk differently to people, in a shy way, especially to boys. Every time I took her to go for a haircut, she would tell the barber to trim her hair instead of cutting it short like how she used to. And she started to wear skirts instead of jeans. They way she behaved and looked were totally different. My sister “disappear mysteriously into the Bermuda Triangle” (pg. 427, paragraph 11) just like Mary Piper described “. However, when she was a little more mature, about the age of 16, my sister began to develop her own perception of style. She started wearing jeans, and cutting her hair short again. she also joined the school's girl soccer team , and talk heartily to other people like the way she used to.  There was one thing I have to admit, my sister was less feminine back when she was a pre-adolescent girl.
                At a certain point in human life, everybody will have to face some sort of trauma. In the case of females, they have to face a sudden change in the realization of their gender roles. However, this is just a type of trauma that every female has to go through. It's not a permanent type of trauma. The society's perception of being a female in some way affects them to change physically and emotionally. In my younger sister case, she had  to face some difficulty and challenges on developing in the early stage of adolescent because of society's expectation for females. However, when she got a bit older, the trauma she experienced before was gone. The way of people thinking somewhat make it harder for females to accept their gender roles. But it does not necessarily mean that they are traumatized in adjusting to their gender roles.
                In Mary Piper statement "Between adolescence and menopause, women experience trauma in adjusting to their gender roles" was her choice of word. Her statements may apply to females at some point in their war with adjusting their gender roles at the early stage of adolescence. But it does not applied to females in accepting their gender roles. Females may face some old-fashion vague notion from people about being a female on a certain standard of being a good image of a female. But it does not make woman themselves experience trauma in adjusting to their gender roles in life.

Works Cited:

Piper, Mary. “Sampling in the Storm.” Dialogues: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader. 6th edition. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2009. Page 424-432

Abuse and trauma in women’s lives: Understanding gender. April 1, 2010. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. September 6, 2010.
<http://www.camh.net/Publications/Resources_for_Professionals/First_stage_trauma/first_stage_trauma_chapter1.html