Ideology of Equality

In 2012 we live in a world where equality is an ideology that is constantly being fought for, but yet is somehow never achieved. We want equality for women, we want equality for marriage, and we want equality for minorities, but yet with all the determination to achieve this equality in society our world is taking very small steps in creating it. After hundreds of years we have overcome many obstacles; the United States now have an African American president, women are now in the work force and gay marriage is not being accepted in certain places. But does this mean that racism and discrimination are now unknown terms to our society? Of course not, our world is still very much controlled by the white middle class men of our society, what they say is what ends up being the deciding factor. Why is it that our world is so intimidated by change? Why are so many people against two people of the same sex being in love, or a woman having a higher salary than a man?

Equality is the thought of everyone being at the same level or the same playing field and one way of changing this is by the ideology of gender. Now by gender one would not mean sex, the bodily configurations of a person, but gender as in the way that society looks at men and women. Since the beginnings of time men and women have had certain roles that they followed by, men were the bread winners and women were the care takers. This holds especially true when it comes to egalitarian times, men hunted, farmed, and/or fished while the women stayed home, took care of the kids and the house. This way of looking at gender followed through centuries of life and has only recently changed within the past couple hundred years, only recently has the chance been made that women are allowed to work outside of the home and some men are now choosing to stay at home with the children.  

Although there have been steps toward equality there are still many ways in which the media portrays the “ideal” gender and that is a large factor in keeping inequality the same. The media likes to target men as “manly” men who are not allowed to show emotion, who are not allowed to eat feminine foods such as fruits and salads, and who are not allowed to enjoy plays like Shakespeare. (There are examples of all of these in a youtube video posted above). Another way of portraying gender stereotypes is by broadcasting shows like the Victoria Secret fashion show, this fashion show gives women the illusion that they should be stick figures, with beautiful curves, and prance around in lingerie like sex objects. Then there is the worse form of stereotypes ever.. music videos. Music videos portray women as objects for man’s pleasure and men are viewed as wealthy and powerful. And people wondering why these gender stereotypes cannot leave us, it is because of the media, music videos, and these fashion shows. They are what destroy our world.