Gender

Gender is one of the most interesting topics in human life. Of course, in the world, we are either male or female, and both sexes have differences. In order to understand the roles that each gender has to play in life, one needs to look at what makes both sexes.
Growing up I knew what it meant to be a male. I never went to a school where students were broken up into different groups based on gender. I was always in a mixture of boys and girls, and I did not have a corrupted perspective on what it meant to be one or the other. I did have a sense of what each gender is responsible to do. With that said, I did not come from families that advocated abusing and using a significant other in a relationship. My father's family is made up of a lot of males, and my mother's family is made up of a lot of females. In my mother's family the women like to be dominating and in control, but my father's family believes that the man is the leader of the house. Also, my father's family believes that a man and a woman have a shared and equal responsibility when taking care of the house. My opinion is in my father's family beliefs.
That does not mean that either gender should try to control or dominate each other. For a long period of time, women have been the victims of domestic violence and verbal abuse, but that does not mean that a woman is not capable of abusing a man in the same way. To me,in this day in age, it seems that feminism has taken over the planet. In other words, feminism is no longer expressed by interest and support groups alone that fight for women's rights, but all women have in one way or another have taken on a position of feminism that has done this country and the world a great disservice. I feel that the whole idea of a woman being independent is foolish. It is interesting to see how this sense of feminism has been a probable cause for relationships falling apart. I think that if a woman wants to be independent and not taken care of by a man, then she does not need a man. I have seen this attitude of feminism in my family for too long now to not be telling the truth about what I see. For example, my mother's family is always trying to tell her father what to do and what not to do from her mother to her two sisters. My father says that this is why my grandfather is known as a "henpeck". For more information on that term here is a link: http://www.answers.com/topic/henpeck.
When I think about what this term means I can think back to certain times when this definition showed its presence in my family. There was one time at my 21st birthday party when this happened. It was ironic how this happened because both sets of my grandparents were there to help me celebrate my birthday. We ate at a restaurant for that night, and when the time came for cake and ice cream the problems arose. My mother's father wanted ice cream with his cake, and then my mother's mother and my aunt said "NO"! This was shocking to me when it happened. I, my father and his parents just looked down and shrugged. I am pretty sure that we were all saying "LET HIM EAT THE ICE CREAM IF HE WANTS TO" when this was happening. The whole reason as to why they did not want him to eat the ice cream was because they said that he would have bad gas and he would need to go to the bathroom. They had this fear because of a previous situation that occurred. In the summer of that same year, my mother's family traveled to Maryland to see my cousin graduate from high school. On their trip they stopped by McDonald's one time and my grandfather ate their ice cream. After that they had to stop so that he could use the bathroom and, according to my mother, he was in the bathroom for a long time. You would expect that from an elderly person though. I felt that my mother's family was acting immature on my birthday night because of the fear from a previous time. What was so sad about it was that the restaurant was less than 5 minutes away from my mother's parents' house. If he would have had any problems or complications from eating the ice cream he would have had the use of the bathroom of his house at his disposal. That incident of that night will forever be a reminder of the drama that is caused by gender in my family. I still have an open mind when it comes to the occupations that a female and a male can have. There are some jobs that I feel are suited for only men and only women, and I do not mean jobs that are based in a biological or reproductive sense. It would not make sense for a woman to apply for a job that requires lifting heavy objects. It would not be suitable for a man to work for a toy company dressing up as a female to market a new doll to young girls! To me occupational searches are determined on an individual basis.
Now there is another issue that sticks in my mind when it comes to gender and that is transgendered people. OK...to me this is nasty, especially when there are men who want to be women! Tyra Banks had an episode on her show where she featured transgendered men who had starred in a new documentary about a beauty pageant for these kind of people called Trantasia. On that note, all that I can say is that I try to keep up my duties of being a man and I will always stick to that!