Gender Roles The Tent Peg - 1294 Words

Society determines how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact. Gender roles are expectations of how a person should think, speak, and dress based on our sex. In most cases, it is the woman’s responsibility to take care of the house, which includes cleaning, meal preparations, raising and taking care of the children. Compared to the men who take care of the more physical activities, such as handy work and physical labor. Although the intensity of gender roles has changed, it still exists. In Aritha van Herk’s novel, the Tent Peg, these gendered classifications become very apparent in how each gender of characters views themselves within society but also how the male and female characters view one another. Throughout the†¦show more content†¦Because J.L. knew this, she changed her name and left her sex anonymous while applying for the job, because she felt she had a better chance at being able to get the job if they assumed that she was a man, rather than a woman. Another instance where J.L. describes how women have conformed to resemble men and their abilities in order to be more accepted in society is when she says, â€Å"Women, we have no temples, they have been razed, the figures of our goddesses defaced, mutilated to resemble men, even Athena destroyed†¦ Now lost, leaderless, no mothers, no sisters, we wander and search for something we can have no memory of† (166). In these instances I believe the author was trying to make a statement through her character of J.L. that because men are more accepted in society than women are, that women have essentially lost who they are. Women cannot even be women anymore because in order to thrive and succeed in society, the y either have to be a man, or attempt to look and act like one. The author also uses the character of J.L. to portray how women feel about men as a gender. After having spent enough time with the nine men that she is sharing a camp with, J.L. begins to dissect the role that men play in society. She says, â€Å"Men. A paradox, a quandary, whole centuries of snakes and ladders. I wouldn’t trade. And yet they’ve got it all, they’ve managed so sublimely to capture the better half of the world and put us to work for them† (165). In this instance