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Blog 4- How do Gender Roles and Discrimination Affect Our Society?

Hi everyone, 

In this blog post, I’ll explain how gender roles and gender discrimination affect the lgbt community. I will talk about things like: how gender roles impact same-sex couples, and how lgbt+ women are discriminated within the community due to gender discrimination.

Gender roles: 

Gender roles have a huge impact in our society. Even though it is easier to see how they in work in straight relationships, since we get to understand how men and women interact and what role they are imposed by society, they also affect people in same sex relationships (m). For example, according to a research by the American Sociological Association, most people think that in same-sex relationships, the “more masculine” partner and the “more feminine” partner should be in charge of the stereo-typically male and female chores. The people answering the survey probably decided who was “masculine” or “feminine” based on who wore masculine or feminine clothing. In addition, the survey also discovered that when it came to lesbian relationships, respondents were more inclined to believe that there was a “man” and a “woman” in the relationship (m).

Gender discrimination: LGBT women face discrimination not only for being women, but also for being LGBT. This causes them to face an additional challgane that many other women don’t face.  This is evident when studying the effects of poverty on lgbt+ women. Lesbian, bisexual, and transgender women, for instance, are among those most at risk of poverty, according to the Movement Advancement Project (USA). Around 5.1 million LGBT women deal with lower salary, frequent harassment, limited access to healthcare, and increased violence. Reduced salaries and increased expenses for everything from housing to healthcare put LGBT women’s financial security at risk due to anti-LGBT laws and outdated, unfair regulations. When a woman has children, is an immigrant, or belongs to a POC group, these numbers rise even more (3).

 

 

Sources:

Gender Identity & Roles | Feminine Traits & Stereotypes. (n.d.). Planned Parenthood. Retrieved December 2, 2022, from                    https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/sex-gender-identity/what-are-gender-roles-and-stereotypes

Mahdawi, A. (2020, September 23). “Who’s the man?” Why the gender divide in same-sex relationships is a farce. The Guardian. Retrieved December 1, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/23/same-sex-relationship-gender-roles-chores

Movement Advancement Project. (2015, March 12). LGBT Women Are Among Most at Risk of Poverty in America. Retrieved December 5, 2022, from https://www.lgbtmap.org/unfair-price-lgbt-women-release

 

Sofia B.

 

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4 Comments

  1. Hi Sofia,
    I like how you researched this subject from an intersectional perspective, how it affects women who are lgbtq+, immigrants, and POC. It made this post very insightful.Im exited to see what you write about in your next blog post. Maybe you could talk about how gender roles also affect men , and how they are also deeply impacted by the patriarchy even though they created it.
    ex. men are expected not to cry , making them hold in their emotions.
    Here are some links that could help you with your research
    -Sammie
    https://www.nextgenmen.ca/blog/why-patriarchy-hurts-men-too#:~:text=Patriarchy%20harms%20men%20by%20disconnecting,individuality%20and%20denying%20their%20humanity.
    https://www.shethepeople.tv/top-stories/opinion/how-are-men-victims-of-patriarchy/

  2. Hello Sofia, great post! While this subject is talked about quite a bit nowadays, it remains an important topic. For thousands of years, gender roles have been rarely questioned, with a firm understanding that men married women, with the man leading and the woman following. Today, however, we have seen a shift towards an equal distribution of roles between sexes, as well as a larger acceptance of different sexual and gender identities. Unfortunately, while members of the LGBTQ2+ community enjoy relative respect and freedom in the western world, in certain parts of the world they are seen as less. A great example of this discrimination was just this year: the World Cup. Inexplicably hosted by Qatar, many LGBTQ2+ soccer fans and allies weren’t even let into the arena and were harassed by the officials throughout their stay. Another horrific example is Nigeria, where some states even have the death penalty for simply being gay. Long-winded rant aside, what I’m trying to say is that even though we have made a lot of progress on this front, we still have a lot to go. And you’re helping!

    Some resources you may find useful are:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2019/11/25/most-dangerous-places-safest-lgbtq-gay-travelers/?sh=3bb86d551169

    https://plan-international.org/girls-get-equal/challenging-gender-discrimination-a-how-to-guide/

    https://www.unicef.org/gender-equality

  3. Hello Sofia,
    Amazing blog post! It is great to mention the LGBTQ2+ community and how some people are discriminating against people from the LGBTQ2+ community because of a few bad examples shared through social media, and it just doesn’t seem right to conclude a whole community by a few bad people. Have you ever thought about why people are against the LGBTQ2+ community? I personally think that its human nature that we want to destroy and discriminate the people and things we do not understand, so I think the best way to resolve this is to talk about it more and really share the idea with everyone.
    Here are some resources that you might use:
    https://homewoodhealth.com/corporate/blog/supporting-children-lgbtq2
    https://calgaryunitedway.org/blog/seven-ways-to-be-a-strong-lgbtqi2s-community-ally/
    https://engage.youth.gov/resources/being-ally-lgbt-people

  4. Hi Sofia! Amazing post, I am very invested in your topic! This topic has gotten more recognization now however, this topic is still very important to educate all generations. I like how you have researched about lgbtq+ women specifically POC and immigrants. I think your topic is something that deserves more attention from our society. For future blog posts I think you could talk about people who do not have a label or men in gender roles and how it can brutally affect society and set a bad example for young children, or even anyone.

    Here are some sources that may help:
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/gender-role#:~:text=Gender%20roles%20can%20be%20conceptualized,(especially%20toward%20other%20men).

    https://lasallefalconer.com/2019/12/gender-roles-the-harmful-labels-put-on-children/

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