Fortune-For
the Men in Charge of Change
Since
the beginning of humanity, gender has played a huge role in every society. Many societies (if not most) put men as the “head
of household,” the “breadwinner,” or give men a sense of power over women. Even slogans for famous magazines, companies,
etc. such as the one used for Fortune
Magazine, “For the men in charge of change” are patriarchal. Patriarchal society dominates most of the
world, including the United States of America.
This form of society, however, is on its way out the door.
21st
century Planet Earth is changing.
Society, beliefs, and gender roles are changing; everything is in
constant change in humankind’s world. Every
society in the world needs to change to form a more gender-equal atmosphere,
but many places are already seeing leaps and bounds toward that end
result. Places that still have old,
sexist traditions or beliefs, notably and notoriously places in the Middle
East, are completely in the wrong (biased based on my own beliefs, I
know). Despite this, countries like the
US and countries in Europe (developed, first-world countries for the most part)
are hopping onto the gender-equality bandwagon left, right, and center. There are still snags, like patriarchal
traditions that seem harmless when compared to some extreme stances on gender
equality. Examples of this could be the “breadwinner
of the family” stereotype that is usually tied to the man of the house, or that
wimps are called “girls,” or “you throw like a girl”, all of which are truly insulting to women. These are the sexist things that will take a
long time to weed out because my parents and their parents and their parents’
parents all grew up with that kind of idea thrown around. Today’s teenagers are much more pro-gender
equality, so those sayings or stereotypes will die off. The key thing here is that fortune will be created
by “the men in charge of change.”
While
women in popular literature have personal triumphs, there is something to be
said about large-scale triumphs. In A Doll House, Nora leaves Torvald and
their children to rediscover herself and to break away from the man she doesn’t
love and become independent (which, by the way, I found interesting information
about; according to Wikipedia, “Ibsen's German agent felt that the original
ending would not play well in German theatres; therefore, for it to be
considered acceptable, Ibsen was forced to write an alternative ending for the
German premiere. In this ending,
Nora is led to her children after having argued with Torvald. Seeing them, she
collapses, and the curtain is brought down. Ibsen later called the ending a
disgrace to the original play and referred to it as a 'barbaric outrage'.” This only goes to show that society, though in
the 1800s, is extremely patriarchal.)
Edna in The Awakening swims
out into deep water and dies triumphantly as an escape or a way to show her “awakening”
from the men she was possessed by in her life.
These two examples showed that there are personal victories for
individual women. These triumphs can set
an example for more women to follow, but the thing is that men are the ones
with more power and influence (not going to sugarcoat it). Men are the ones that can easily change
ideas, traditions, and mindsets. In
order for women to be victorious, men have to concede, and in the words of Star Wars, “He became so powerful, the
only thing he was afraid of was losing his power”. Men are more willing in today’s society to
change (or will be once the newer generations of men become older and can start
the change), so there is more hope than ever for women to become truly equal in
everyone’s eyes, but there are still many obstacles to get by.
That Star Wars quote says “He became so
powerful, the only thing he was afraid of was losing his power, which, eventually, of course, he did.” Even George Lucas saw A New Hope.
