Fortune-For the Men in Charge of Change

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.

21^st 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.