1) Gender Role Reversal At The Bar. YouTube. N.p., 24 May 2013. Web. 13 May 2015.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-2lNN_Sxpw
This YouTube parody plays on typical gender roles of men and women in a bar/night-out type situation, where women, rather than men, wait on a long line to get past the doorman, buy men drinks, and make lewd comments at them. In contrast, men, behave increasingly sloppily after each drink, talk about ex-relationships to strangers, and dance with one another in a group. Humor is used in this video to bring to light the societal constructs men and women are bound by in day to day life.

Masculinity, although portrayed by women, is exemplified in this video as having certain qualities and acting a certain way. Since men are expected to act a certain way, they are influenced to play into these stereotypical gender roles. Actions such buying drinks for the opposite sex or flirting with or making lewd comments to or at the opposite sex such is also paired with masculinity. For instance, a woman playing on a mans gender role glances a men up and down and states, “Those are amazing jeans. They would look so much better on my bedroom floor” (0:34). Men behave in this sort of manner because is almost expected of them, because it shows masculinity. Masculinity is also linked being able to have many drinks without getting drunk or sloppy, as shown in the video. This reference stems from preconceived notions that have existed for years, that men have to be “stronger” and more “powerful,” thus the association of being able to drink more. Going further, drinking beer instead of something fruity, like a “raspberry kamikaze” (1:16) is also paired with masculinity.

Femininity, on the contrary, is stereotyped with emotional qualities, rather than machoism. Talking too much to strangers about an ex, getting very drunk and very sloppy, and getting pressured into taking shots by the opposite sex all set the implication that women are not only emotional, but the “weaker” gender. Although satire, these genders roles mirror real life situations and issues that men and women face everyday.

2) Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic, 2008. Print.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins challenges the traditional gender roles set by society. Katniss Everdeen is a teenage girl who is thrust into an arena of sorts and forced to fight for her life against other teenagers. Katniss is not your average teenage girl. The novel opens with Katniss hunting in the forest for food. With no males in her household and a sick mother and young sister to provide for, Katniss takes on the role of the man in the house. She goes out to hunt, and she is exceptionally skilled with a bow and arrow. She is portrayed as a fiercely independent and strong-minded individual who knows exactly what she wants and is not afraid to fight for it. She is neither submissive nor weak, which is how females are oftentimes viewed as.

The other main character in the novel, Peeta Mellark, challenges typical gender roles in a whole different way. Peeta is a teenage boy who spends most of his time on the kitchen baking bread. He is portrayed as soft and weak, with a sensitive and romantic side. It is revealed that he has been in love with Katniss for a while and he is willing to do anything for her. Instead of the tough, masculine male that society expects him to be, he is sweet and vulnerable, and at times he is more feminine than Katniss is.

In one scene, while they are in the arena, Katniss and Peeta are discussing how they will obtain food. Katniss takes charge and says that she will go hunt for animals, and tells Peeta to go gather whatever he can. Normally, the man would be the one expected to go out and hunt, and the woman would be doing the easier task. By challenging these traditional gender roles, Collins is able to prove that in essence, there is no such thing as clear-cut gender roles. A female who acts masculine is still a female, and just because a man acts feminine it doesn’t make him any less of a man. It is impossible to classify gender by the constructs society has set because they are so skewed.

 

3)  Chaucer, Geoffrey, and Peter G. Beidler. The Wife of Bath. Boston: Bedford of St. Martin’s, 1996. Print.

The Wife of Bath Prologue is a tale from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales that tells of a woman who establishes herself as an authority figure on marriage, as she has wed five men. This tale specifically challenges gender roles because during the time, women were expected to only wed one man, and not have sex outside marriage. The Wife of Bath had wed five times, and others had frowned upon her because “Christ only attended one wedding.”  In her lengthy story, the Wife of Bath tells her whole life story, stating she has much  “experience”.  Yet, she feels the need to establish her authority in a more scholarly way, despite the fact she feels she is an expert in the field because her lifestyle is not accepted by societal standards. She asks if anyone knows how many marriages should a woman have, but no one seems know the answer. However,  the lack of a known answer still does not justify her lifestyle in the eyes of her peers.  As she begins to tell of her many marriage experiences, she elaborates on marital stereotypes pertaining to women. She uses gender typical stereotypes to get what she wants from men and her marriages to them. To keep her husbands from cheating, she makes them believe she is unfaithful, so they focus their energy on her rather than other women. She uses sex as a weapon, giving it only to get what she wants from her husband, specifically money. The Wife of Bath plays on typical gender stereotypes to get exactly what she wants, and in turns fits the molds set by society, the ones she desperately tries to evade.