Should Women Do Housework?

Meaning all the time, like a housewife, not like when they need to and have a real job. Obviously, the answer is no. That's right kids, it's time for another commonplace!

Well, I suppose the short answer is no. I realize this is a very easy commonplace to talk about and it's very likely that everyone else will have an entry addressing sexism in some way or another throughout the semester. With that said, I intend to talk about this my way, and if you've been keeping up, this one will keep the standard going.

Noticeably, the ad is advertising Kellogg's "Pep", whatever that is. Vitamins is what it says. I don't think it's too related to the issue that will be brought up here, but since it is what the ad is speaking about, I figured it should be mentioned.

Sexism has been an ongoing issue in the world ever since the first smart humans have been around. In the kingdoms of old, women were merely there to be the mothers of children, providing for them and not really being able to do any tasks that the men could do on their own. Fast forward to 2011, and sexism is still a current commonplace. There are times when women get paid less to do the job of a man, though those are getting scarcer. There are still many ways that society belittles women, and even if it is not in the workplace, it can still be present in the way people interact.

There is a much different reaction to a female celebrity doing something wrong than there is to a male celebrity, just based upon the very narrow opinion of what girls should and should not do. It is easier to say that a woman should be "innocent" and "pure" than it is to say the same for a man. This leads to bad opinions on both sides of the coin. If a man is told to be a provider to a woman, essentially doing what she wants to do (which I don't recommend, it doesn't work), then why is it so looked down upon for a woman to be told to be put in the place of housekeeper?

There are a few reasons for this, and that is that society is always growing. It should not be said that a woman must be doing the cooking and cleaning and nothing else while the man does all the earning, because we, as people, are all similar enough to be expected to be able to do the same things. This really has an impact when people react to different genders in different ways. An example I can think of could be when some guy at a school is hurtful to others - maybe not in a physical way, but in a verbal way. This is not necessarily expected, but it is less surprising than if a girl had done it. Why is this? I do not feel that there needs to be different treatment in how things are handled. To create a more specific example, let's say the two are a couple. It could be a bad argument that they just had, and they would post about it on Facebook. The two would get different reactions.

The guy and his guy friends would likely suggest to not worry about it and go out somewhere or something of the sort. On the other hand, the girl would be more heartfelt and open with how she felt about it, in turn gathering a whole lot more responses than the guy would. Is this because women are supposedly the more "vulnerable" gender? I really don't see why there is any special treatment required for a simple argument, no matter who is at fault. Continuing from this point, the girls would probably react the same way without context to both parties. They might ask what's wrong or what happened. In contrast, most of the guys would not ask these questions to the guy, but ask them to the girl. That seems innocent enough, but let's face it - there is no "good" part of sexism, and this in itself is pretty sexist. Essentially, the guy is giving up his dignity because he wants to make the girl feel better. While at times this could be genuine concern, he might say something to the guy that indicates that he doesn't really care for her at all. The only conclusion I can draw from this is that the guy who tries to make the girl feel better has a thing for her, but that's a whole other issue altogether.

I feel that either gender does not really deserve different treatment just because they are a man or a woman. Different people all have their ways of handling their problems, and different people want different things. There should not be a push for a man to be the end-all be-all provider for a woman, nor should there be a push for a woman to be a housewife. If that is what they want, then that should be their choosing. It all depends on the individual.