Gender Stereotypes In Today Society

“Rip Van Winkle” is a well loved American Short Story by Washington Irving. Much of the humor in the story is derived from the stereotypes about male and female relationships. Surprisingly, there are these stereotypes that persist even until today. Arguably enough much has changed with regards to women’s roles in the home, as well as in their respective careers in our modern world. However, it is still an enduring stereotype that women, or wives for that matter are over-bearing, and most often than not, nagging and demanding when it comes to the ‘obligations’ that the husband, or the father, being the head of the family, is supposed to perform.

This stereotype is still portrayed in local media, by way of television series where women are portrayed as a “termagant wives” that nagging, overbearing and to a point, henpecking their husbands. In the story, Rip is one of those men “who are under the discipline of shrews at home” (954), and his wife is constantly “dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness” (955). The stereotype of how men, in the opinion of women, are wasting time with useless frivolities such as sitting down for fishing, which translate into today’s modern world, where women detest how their men would sit and be glued in front of their television set to watch their favorite game, with a bottle in hand, and no intention whatsoever to do the household chores.

The stereotype of the man still remains, as the one who’d do ‘manly’ works, such as the repairing of fences, carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and even farm work. Even if such male dominated ‘work’ or ‘professions’ are now easily accessible and open for the opposite sex, there is not much significant change in this, as men are still supposed to be in control or have the ‘higher right’ to engage in such masculine professions or field of work. When we look at the top of society today we see most important ‘professions’, like rulers, presidents, prime ministers, and CEOs of major corporations, are mostly belong to men. The stereotypes that men dominate everything, and society is set up for men are still exist today.

There is also stereotype of men tend to enjoy activities that are done in large groups more than women. In the short story, Rip enjoys socializing and helping his neighbors more than socializing with his wife and doing his own, family duty, business. He is a “great favorite” and is possessed of “universal popularity” (955). Everybody in the village loves him. Rip likes to attend “a kind of perpetual club of sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village” (956), where he gets pleasure from sitting long afternoon in the shades and telling “endless sleepy stories about nothing” (956). Today in the modern world, there are many things that men do and enjoy more than women: team sports, politics, large corporations and so forth.

Even with many changes in the role of women and men over time, there are many gender stereotypes still exist in society today. Masculine and feminine images that are portrayed in media also project their own psychological mystiques. As we grow up, our culture influences us through these images, usually without us realizing it. These beliefs are so ingrained in our consciousness that many of us think that gender roles are natural, so we don't question them. Even if we don't consciously subscribe to them as part of our own belief system, our culture bombards us with messages about what it means to be men and women today.

Work Cited

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." Norton Anthology of American Literature.Ed. Nina Baym. Vol. B. New York: Norton, 2007. 954-965.