Contrary to what some may have you believe, men and women have very different roles even in a modern, first world society, like America. The niches in which each is supposed in reside are becoming increasingly blurry, but very slowly and with the amount of effort that should not be required for the achievement of simple equality. The idea of equality is simple, but reaching its execution from a time and place where stark inequality once existed is complex. Yes, progress has been made over the centuries, but is there truly a big difference? Women are able to vote, but not nearly enough are exercising that right. Women are now working in jobs that were originally only considered to be jobs for men, like lawyers and politicians, but they are still paid 70% of what a man in a given position is paid. Women have more control of their reproductive rights than they did a hundred years ago, but that may soon change for the worse.
All the negatives listed above are products of societal roles that women and men are believed to have to play. They stem from the idea that women are not strong enough or capable enough to take care of themselves, and thus need men to do it. This idea originated from the cave men, when this indeed was true. Females did not have the physical power to kill dinner. This had to be done by men. Unfortunately, as time went on and the human species evolved and progressed technologically, the trace of the idea that women are inferior still remains, even in the strongest advocates of female rights and gender equality. Gender roles empowering men and disenfranchising women are deeply rooted in most cultures.
In every society, specifically America, children are conditioned from the minute they are born how to be a “man” or a “women” in the “right” way. Gender conditioning ranges from pink balloons for girls and blue ones for boys, to teaching a girl to talk about her feelings, and a boy that he is not supposed to cry. In a summer sleep-away camp, the administration runs a talk with both the boys and the girls separately on the first day of their arrival every session. They warn the girls about untrustworthy people who may take advantage of them, teach them how to say no, and how to report an incident. The boys, however, they scold, saying that they are being watched and that there will be dire consequences if they are found out. The boys, before they even had a chance to do anything that deserves it, are criminalized, made out to be impulsively barbaric creatures. Even the ones that may have never been inclined to harass a girl, will, because it is expected—the self-fulfilling prophecy. On the other hand, by telling the girls to say no, it is implied that women have no sexual desires, which is simply not true, and that women should not have sexual desires. These different attitudes towards sexuality are the reason for why when men are expected to act a certain way, women who do the same are considered whores. Overall, this society teaches males violence and sexual aggression, and females, helplessness and prudery.
Since, clearly, gender roles, whether sexual or not, are taught, the first step towards a more equal society, as well as a happier one, is to teach equality at home and other places young kids spend a lot of time. Of course, this has its obstacles. True gender equality, or something close to it, does not exist in most American homes, though most women now have carriers and bank accounts separate from their husbands. Thus, the ideal cannot easily be passed on to the next generation. However, in homes where both parents have equal say in decision-making, both do chores like cooking and cleaning, and take care of each other equally, children learn to act the same. Boys learn that it is ok to ask for help, and girls learn that they are valuable human beings beyond their cooking abilities. What is hurting society the most is criminalization of boys and victimization of girls. Once equality is taught in more homes, the media, the job market, and public opinion will follow.
“The Lottery” is Shirley Jackson’s way of sounding an alarm. It is like saying “watch out for how oblivious you are to your surroundings and intricate webs of control around you because one day, when you least expect it, you will be the innocent bystander.” Except what Shirley is saying is very similar to what Margaret Atwood is saying—no one has the right to complain or get angry at being the victim, as Tessie did, because they, by their ignorance and apathy, are not innocent bystanders, they are the cause of their own misery, unless they consciously fought against the system. Undoubtedly, Shirley Jackson was concerned about the structure of a capitalistic society and how that affects the ones with the least power, but the overarching message of the story is that nothing happens to people, they allow it to happen or do it to themselves.
“The Lottery,” and The Handmaid’s Tail are two works that use two different metaphors to illustrate the same ideas about who wants power, why, how it is attained, retained, used and abused. The United States during the time of Gilead is essentially “The Lottery” in that the people in power have picked a group to suppress, a scapegoat, in this case women and minorities, as the capitalist system in “The Lottery” picks person ‘x’ each year. Both authorities do so to keep their power. In the United States, the people of authority were not secure enough in themselves to be able to stand a rapidly changing society so when they acquired power; they kept it by creating a distinct line between the superiors, them, and the stratifications of inferiors. The changes unnerved them, made them feel uncomfortable. When they noticed that many people were getting abortions, it challenged their belief system and once a person’s belief system is challenged, they become unstable, no longer knowing how to live their lives. In “The Lottery” the ones in power, the heads of businesses, were aware of the fact that the people with less power were quietly angered by this and to keep it quite, they made sure to perpetuate and control a way, the lottery, for the people to get their anger out, on a scapegoat.
I was working in one of Beacon’s computer labs last year and I noticed that about twenty blank sheets of white printing paper were scattered all around the printer as well as on the floor, but they were no longer clean, nor white. The paper was bent, crumpled and imprinted with dirt from students’ shoes, rendering it inadequate for school use. That was not the first time perfectly good paper has been wasted this way in Beacon, and when it is, the paper is not recycled because Beacon does not recycle. It is and thus trees are then simply wasted. By wasting so much paper we are cutting down more trees than is necessary, decreasing oxygen production necessary for clean air, and greatly contributing to the extinction of more and more species. Not only is paper plainly thrown out in Beacon, because it is bent or ruined in other ways, but many teachers also do not print on both sides of the sheet when making forty page packets for their students. We NEED to be more conscious of what we are doing to our environment.
I have already spoken in front of the faculty. My nest step is to find a few people who feel as strongly as I do about this who will work with me on spreading awareness through out the school and making sure that paper is being saved. I am thinking about getting the advisories involved somehow. Maybe a few people and I could go around to every advisory, or to classes during the day, and explain why saving paper is so important and what could be done. I could put posters all around the school. This needs to be a BIG project, otherwise people will not respond. We will need to talk to teachers individually as well. Community service could also be incorporated. Maybe a guest speaker, an environmentalist for example, could come in and talk to students. There should be a mandatory Environmental Awareness class! Kids are going to hate me.
What I am hoping for in the end is that everyone will be very well educated about what is going on with the environment in terms or deforestation, and about the environment in general as well. I want to decrease the amount of paper that the school buys, get the school to start recycling, and make sure that progress continues after I have graduated.