Guided Assignment 6

Our assignment for this post is to discuss the words feminine and masculine and what they make us think of.
Maybe I'm crazy but those two words take me back to the four years of Latin I took in high school. Every word was either masculine, feminine or neuter and you could tell by the way it was declined. For the third declension though, there was no distinction between masculine and feminine; their personal endings were the same.
This was always interesting to me because in English, words don't have a gender. There is no division between what is masculine and feminine. And for some reason, a few third declension nouns in Latin get to enjoy that freedom.
Freedom. Now that's an interesting word. Why am I using freedom to describe something that isn't defined by gender? It's because that's not a freedom many of use get to enjoy these days.
So much of who we are and what we're allowed to do stem from our gender.
For a better part of American history, women were not allowed to do most of things men could do including vote or own property. It took years of protesting and law making to get women where they are today and even then they are not equal to men. They are still paid less than men and continue to be thought of as "the angle in the house," or "domestic goddess."
However, being a man is not much easier. Men not only discriminate against women but also against other men. It took a majority of American history for black men to even be allowed the right to vote. Now Latino and Hispanic men are at the bottom of the food chain, dominating the menial, labor intensive jobs because there is such a stigma against them.
That's not even the worst part though. I find it even more offensive when people use the adjectival forms of gender to discriminate. For example, when a boy is made fun of and ridiculed because he is "feminine," that's awful to me. The word feminine exemplifies all the best qualities of women: compassion, empathy, intelligence, and perseverance. To use that as an insult because the person being called feminine isn't a woman, is horrific. Just because a man is feminine doesn't mean he deserves to be treated with any less respect than a man who "properly" embodies his gender role by being strong and unemotional.
Gender roles are something that this country has always struggled with. During the 60s there was a lot of sexual exploration and gender roles definitely changed but it today, it still feels like women are inferior. We were only just allowed to participate in all forms of combat at the beginning of this year which still baffles me. If someone is willing to join the military to fight for their country they should be allowed to do just that, regardless of gender.
I think that it's important to realize how far women have come but also note that our journey isn't over. Equality for all people of any gender, race or socioeconomic class should be a goal for this country to strive for.