Society's pressure on women and men?

Are women just naggy and complicated because society tells them to be that way? Society portrays women as being very annoying, difficult to figure out, fickle, etc. So do you think that girls who are presented with this at a young age turn all "feminist" just because society tells them to?

Equally, do men feel pressured by commercials to know everything about sports, have no grey hair, drink beer, and generally be uncaring of female needs (except, of course, for when he goes to Jared)?

How many pople just conform to what society says is normal, simply to not stick out?

Society's pressure on women and men?

We are all influenced by "society". It's just some of us are more obviously affected than others. Also, it depends on which elements of society a person is most exposed to. At birth (assuming they aren't aborted, but that's a subject for another post) all humans around the world, both men and women are essentially the same. They are totally self-absorbed, only interested in food and comfort. They have to be taught by their parents (if they are lucky enough these days to have any that care) and other authority figures around them what to think of others, how to behave, what to like and what to hate. Yes, we all have personalities that are to some degree hard-wired into our brains from the start. The aspects of these personalities that are encouraged and developed as well as the aspects that are discouraged and suppressed depend largely on the society we are born into.

By society, I assume from your question that you are referring to modern-day "American" or "Western" society since what "society" is depends on the time, place and circumstances you are born into. Yes, I'd say that modern-day society in the U.S. does pressure women to be feminists. The natural inclination of women world-wide for most of earth's history has been to bear and raise children. Feminism however, suggests that this job, which is truthfully the most important job in the world, is "demeaning" to women and that if they truly want to be "fulfilled", women must pursue a career in something else. This movement got started in the 50's when most of the able bodied men were drafted into WWII and women were asked to work the jobs that the soldiers left vacated (we didn't have all these illegals we have now to do them back then). During this "Rosie the Riveter" time, women, some of whom had already begun to cast a jealous eye on the jobs of men in the prosperous 1940's took the opportunity to get the feminist movement going. In the 40's labour-saving devices in the home like washing machines and refrigerators had already freed up some time for many "housewives" who found themselves with enough "spare time" and desire for extra money so they could buy more and better gadgets so that they started wanting jobs outside the home. The 50's labour shortages made what some women had already been fighting for a necessity. After the war, many women weren't content to stay home and let the returning vets have their jobs back. Fortunatly, the war had stimulated the economy enough that new jobs had been created and most vets were able to get jobs. But the entrenched "working women" stayed. They hired professional baby-sitters and started day care centers (which hadn't existed prior to the war).

Like most humans throughout history, once some women got a taste of a little power, they wanted more. The liberal elements of the media and government were all too happy to egg them on. You see, the more time kids spend away from home and in the care of the state, the more the state can mold them into the government dependant vassals that we have so many of today. The increasingly liberal and socialist government took advantage of all these women wanting to work rather than raise their kids (you really can't do both in most cases without either work or the kids getting short-changed, sadly most women choose to let the kids get the least of their time) and slowly and surely made it so people would rely on government programs to take up the slack. At the rate we're going, we're only a generation or so away from having the full blown socialist state the liberals want.

At the same time, society was starting to put pressure on men. I don't quite agree with your assessment of this pressure though. Actually, men are being pressure to be more feminine. They are expected to help the wife raise the kids (unless of course they never married her in the first place and skipped town when she got pregnant like all too many guys do these days), be supportive of their wives careers, be less agressive (some feminist elements are going so far as to try to ban "violent" movies, games, toys etc so that little boys will play more like girls), share their feelings, treat women like equals (except of course for the unpredictable moments when they expect to be treated like princesses) etc. This movenment to feminize men started about the same time as the movement to masculinize women. It took a little longer to get really going and to some degree isn't as far advanced as the latter. The commercials you mentioned are some of the last remnants of the "old-fashioned" culture that men had prior to the 60's. Men by nature are drawn towards agression, separating themselves to some degree from the rest of the family and towards possession. For most of history in most cultures world-wide, men have been the ones who took possession of land, food, other people, etc. Men were the ones who fought to protect what they had and in some cases, to get more. Thanks to modern technology and unprecidented wealth (even so-called 'lower-class' people in the U.S. have more stuff than they really need to survive. Not to mention the government that takes care of those who are poor and either can't or are too lazy to work), men no longer have to hunt for food and the majority of them no longer have to physically fight off others to protect what they have nor to get more. So, to feed their innate agressive natures, men have turned to sports. Even hunting is mostly a sport in the U.S. and other "civilized" societies around the world. Most sports, especially football, hockey, rugby and soccer are essentially non-lethal wars where teams fight over territory and/or possession. If you take away today's sports too, men will just find some other way to vent their agressive tendancies. I think that's partly why we've seen gang violence erupt in the 'modern' era. Most men don't have wars to fight nor do they have to physically defend their homes, so they go out and invent their own modern-day tribes so they can war against each other and gain possessions.

There have always been people who "stick out". Throughout history there have always been men and women who went against the grain of their society. But most people conform for the sake of stability, security and peace. If everyone did their own thing 100% of the time, we'd have mass chaos. Trust me, you wouldn't really want to live like that. Every govenment that has risen in history did so partly because it's leaders wanted power but also partly to establish some kind of order so that the people didn't simply kill each other to get what they wanted and act like the selfish brats that they were born as.

Society's pressure on women and men?

That's only for people who watch too much TV. Not people addicted to Y/A. 2p

Society's pressure on women and men?

men dont think about stuff like that, they are just interested in things and go with that. but women, subconsioucly want everything to be right so they nag and nag and men just dont care about that crap and society advertises it and men ads affect women more because the men will be distracted more and women ads will not affect men only women because men dont care.

Society's pressure on women and men?

I don't think that I conform. Well sometimes, but I don't see it as me conforming. I see it as me being me, but some things I agree with some things I don't. I don't think men should have to be that way. For example, my fiance hates sports, hates beer, and he's got hereditary balding in his family. Honestly, everything you just described as how society wants us to be, my fiance is the exact opposite. lol.

Society's pressure on women and men?

It's important to ask yourself why you are doing certain things. Certainly the media and our schools are teaching us certain behaviors.

You can conform and lose yourself or you can try to follow your heart and be a bit alienated, but happier.

Good luck!

Society's pressure on women and men?

Yawn again.

Pick a fight with your fiance and then come back, thats where the decent trolling comes from.

EDIT: lol that was cute, still not good enough to qualify as troll though.

Society's pressure on women and men?

Yes there is pressure, yet not all women are naggy and not all men are fans of sports.

Its easier for a human to ride the society way, but some of us, don't. Its called willpower.

Society's pressure on women and men?

Agency versus Structure. It's a combination of the two. You always have the possibility of being anything you want to be, but genuine structural disadvantages will make that easier or harder for you to achieve. For example, a middle class boys show greater diversity of interests than working class boys, but equally, they lack the strong social networks the working class boys have. This means they may feel less pressured to be one of the crowd or actually feel more pressured to fit in to achieve a social network. Determined people will be who they want to be anyway.

Society's pressure on women and men?

I think that traditional male and female roles are more a product of evolution than culture. Of course culture has its influence, but I attribute more to the former.

Feminism is simply a backlash to what is natural. No matter how attractive the woman, a male will subconciously always crave a diverse set of multiple mates to incrase the chances of his genes' survival. Society tells us to stay with our partner our whole life. Because of this and love for our partner, we tend to (or at least try to) stay together for life. The subtle tendency to tire of the woman and seek other mates plays a role on our behavior, making us negligent of their feelings.

By contrast, the best way for a female to protect her genes' is to obtain a man to devote his resources solely to her and her offspring. This is unnatural for the male. Having the male placed in a state of social imprisonment gives the female somewhat of an upperhand. She can use this to her advantage which may come off naggy.

Of course, this is all playing on our instincts. It mostly does not surface in our concious thoughts.

Additional theories also cite the differences in male and female brain structure/chemistry, hormones, etc. But even these biological traits have their roots in human evolution.

Society's pressure on women and men?

Bottom line is it doesn't take much strength to be a "monkey see monkey do" type of person; all you have to do is just sit there watch the other monkeys and do as they do. So, taking it from there I'd rather do my own thing and watch the monkeys perform their antics in the zoo.