Gender Relations in Modern Society

If we take as a basis an explanation of the concept of “gender” in dictionaries, which is interpreted as “social gender”, then the very expression “gender relations” can be considered as social relations of members of society belonging to different biological sexes. The main thing in social interactions is the mental characteristics of the personality, the behavioral properties of the individual.

That is, in simple human language, it can be said that gender relations are non-sexual relations between male and female representatives in the broadest sense of the word.

In new jokes, in various humors and ironic monologues, sounding everywhere from scenes and television screens, the issue of "female logic" and "male logic" is discussed. These two concepts are contrasted, as if fighting each other. Although the concept of "logic" is completely out of place here. Thus, stereotypes of gender behavior are ridiculed.

Gender relations are not determined by the biological sex, but by the social position of a person, his education, his financial situation, his place of residence. For example, no one is surprised by the fact that an elderly businessman has a young wife or lover who does not work, does not study, does nothing at home, but constantly receives expensive jewelry and visits restaurants. Such a distribution of roles in this category of our society is almost the norm. However, it would be naive to assume that in a typical village family a woman would walk around in a chic expensive outfit on weekdays, sleep until noon and hire a housekeeper to clean the house. Here are completely different concepts about the distribution of gender roles in life.

In the ancient world, the distribution of gender roles in society played an important role, because it helped people survive. The man had the role of overlord, and the woman should subordinate in all her will to his desires. He - was the protector, breadwinner and patron, She - a defenseless, dependent and obedient slave. In contrast to the concept of "gender", the modern word "gender" completely equalizes a woman with a man in all spheres of life, allowing to take into account and study her gender psychological characteristics, but not allowing to humiliate the suspicion of "weakness" of the female sex.

Despite the fact that women have long overcome the main gender-related internal and external behavioral roles and began to behave more freely in society, doing not only household chores, but also realizing themselves as successful professionals, it remains obvious that the stereotype of a stronger (smart and successful) masculine nature and weak (flawed) feminine, reflected in the language. Please note that the words “professional” or, for example, “librarian” are masculine, and the attempt to call a woman “professional” (“librarian”) sounds like a way to “masculine” her, to give her masculine features. At the same time, if you transform the word grammatically and add to its root the suffix and the feminine ending “professional” or “librarian” - the word will sound an insult. This phenomenon has long been fought in the West, making the necessary changes to the grammar. For example, in German, all words related to the names of professions have the form both masculine and feminine without fail.

A person who has made a grammatical error and has used a woman’s word form with the end of the masculine gender runs the risk of being suspected as a sexist, woman-hater. An innocent (in the opinion of the average Russian citizen) mistake in the behavior of a European can lead to serious consequences. An unobtrusive proposal to seek the help of a psychoanalyst will be the mildest means available in the arsenal to suppress such antisocial behavior. This is the result of the struggle of Europeans for gender equality and a way to prevent manifestations of violence against women.
At the same time, for any European, the ignorance of most of our citizens in matters of gender psychology and gender equality is obvious. Neglecting the law on the equal rights of men and women, the “head of the family” in Russia often considers it a norm of behavior to insult, humiliate his “other half”. Often in such families takes place and assault, even self-mutilation. It is terrible not even that this phenomenon exists, but with what indifference the society treats it.

However, it is the well-established gender stereotypes that make our citizens not notice that men are often subjected to violence by their wives in the family. From birth, they are told to boys that girls should not be offended - because they are weak. Such gender relations in the family lead to the fact that when men grow up and fall under the heel of a friend of life, some men sometimes receive public slap in the face and insults, not having the opportunity (primarily psychological) to protect themselves.

In America, there are completely opposite problems in gender relations. The universally known course of feminists requires complete equality. And the reason for filing an application with the court may be that a man lets a lady forward in the transport or opens the door in front of her.

Thus, the concept of “gender relations” refers to the social sphere of interaction of biological sexes, and gender psychology studies the problems that arise in it .