So what's really so bad about traditional gender roles?

Nothing is wrong. However militant feminists are just bitter and misandrists.They'll complain about anything.

History has shown that those relationships often to be the most successful since the spouses co-operate rather than compete against one another. The women's upper hand over a man is her femininity, it makes all men melt like butter. It's when she starts to take an aggressive/competitive stance that the sparks fly and relationship becomes volatile.

Yes, it is unfair both ways. I don't really think either side does it more than the other though. Women pretty much always complain that their husbands don't do enough housework, mostly because it's conditioned in them I think. I knew a couple where any fool with two eyes and a brain could see that the man did much more housework than the woman. The only thing she really did on a regular basis was the laundry. Pretty much everything else was done by him. But she still griped about it. This is going to sound sexist, but I am convinced after this, and a couple of other cases, that women are socially conditioned to complain that they do all the housework and their husbands don't do anything. It's probably true that the majority of the time, it is the man who doesn't do his half of the work if it's going to be one of them, but not always. (It's also true that men typcially work more outside the home, but God forbid this ever get mentioned). But there are a lot of men who do the same to women, expecting them to fit into both traditional and modern "gender roles." A lot of men still want women to work and do the housework, and a lot of women still want their special treatment and expect men to be the leaders no matter what (unless, of course, it benefits them to do it themselves). And it's not fair either way.

Making a big deal out of the girly Lego toys is dumb because if their daughter doesn't want it they could just get her the regular one. Traditional gender roles aren't bad. However it is bad to force these roles onto a girl who clearly does not fit them. I think the problem is some girly women end up having tomboyish daughters and they dont want to accept this. I never see dads trying to force their daughter to wear dresses. I do see mothers doing it and quite often. The girl is crying her head off and clearly unhappy and uncomfortable and the mother insists on dressing her like a little glass china doll on a shelf.

People might question when the lines began to burr with traditional gender roles but why not question why they even exist in modern times.

Reality is both men and women make up the workforce and both men and women are stay at home parents with women increasingly being head of household as the bread winner. Regardless you can blame social engineering on the past and present.

To me its sad when we create a society where people are forced to fit into a certain role or suffer being rejected and in many cases subject to abuse and violence. What gives any of us the right to force our own beliefs on to another person?

I cringe when i hear women say i want a manly man. Very possibly being said by women with more tatoos than a gangbanger and wears a sweat suite with a ball cap out shopping and drives a large SUV. More over sets no limits on herself in terms of crossing stereotypical gender lines. Additionally would take offense if she was rejected from anything for being a woman. I could be describing most women.

The truth is women want and have total freedom yet refuse to extend the same rights and freedoms to men. Women are where men were many decades ago.

I don't think they're wrong as long as they aren't forced.

I didn't really like dolls when I was younger because I sort of have this phobia of fake hair, but other than that I didn't care which gender my toys were "made for"....I just played. Curvy pastel blocks sound kind of cool.

Well, There is nothing wrong with it.

But at the same time its wrong to force people to be complacent with it as well.

One could say, The Role a person plays in life is entirely up to the individual. Making someone into something they do not wish to be takes away a large share of well being as a person.

So there's nothing wrong with gender roles, Their just very impractical.

Nothing's wrong with them.

But some think it's nice to have other options when one decides that traditional gender roles just isn't for him/her.

i love pink and pastel colours and being girly. feminists are whining over nothing as girls playing with lego beauty shops and animal care does not have an adverse affect on them. what's so wrong with wanting to work with animals anyway? both men and women work with animals.

Here's one more person who prefers them.

@ Mikaila: I've never heard that, and I'd be interested in knowing what studies you're referring to. In my experience, people who are very "into" their gender stereotype (very masculine men, or very feminine women) tend to be far more attractive to the opposite sex, and far more chased after by them. If there are drawbacks to being very into your gender, I have to think there are benefits too. And in my experience, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks.

And actually, most attempts to encourage girls to play with cars and boys to play with dolls have failed. Scientists actually believe that the reason boys prefer cars is because the brain is wired to be better at simple Physics operations because in hunter-gatherer times, we needed to gauge how to throw a spear correctly and so on, and this results in boys preferring toys that move. This is also believed to be the reason that boys learn better from having figures drawn on the board, whereas girls learn better through verbal communication.

I wouldn't say there's anything inherently "wrong" about traditional gender roles, providing a person desires to place themselves into such a role. Attempting to force others to fit an arbitrary role is pretty silly though, and expecting a certain role to be the default does exactly that.

Most, if not all of the gender differences (as opposed to biological differences between sexes) are merely because of gender roles. People have different expectations of men and women, and treat men and women differently essentially from birth. Women aren't naturally more emotive than men are, and men aren't naturally more stoic than women, for example. In a similar vein, girls don't naturally have some kind of affinity to playing with dolls more than trains. Trying to force people to conform to certain gender roles, for no real reason at all, especially when trying to do so (or actually succeeding in doing so), is what is harmful.

The traditional male gender role is harmful to men. It's the reason that men work longer hours, are more willing to take dangerous jobs, don't have as robust social support networks, and are less likely to visit the doctor than women are (I am enumerating this harm, merely because it's rarely discussed in the media, and I'm just curious to see how many TD's it gets me, if any). The traditional female role is harmful to women, too, and it's pretty obvious how if you think about it for two seconds (or do a google search, or probably even read a lot of other answers to this question).

It's obvious that regardless of how one decides to act, there are both benefits and drawbacks. There are benefits to traditional gender roles for both genders, and there are drawbacks to them for both genders too. There's no good reason to try and force a specific set of benefits and drawbacks onto people, so why not let them chose for themselves?

If there's nothing inherently wrong about a woman wanting to get married early, have kids, and stay home to raise them, there's nothing inherently wrong about a man wanting the same thing, and pretending that there is is silly. If there's nothing inherently wrong about a boy wanting to play with super soakers (i.e. squirt guns / water guns), there's nothing inherently wrong about a girl wanting to do the same thing, and pretending otherwise is silly.

Let people define who they are on their own, because they'll ultimately be much happier for it. You'd think it was silly if today, now that you're grown, you moved to another country and were told that for whatever reason, you needed to like black licorice (or if you're one of those rare people that likes black licorice, told that you needed to absolutely detest it), and that if you didn't conform, there would be significant consequences to your behavior and/or someone would step in and force you to either eat black licorice regularly, or never eat it again. It's absurd, right? So why is it any better if someone tells a little boy they better not play with dolls because they're for girls, and if they continue, forcibly stopping them from doing so? Or telling a little girl that she better not play with super soakers, because they're for boys, and if she continues forcibly stopping her from doing so? It's just as crazy, and that is wrong with traditional gender roles, or at least that's wrong with forcing people to conform to traditional gender roles (or any other gender roles, for that matter).

Why not just promote healthful behaviors (as is already done for things that relate to a specific, applicable, gender role), discourage non-healthful behaviors (again, already done as long as it doesn't relate to an applicable gender role), and let the individual themselves decide on everything that's inherently neutral? For example, would not boys and girls both be better off regarding emotions if say, boys were not discouraged from valuing and expressing emotions, and girls were taught that sometimes you just have to, metaphorically speaking, "suck it up" (expecting some more TD's for not explicitly explaining myself here too, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let Y!A tell me this answer is too long and force me to butcher it)?

Because not all of us want to follow them or fit into one or the other. Studies show that those who are androgynous lead better lives than those males who are very masculine and those females who are very female. When a person takes their gender role very seriously and cannot fulfill it, stress, depression, and feelings of inadequacy come about. When one is labeled female or male...what happens to the other groups? Are they not human too?

Example: A very masculine male who suddenly loses his job and cannot find a job experiences more stress, depression, and feelings of worthlessness for not being able to fulfill his role as the provider for his family. The fact that he is very masculine makes him less likely to talk about his emotional turmoils and may be more likely to fall deeper in his depression.

Example: A very feminine woman who always wanted kids and a husband realizes that she cannot have kids. She feels she did not live up to what society wanted her to be and may fall into depression which may cause a broken marriage.

Who's to say only boys want to play with cars and only girls want to play with dolls? We are not born to like one toy over the other...that is learned.