Gender Roles

In my English literature class today, we were talking about gender roles in our society. I think that the traditional gender roles are given to us by the traditional roles of fairy tales characters. There is always a princess and a handsome prince that is supposed to come to the rescue, especially in the fairy tales exploited by Disney. Also, the women in the traditional fairy tales are the ones who do the cooking and cleaning.

I think as teachers we have to be aware of these traditional roles, and take it into thought as we teach children’s literature. We have to make sure that our students do not get trapped in these traditional roles, but explore what other gender roles are in the real world—a world where the father can stay at home and the mother brings in income or a world where both parents can work to bring in the source of income.