Role Reversals among Black men and women Essays - Gender

Gender Role Reversals Among Black Men and Women In this paper I would like to explore the role reversals among Black men and women. There have been few studies about Black men and women and their gender roles in relation to each other. The standards of gender roles, and how they play a part in relationships and marriages, had always been based on the White middle and upper class. White men and women have always been the status quo symbol. Black men have not had the opportunity to have a defining moment in which their masculinity nor their roles have been defined. What has caused this role reversal among Black men and women? Women have always been viewed as feminine, emotional creatures, while men have been viewed as strong and protective. With the uprising of the women?s movement, the definition of gender roles for women began to change. No longer were they accepting the roles that had been ?assigned? to them. Black women were forced into the role of provider. While the gender roles of White men have never been questioned, Black men?s gender roles have been like a revolving door- one minute they are the strong breadwinners of the family, and next they are the unemployed, misogynistic thugs of the streets. There are many scholars and writers, Black and White, that believe slavery played an instrumental part in the behavior and attitudes of Black men today. Dating back to slavery, Black women held positions of power within the slave community as well as within their own families. Even though slaves lived together, their marriages were never recognized, promoted or protected. Their coming together was simply a way to produce more slaves for the slave owner. This ploy was a denial of patriarchy used to emasculate Black men; stripping them of their rightful position. A matriarchal system evolved from this, one that is still present today. Taking a look at African men and women prior to the slave trade, there was a distinct system of labor in which women did the agricultural labor while men did the hunting. Upon being brought to America, this system of labor was changed. Men were now forced to do agricultural work alongside women, thus stripping them of their identity as the ?hunter? and l eaving them with no defined role. According to authors Trevor Bunard and Gad Heiman, ?some scholars have suggested that this transformation was akin to de-gendering?(143). Was this the starting point of Black men losing their identity and gender roles that had been established for them? As we entered into the Civil Rights era, the roles of Black men and women took on that of their White counterparts in an effort to re-present themselves into the social structure. They were trying to assimilate into a society that did not match or respect their cultural expectations. Everyone wanted the cute, little house with the white picket fence, well behaved children and a dog. Black men were able to obtain a better education and work more in white collar jobs. Black men had to follow the leader, so to speak, in that they had to mimic White men and their behaviors. They were still struggling to find their masculinity, but in some way they were at least being acknowledged for their work. This allowed the Black man to take control of his family; however, he still had to fight racism and the right to be called a ?man?. Black women were finally able to relax and let the man take the lead. She could take care of her household and raise her children. I believed this lulled Blacks into thinking that they were on the rise to becoming more accepted, thus allowing them to take their rightful place in society. In the Moynihan Report, a study done in 1965 towards the end of the Civil Rights movement, it was stated that the deterioration of the Black society was due to the deterioration of the Black family (Moynihan). After reading this report and its statistics, it seems as if Black families have not progressed much beyond the conditions that they were in at the time of the study. Patrick Moynihan, the author of the study, believed that the lack