Sociology

Gender issues and biases on a given culture has developed continuously because men and women need to conform within societys social structure or pattern and within their roles and functions in society.

Sociological Perspective
Society is an imaginary structure of people organized into family, community, race, ethnicity, religion, age, and gender. With family as its basic unit, society has contributed a lot to the growth of an individual or its degeneration.

Sociologists have perceived society to be interacted by certain and various reasons that affects and changes the cycle within it. One major sociological perspective is the functionalist perspective, which described the society, particularly individuals as being interdependent and coexistent with one another. The author of the article, Three Major Perspective in Sociology (2010), stated the following and claimed from Emile Durkheims ideas

Mechanical solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when people in society maintain similar values and beliefs and engages in similar types of work. In contrast, organic solidarity is a form of social cohesion that arises when the people in a society are interdependent, but hold to varying values and beliefs and engage in varying types of work.

The movie entitled Now and Then, shown and released in 1995 would be the reference for this paper. The story is about four girls who bonded one summer and certain events changed their lives and had stronger friendship. It was a summer of learning and discovery of themselves and the friendship offered with one another. Like the sociological perspective discussed earlier, the movie depicts the relationship of the girls as interdependent, not just with their friends but also from other people living in the community.

One scenario from the film and is a good example was about Dear Johnnys story. They were trying to summon spirits one night, and decided to call upon Dear Johnnys. They wanted to know what had happened to him, dying at such a young age. Since they are from a small town they were oblivious with their surroundings. This was a summer, which is also a learning experience for Samantha that there are more pressing matters in life than what she thought was a major problem. In addition, Crazy Pete was Dear Johnnys father, while talking to Crazy Pete Samantha got a life lesson from an old man that he once thought weird. On different scene, he rescued her from a drain when she went down to retrieve a bracelet given to her by Teeny. An old adage, no man is an island, is true because we have to live in a world with people not really stranger to us. One person coexists with one another, and because of another person. It is for this reason that you would not be born into this world without a biological father and mother. Thus, your existence into this world lies to your conception within your mothers womb, through another person.

Gender Issues and Society
In relation to the gender issues, how and to what extent does it affect women in society
There are many issues society is facing, although we live in the new millennium, it could not be equated that people are more open now to new ideas and opportunities presented at them. Liberated, this is what most people would think about the year 2000 and beyond but, are we really liberated According to Gender and Society (2010), unlike sex, which is a biological concept, gender is a social constructs specifying the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women are to follow. The discourse of V. Peterson  A. Runyan (1999), gender is the unknown factor that shapes the roles and functions of each sex in society therefore, stereotyping is inevitable that leads to inequalities between genders. So being liberated would be dependent on societys acceptance.

Tracing back in history, there are specific roles played by male and female. Males have been given roles that could be regarded with honor. Men mostly have high positions in society, be it in government, school, religious groups, even in families to most cultures. As the article Educators Guide to Gender suggests, all these factors would result to gender biases. Men are generally superior, and almost always on top of their game. Few cultures accept a matriarchal family mothers are the head of their family.
A specific example of this issue from the film was when the girls played softball in the field with the boys from the community. It was Robertas turn to swing the bat. She had difficulty hitting the ball, and then Jimmy commented to Roberta, girls cant play softball. This highly offended Roberta and Jimmy continued saying, why dont you go home and play with your dolls This comment is a challenge to Robertas capability on playing softball. The sport is considered as a boymans game or sport, and his comment indicates that girls have no right to play the game alongside the boys. As suggested by his remark, women are incompetent for the sport.

There are instances where the capabilities of women are being questioned due to so called incapacity to perform alongside men. But what do men have in common with women How are they different from each other There are many questions one could ask about gender issues, but one prevalent reason for a gender specification role is the supremacy. However, things have changed since women fought a good fight for their rights, and getting an equal treatment from their men counterparts

Several factors affect these women, but overall it was because of two predominant factors that led to this gender issues in society, which is culture and religion (Magar, P., 2009). Culture plays a big role in shaping the roles of women within a society. It determines the future they ought to have and how it would be achieved. It also stimulates and encourages a woman to work as society pleases. Their womanhood is being challenged if they conform to the pattern of society it is as if there is a checklist needed. It shapes and molds the woman to what she is now and then.

Moreover, culture is not the only big player for this gender bias, but also religion. Most religions have a belief and tradition they follow. More often, it is being incorporated within the culture. Religion almost always dictates the gestures, dress, mannerisms, and role of women as long as it is acceptable within the traditions and boundaries of the religion. To some extent on society, the tradition and belief of a particular religion affects the daily life of the person. On some instances, when there are many religions within society, the culture in general is being conformed regarded as respect from one another. But this is at the expense of the people.

One gender socialization case depicted on the film was how girls value their physical appearance. Teeny asked Roberta how big her breasts are, but Roberta did not give any specific answer. Teeny commented that boys likes big breasted women. If beauty will be equated with the physical appearance of a girlwoman, then the society must have been pushing or suggesting this idea to the individual. What has been largely acceptable within the society has made women inferior and have less self-confidence and self-esteem. Their socialization pressures both gender to be greater than another person or the opposite sex. Meanwhile, having big breasts should not be considered as beautiful, it is just a physical aspect that could attract attention, but not regarded as measurement of beauty. This is a sad fact because women ought to look with perfect curves, ought to be thin  that led to numerous eating behavior, and good complexion of skin to be called beautiful. As a result, inferiority complex among girlswomen developed slowly therefore, it gives women more reason to look down on themselves. Furthermore, this could be suggested by culture.

Conclusion
The given roles and functions of the gender in society affects their lifestyle and well-being. It maybe 2010 already but it seems that there are still some gender issues needed to be resolved. We may not be fully been liberated  opening ourselves to new possibilities, opportunities and ideas we might face. Not all issues of women have been properly addresses and considered. Hence, the proponents of womens rights or the feminists have more to do in order to get equal rights with men.