Gender Roles and Struggles

Gender Role Struggles

My father was hoping for a boy when I was born, though having a girl did not stop him from rough housing with me, buying me a dirt bike when I was seven years old, and building me a tree house in the back yard of our Los Angeles home. Being the third child in a family of four, I believe my eldest brother was probably too sickly to rough house with, my older sister was too girlie to do "guy" stuff with, and by the time my younger brother was born, I believe my dad was just too tired. But me, I was the lucky one. I was not only daddy's little girl, but I was also his "tough" little girl, I hated wearing dresses, I hated dolls, and only wanted to play with toy cars and get dirty. I loved waiting at the door for my father to come home from work and get his great big hug and have him rub his scruffy beard on my cheek.

My father moved us around a lot while we were growing up, throughout Los Angeles, back to Guadalajara, then finally settling on San Diego. Though we still moved two more times while in San Diego. Even though the moves were rough on us kids, his words to me of "be tough and take it like a man!" always worked and I somehow seemed to blend in and get over things quite easy. That saying has gotten me through the toughest times in my life and it doesn't even pertain to my gender, how powerful is that?!

That being said, as I got older, the struggles of my gender, made particularly difficult because of my culture, began to emerge. I was becoming a woman. My father could no longer ignore that, and had a very difficult time with not only that, but the fact that he had created a monster. Not only was I a Mexican woman living in the U.S., with all the liberal ideas being a part of my every day life...but he also taught me to fight back, be tough, and take it like a man.

The following pieces of art reminded me of that culture clash that goes hand in had with gender rolls and their struggles. Though men can in fact...