Milkie and Anderson

Humans are social and cultural beings. Human are controlled and control their behavior through the values created by society. In other word, every person is expected an appropriate social role. Gender is one of the examples. In "Varieties of Masculinity in Male Cheerleading," written by Eric Anderson, he says about a man’s masculinity who participates in cheerleading. When it comes to sports, in our society, while men have been associated with active and aggressive sports such as baseball, football, hockey and basketball, women have been associated with some sports such as belly dance cheerleading. For the most part, cheerleading is seen as a feminine sport that the women are eroticized.  However, this article shows that cheerleading is considering as a sport that women and men can participate and enjoy together. Every society and culture have different gender role. But the important thing is that the gender role is changing and the role’s line between men and women is becoming increasingly blurred as the article shows.

In Melissa Milkie's "The Impact of Pervasive Beauty Images on Black and White Girls’ Self-concepts," she is dealing with an issue that has been on every woman's minds. People usually say that the “beauty” is very subjective matter, but they are influenced by other external elements like media. “One reason why people are critical of media is that the media distort reality and reflect groups in distorted ways.”(124)  As this quote shows, today the media is creating particular beauty images which women should be thin and glamorous as well. I believe that the standard of the beauty is very subjective, but also can be changed every culture and time. This is a good example which is influenced by society and culture.