Myths exist in all aspects of culture. In this Discussion, you will look at gender roles — generally accepted assumptions about males and females.
Read more about Erving Goffman.
Source: Erving Goffman. Retrieved from http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/goffmanbio.html
Read more about Mary Pipher.
Source: Mary Pipher, PhD. Retrieved from http://www.marypipher.net/
Sociologist Erving Goffman observed social expectations for males from American contemporary life. In 1963, he enumerated a list of characteristics that seemed to typify the ideal male during that time. Keep in mind that Goffman was recording observations of this time and not stating a personal opinion.
In your response, consider whether the time period in which he made this statement (1963) is important. Why or why not?
As you read these conclusions, consider if you still see these features as relevant and valued by American society.
In The Goffman Reader (Lemert, 1997), Erving Goffman states,
While some of these norms, such as sightedness and literacy, may be commonly sustained with complete adequacy by most persons in the society, there are other norms such as those associated with physical comeliness, which take the form of ideals and constitute standards against which almost everyone falls short at some stage in his life. For example, in an important sense there is only one complete unblushing male in America: a young, married, white, urban, northern, heterosexual, Protestant, father, of college education, fully employed, of good complexion, weight, and height, and a recent record in sports. Every American male tends to look out upon the world from this perspective, this constituting one sense in which one speak of a common value system in America. Any male who fails to quality in any of these ways is likely to view himself - during moments at least - as unworthy, incomplete, and inferior;