Courtship And Gender Roles

A family member is expecting a baby, and is throwing a baby shower. The person who got invited to the family member’s baby shower has to go and buy something for the baby. The first thing when someone goes into a baby store such as “Baby R Us,” “Carters” or any other baby store, will see that the store is highly gender specific. Girls are pink and are located in the right side of the store, then boys are blue and are located in the left side of the store. The girls section has butterflies, flowers, ballerinas, and other girly items that can be described as feminine. For the boys section it has trucks, cars, boats, and any other items that can be described as masculine. Gender roles has been around for centuries, which involves with courtship …show more content…
Courtship can also be defined in a Christian point of view, which is a religion where courtship is mostly practiced on. In a Christian perspective, they define courtship as “a relationship between a man and a woman in which they seek to determine if it is God’s will for them to marry each other” (“Institute in Basic Life…”). As of today, courtship has been changed throughout time, whether it is in a Christian perspective or in a secular perspective. According to Coltrane and Adams, by the early and mid-1900’s, there were newspaper columns on how a woman can attract or “hook” a man into her interest to lead into courtship. Women in the mid-1900 would get dating advice from Dorothy Dix, a woman who gives advice about love and marriage (Coltrane and Adams). One of the tips that Dorothy Dix would tell women is “The man you desire is very bashful and timid, your best play is a bold move. Don’t wait for him to make the advances. Take to initiative yourself, but do it so quietly and unobtrusively that he never suspects that you are starting at his feet along the path that leads to the altar” (Coltrane and Adams). One of Dorothy Dix tips, and what she is saying is in order for a woman to get a ring from a man, she would have to make the first move but not making it so obvious where he notices what she is trying to do. The way that Dorothy Dix practical advices works for women is to give women her analogy of catching a man so it can lead women to courtship and marriage (Coltrane and Adams). Other than Dorothy Dix love advice column, studies have made that women would use more passive techniques in courtship than men (Coltrane and Adams). It is surprising that women have to do all work such as getting their hair done, trying to look pretty and using tricks to get a man.