Valentine 1

Haley Valentine
Mary Martin
Advanced Composition 101
20 October 2015

Religion is the Bias of Gender Norms

Religion has been around for as long as anyone can remember. We studied to learn from
it, we followed it, and now we live it. Religion is part of our everyday lives. It has set numerous
gender norms within the human population. During this essay, I will discuss three of those. The
first is that men have a more difficult time accepting God than do women. Second, because of
religion, women are not seen as equals to a men. And third, religion has established the sexuality
and roles of male and female.
In today's society it is easier to be a woman and follow God than to be a man and follow
God. Both men and women are stereotyped within society. Such as the stereotype that women
should stay at home and raise the children. However, men have to live up to even tougher
stereotypical expectations such as being macho. Society expects men to be stern and to be the
disciplinarian for the family. Perhaps this expectation dates all the way back to pre-historic times
when men were expected to hunt for food. Because of this, men typically tend to be less
sensitive, less emotional, and less nurturing. Women on the other hand, tend to be more sensitive
and tied to their emotions. Therefore, women find it easier to ask God for forgiveness when they
have sinned. Why do I think this?
God is a Spirit and does not possess human characteristics or limitations. John 4:24. So
why do we refer to him as a male? If Adam was created from God's image, then why did Eve
come from Adam for Adams necessity, instead of being created by God directly? Genesis 2:22.

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From this point in time societal roles were set; the man is dominant, strong, and independent
while the woman is fragile, weak, and dependent. Genesis 3:16.
In Women Keep the Faith as Majority of Men Say They Do Not Believe in God by
John Bingham, he says that women are almost two thirds more likely than men to believe in
God. This was based on a study that tracked nine thousand people now in their early forties for
more than twenty-five years. That is sixty-six percent. One has to wonder why this is. Would
the ladies and gentlemen who said yes to being believers in God say it was nature or
nurture? Meaning were they born with it or did they acquire it through their family, friends,
and community? Over half (fifty-four percent) of the men surveyed said they were atheists or
agnostics, compared to only a third (thirty-four percent) of the women.
Professor David Voas wrote: "Among believers, women are also much more likely to be
definite than men, and among non-believers, men are much more likely to be definite than
women. This is interesting because God made women to serve men, that means these women
were brought up being taught these things, they were not hard wired to be definite over men.
This led me to conclude that when women are believers they are less dependent on men and
more dependent on God. A result of this is that men have become less faithful in God.
I experience this in my own life with my closest group of friends. There are two girls
(including myself) and three boys. Only one of the boys is a believer, the other two are atheist.
In contrast, my girlfriend and I are both believers. Interestingly, the two non-believers in the
group are the ones who seem needy and require a lot of attention. They always feel the desire to
be dating someone and are always worried about whether their appearance is what society wants
it to be. They need to be liked by everybody, and are consumed with others opinions of them.

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I really feel sorry for them. Sometimes when the believers in the group try to bring up
religion, the two nonbelievers take petty blows at us about irrelevant information because they
are trying to avoid the topic.
My second point is that religion has created an environment where women are not treated
equally with men. I pulled Alaa Murabits Ted Talk, What My Religion Says About Women, to
demonstrate and she asks a question that had me pondering. If we are equal in the eyes of God,
why aren't we equal in the eyes of men? She goes on to say religious institutions are dominated
by men and driven by male leadership and create policy in their likeness. Woman stand back as
the men make the decisions. This could make it harder for women to learn about God and serve
in the church if their husband or boyfriend think women only have certain roles within the
religion. If the man is a true believer then he would obey God and treat women with the same
respect as he would with other men, but you do not see that often.

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In The Normative Power of Images: Religion, Gender, Visuality, by Stefanie Knauss
and Daria Pezzoli-Olgiati, they talk about how the connection between the visualization of
gender roles within religious traditions and the influence of religious gender norms in other fields
of (visual) culture. They used representations of the Virgin Mary and the practices surrounding
them in the Christian tradition. The image below is a statue that dates back from the 17th century,
it is now being used in communal religious rituals to perform and reiterate the general social
order of the community, in particular the roles of men and women. Mary is the visual
representations of patience, humility, chastity, and obedience. She is affirmed as an ideal for all
mothers; a constant reminder to the women of that community. Its as if the husband expects this
behavior out of their wife and daughters.
I constantly see the unfairness of gender roles
set by religion day to day in high school. Girls will be
called vicious names by other students and be torn
apart from the limbs if they step out of the socially
acceptable line. They cannot be a prude but they also
have to be extremely experienced sexually. They
cannot be too fat but not a stick either, nor too
dumb/smart. The list goes on and on. Now to say that
guys don't have expectations to live up to would be a
lie, but they are not to the extent of bullying we see
with girls. If a guy cheats on his girlfriend with
another girl why does the extra girl get all the blame? Where did the initiator of the wrongdoing
guy go?

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In my last review over religion setting basic gender norms I will discuss the sexuality of
being male and female. No matter how you put there are only two genders. That is fact. It is
God's plan.
In A Boy's Life by Hanna Rosin, a young boy, age eight, named Brandon insist to his
parents that he was meant to be a girl. God had made a mistake, were his words to his parents.
Brandon loved pink and purple, he loved to dress up in dresses and wear his mother's high-heels,
he loved to put on makeup and associate with girls only. Until one day late in second grade,
Rosin writes, his older step brother, Travis, told his fourth-grade friends about Brandons
secretthat he dressed up at home and wanted to be a girl. After school, the boys cornered
and bullied him. Brandon went home crying and begged Tina, his mother, to let him skip the last
week. This confused transgender did not fit into a regular gender assignment like everybody else
and because God set that normality, he got bullied.
Does gender reassignment make you a homosexual? Which both things are not okay in
the eyes of God. My friend who is a senior in high school came up to me while we were hanging
out one day and said he liked men. He took me by surprise of course. He was so afraid to tell
anybody because he knew it would cause him a lot of grief so he has kept it a secret. He knew
that some people would not understand what he feels and how his emotions take over. So I ask
him, Do you believe in God? and he replied with not an answer, but a statement, it's not up
too whether I believe in the Heavenly Father or not, it's just who would want to accept me if I
can not even accept myself. Because God set that normality, he felt ashamed of himself. Even
though God loves everybody.
Was my friend born gay or did it happen as he grew up? Was this Gods plan for him or
did society and his experiences form his sexuality? The same with Brandon, could he possibly be

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right in saying that God made a mistake, or did watching his mom be tough and stand up to her
boyfriend cause him to want to be just like her?
In conclusion, whether or not you are a religious person, it is hard to argue against that
fact that throughout human history, religion has played a significant role in how societies view
men, women, and sexuality. Going all the way back to the first book of the Bible where God
first made Adam (a man) then Eve (a woman) and said that he created Eve as a companion for
Adam.
This is still true in todays society. Religion continues to set numerous gender norms
within the human population. Men are typically still seen as the dominant gender and are
expected to be the breadwinner while women are typically seen as more fragile and the
homemaker. Even within the current presidential race, some politicians are saying that women
dont earn equal amounts of pay compared to the men. Religion also continues to establish the
norms when it comes to sexuality. It tends to go against the thought that some people are born
gay. The answer perhaps lies somewhere in the middle.

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Work Cited

Saul, Heather. The Independent. Women two thirds more likely to believe in God and
afterlife than men. 15, Feb. 2015. Web. 15, Nov. 2015.
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/women-two-thirds-more-likely-tobelieve-in-god-and-afterlife-than-men-9991700.html>.

Bingham, John. The Telegraph. Women keep the faith as majority of men say they do not
believe in God. 21, Jan. 2015. Web. 15, Nov. 2015.
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/11357707/Women-keep-the-faith-as-majorityof-men-say-they-do-not-believe-in-God.html>.

Murabits, Alaa. TED. What my religion says about women. May. 2015. Web. 15, Nov. 2015.
<http://www.ted.com/talks/alaa_murabit_what_my_religion_really_says_about_women#t
-399523>.

Knauss, Stefanie and Pezzoli-Olgiati, Daria. Religion and Gender. The Normative Power of
Images: Religion, Gender, Visuality. 05, Oct. 2015. Web. 15, Nov. 2015.
<https://www.religionandgender.org/articles/abstract/10.18352/rg.10079/>.

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Rosin, Hanna. The Atlantic. A Boy's Life. Nov. 2008. Web. 15, Nov. 2015.
<http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/11/a-boys-life/307059/>.