Recycling is "Cool"!

There is no such thing as a ground breaking new style or fashion.  No skin we can honestly call our own.  We are but carbon copies of what society has already lived and evolved into and from.  We are a generation following the waves before us.  Tweaking the past and redefining the present as 'original' and moving on satisfied with our outcome.  The previous generation(s) justify us - disapproval fuels recycled rebelliousness; approval empowers intimate ties and an inability to be disowned.

Television commercials, magazine ads, billboards, music, movies, toys, video games, fables, and mom and dad have spoon feed children since day one: boys are superheros, girls are princesses.  That is the unedited cut.  Men should be able to do-it-all and women should be able to get-it-all!  No matter what genre, style, nitch, group or whatever a person fits into.  Guys are encouraged to attract the target mate with the ability to manipulate life and control what is and is not.  The girl are expected to attract a mate by being manipulable and sought after to please.  Society states gender roles and individuals feed off societies teachings from beginning to end.

 Gender roles are created by society.  Gender roles are accepted as the norm or the standard.  To break this expectation society has of an individual is heresy committed against society's established parameters.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs focuses on human motivations and how people choose their priorities.  Beginning at the bottom, human psychology requires a strong base of physiological need.  The need for breathing, food, water, sleep, sex, homeostasis, and excretion comes first before any other choices are made.  Following physiological needs is that of safety.  Security of: resources, mortality, family, health, property all provide motivation in making decisions.  Love and belonging is the third tier of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  Love and belonging encompasses friendship, family, and sexual intimacy.  Esteem, the forth tier, builds upon love and belonging moving further into self-esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, and respect by others.  With all other tiers of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs solidified an individual can master self-actualization.  Within self-actualization, individuals learn to develop morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, and acceptance of facts.

Gender roles are a means for people to compare what is acceptable and what is not and how to seek society's approval in order to appeal tier three and four of Maslow's theory.  Want love and belonging?  Be a socially accepted ideology and you will have the acceptance of family, friends, significant others and you will find support and respect from others reinforcing self-esteem and confidence and circling back to give you respect for others because of others' acceptance of you.  Those to whom break gender roles can even be inclined to hide their sexual preference from public for fear of endangering tier four, three, two and possibly even tier one!  Prejudice by society does not support self-esteem when the world seems to hate thee.  Confidence is hard to hold with no support of others or from personal esteem.  Friends may be lost.  Families have been known to chastise opposing-rhetorical-genders.  If friends and family do not support an individual's choice of an opposing-gender, why should an employer be any different.  No employment equals no resources.

Gender roles are just an example of the fear that lies in the unknown.  Humanities greatest fear is also its greatest motivation.  Humans fear the unknown, but this race chases knew knowledge and understanding seduced by curiosity.

So why does our generation and the generation before us and so on choose to consistently revert to a recycled idea?  To fit in of course!  What is advertised by society is considered success by society.  And if we can fit in then happiness comes a little easier.

But who ever said society's perspective of success is correct?  Not 100% of those considered by society to be successful and happy are truely happy.  No.  Society mold is not always right for every single person.  Whatever works in your favor and finds you happiness:  that is success.