I am writing on the topic of gender differences between the rural and urban settings on the east coast because I want to find out what role location plays in identifying femininity to help my reader better understand the spatial context in which gender constructs are created.
I thought focusing more on femininity would ground my argument more but I can still see this being too broad/. Any suggestions?
I think you have a good start. I just think you need to ground it more because it's kind of a lot to take in. I really don't have any suggestions(sorry). But I know you will come up with something good.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could isolate femininity within a more specific context? For instance, the female role in relationships, in raising children, in the workplace, etc.
ReplyDeleteI love this topic! I love looking at gender constructs. I think you did a good job grounding the topic in a specific area, since we both have the idea of gender constructs but took it in opposite directions. You may want to consider what definitions of femininity are out there and your own definition to help you clarify this when you start researching.
ReplyDeleteWe are all striving to find specificity in our topics. I think your topic of urban versus rural roles for woman is spectacular and an easy way to ground this topic is simply to look at rural and urban areas that are spatially near each other. You could look at Baltimore-City versus Baltimore-County for instance.
ReplyDeleteI like where this is going. You said rural and urban settings? Have you considered narrowing it down to examining a particular state on the east coast and a big urban city and reserved rural city are areas to observe? And in these areas, has the opinion of feminitity recently changed and when? Are you focusing on a specific timeframe where in which social opinions changed?
ReplyDeleteYour research topic stood out amongst the others, because you're focusing on the variable of space affecting an identity.
ReplyDeleteNow you said you're doing a study on gender, so I would at least look into any sources regarding the relationship of masculinity and region. Don't forget us dudes! We're a gender too! I can already see a title "Cowboys and Metrosexuals"
Haha I'm just teasing you. There's a lot of ways you could narrow it down. You have an interesting topic keep with it!
I like how you have grounded it with femeninty. Perhaps you could ground your topic further by looking at a specific time period because i'm sure femeninity meant something different 30,40,50 years ago then it does now.Good luck and very cool topic.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a very important topic. Many people will act in different ways just because of their surroundings. Figuring out why this is will be really awesome and I hope you find some good information.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great topic, especially grounding it on femininity because you can look into feminine characteristics of men (both gay and straight) as well as the obvious women. It's possible that focusing more on femininity in males would be less broad, but I might be misunderstanding your topic.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Professor King will love this since she is all about spaces! Great topic but I think that "east coast" is a little too broad, perhaps center on a specific rural location and a specific urban location.
ReplyDeleteI love this topic because it is so obvious that (depending on location) women are expected to act differently and focus on different goals. Why is this? I would be so interested in to see research on this topic.
ReplyDeleteIt's so interesting to think that something so simple (or what seems to be simple) such as gender roles, can vary so much with just a quick location change. I come from probably the most rural of the rural on the East coast, so I can't wait to see what you come up with. But in order to narrow it down and ground your topic, maybe do research on femininity within the workplace or maybe even what role women play in local government? I know that there are always huge differences between big city government and small town government!
ReplyDeleteI think focusing on femininity would help ground your topic more. What defines femininity in urban and rural settings - dress, manners, beliefs, etc. What things in the different areas influence women - intake of media, fashion, pop culture vs. folk culture.
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