The Man Box and Gender Roles

When do the roles of man and woman (and to what extent) become gender stereotypes?

At TEDTalks, Tony Porter starts off by listing a few traditional characteristics that build the male behavior and "the man" itself. This is a combination that he labels as the collective socialization of men or "The Man Box", in which he includes some of these:

- Though/Strong/No Pain

- Courageous/No Fear

- Dominating/In Charge/Lead

- Superior

- No Emotions

This "Man Box" alone does not necessarily generate external or common harm (towards woman),  it becomes an issue because of the opposing very negative connotations that they imply. Accordingly, females are:

- Weak

- Scared/Fearful

- Less Value, Property, and Objects (particularly Sexual Objects)/Not In Charge/Follow

- Inferior

- Emotional

The concept of being a man is surprisingly very subjective and has developed over time and human history. Porter's speech is entitle "A call to men" because he argues that it is men who have created the Man Box through different generations due to a full conscious need to stay inside the Box, victimizing women in the process. The so called "Man Box" appears empty above as we can argue there is no such thing as predetermined gender roles/stereotypes that Man (and Woman) are innately born with.

To What Extent Does Perception Define Beauty?

To what extent does perception define beauty?

To answer this question I would first like to define a few terms, including the term "define", and pose the following question: To what extent does perception shape reality?
In this case, "perception" is not only limited to Sense Perception, but to all four of the Ways of Knowing: Sense Perception, Emotion, Reason, and Language.

Reality is subjective. What we perceive to be "our reality" is not necessarily "someone else's reality". For example, Elizabeth Sulser's reality, a woman from Zurich suffering of Synesthesia (which is "the rare neurological condition that  joins senses") allowing her to see and taste sounds, is much different than the reality of most of the people on Earth. "I always see the colors. I cannot go anywhere without colors" she says, and this as become her reality, which is not the same as ours.
   
Now, the answer to "to what extent", which refers to "how much",  is also subjective and depends in our environment. For example, in the Twilight Zone the young lady with the bandages who we perceive as Beautiful, is perceived as grotesque and an abomination in the environment in which the story takes place, to the extent, that she wants to end her life. The short movie defines this by stating that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder", however, we have still need to understand why this is the case.   

Going back to the initial question posed, we can define the term "define" as to "give meaning". Personally, as a non-empericist, I believe knowledge is both Innate and Constructive: we are born with our own knowledge and perception which is waiting to be developed and shaped (take in account this is still only my Perception of my Reality). This is why first impressions are very important as they perhaps represent the first time we are exposed to some kind of new knowledge. For example, when we first read the PowerPoint description of Adolf Hitler, we perceive him as a relatively good man (compared to the other description on the same PowerPoint).  Only once we find out the description is the one of Hitler, our perception changes drastically.

Without subjectivity, our surroundings, and depending on the situation or moment in time, as we always look for a justification of what we know, and what we perceive as beautiful; perception alone does not define beauty, but beauty defines perception.

Giving Up One Sense

The five senses that make up our understanding which fit in the Sense Perception category of the Ways of Knowing are:

- Sight
- Hearing
- Touch
- Smell
- Taste

Personally, I think it would be very difficult to give up any of these sense, nonetheless, if I had no choice on the matter, I would give up Taste. Very closely related to Smell, I chose to give up taste over smell because of the power of Smell that is to bring back memories, memories that I probably don't want to lose.

Lets not go into the analysis of the consequences of living without each of the five senses and argue why the consequences are less severe when it comes to losing Taste. Simply, my choice reflects the safest or healthiest way to live lacking one of the five senses. I believe that beyond making up our live physically, our senses warn us about the dangers in our environment. Sight visually show what approaches us and could harm us. Hearing tells us what is near us that could be harmful according to the sound whatever is close by makes. Touch warns us about danger when it is very close to us, for example, when we touch a burning hot plate our Touch sense advices us to take our hand away without even thinking about it. Likewise, Smell can make us perceive whether something nearby is potentially harmful such as poisonous      mushrooms. In away, when we taste something unpleasant our Taste is telling us that something is harmful so "stop eating it", however, for the most part, the damage is already done because that harmful substance was already ingested in your body.