Gender Roles and Gender

 "In a talk titled, "Differences Inherent Between Men and Women", I really liked what Elder Bateman said about seeing men and women as the glorious individuals they really are. Growing up I always had this negative view of a man solely because of those men in my life growing up who weren't the best examples. After becoming familiar with the Gospel and having a better understanding of our purpose here on Earth, my view of men has changed. Sure there are men that aren't necessarily the best, but it is so important to encourage them daily to be the best they can be so that one day when they have families and wives-- they can assume the roles of husband and father they were born to take. By helping them be righteous, we create the type of men we want in our lives as well as the type of men they were born to be.  This goes both ways-- for men and women."

This is an excerpt from an assignment I had to do in my family foundations class about a reading on gender roles.I seriously just loved it because it's totally true, we should all encourage each other to become the people capable of assuming the divine roles of spouses and parents. Growing up, I always was a "Yeah women's rights! Equality!" type of person and believed that we were all equal and especially as parents should assume shared responsibility in taking care if the family and home. I hated whenever someone said, "Go to the kitchen, you belong there!". Now that I think of it, these stereotypes are true to some extent. Women are supposed to be those that take care of the home and their children because that's their main duty. The thing is that some people overlook that part of the Proclamation where it says that both man and wife need to SHARE these responsibilities and be equal. 

In one of the preparation videos that we were supposed to watch, someone said that instead of focusing in making women and men equal, we should instead focus on offering OPPORTUNITIES instead of trying to force everyone to be equal. 

It's true! 

To conclude, I just think it all comes down to agency and your own personal beliefs on the matter of gender. For me, I center all my personal beliefs around the Gospel. For me the Gospel offers answers to question like this one concerning roles, same gender attraction, and gender.