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Unit 2 Essential Question:
How does society's view of gender roles influence the roles people play in relationships?
Society’s view of gender roles quietly shapes how people behave in relationships by creating expectations they often follow without even realizing it. When certain traits like emotional strength, nurturing, or decisiveness are labeled as “belonging” to one gender, individuals can feel pressured to act according to those scripts rather than their authentic selves. This doesn’t just influence who leads or who cares; it influences whose feelings are prioritized, whose needs are minimized, and whose voices carry weight. As a result, relationships can become less about two people building something together and more about two people performing roles assigned to them long before they ever met.
The Taming of the Shrew
The Taming of the Shrew
Gender Roles
Marriage
Power and Control
Appearance vs. Reality
Identity and Transformation
Love and Courtship
Reflection on TTOTS
Reading The Taming of the Shrew forced me to confront how societal expectations shape relationships and individual behavior, both in Shakespeare’s time and today. The play’s portrayal of Katherina’s “taming” is unsettling, yet it also opens space to question what obedience, conformity, and identity truly mean. It made me reflect on the pressures people face to perform certain roles, often at the cost of authenticity, and how humor and cleverness can be used to navigate or manipulate social norms. While some of the courtship scenes are comedic, they also reveal deeper truths about power dynamics, consent, and the tension between love and control. Overall, the play left me thinking about the ways society silently enforces roles, how those expectations affect relationships, and the importance of questioning the rules we are taught to follow.
Assignments/Work
Assignments/Work
Assignments
The main assignments were the evidence tracker that tracked our evidence and analysation from the play and weekly articles to strengthen our understanding for the essential question. Completing the assignments, especially the evidence tracker, helped me develop a more organized and thorough approach to analyzing texts. By tracking evidence and connecting it to our weekly articles, I was able to see patterns, strengthen my arguments, and deepen my understanding of the essential question. The process encouraged me to not just gather information, but also to think critically about how each piece of evidence supports analysis and interpretation. Overall, these assignments reinforced the importance of careful documentation, reflection, and making connections between multiple sources to build a well-rounded perspective.
Teamwork
Working in a team helped me see the importance of collaboration, communication, and compromise in achieving a common goal. Each member brought unique strengths and perspectives, and learning to listen and build on each other’s ideas made our work stronger than any one person could have done alone. At the same time, I realized that teamwork requires patience and flexibility, especially when disagreements arise or approaches differ. This experience taught me not only how to contribute effectively but also how to support others, adapt to challenges, and value collective problem-solving—skills that extend beyond the classroom into real-life situations.
Discussions
Participating in fishbowl discussions allowed me to engage more deeply with the essential question and the weekly articles, moving beyond just reading to actively thinking and responding in real time. Listening to others’ perspectives challenged me to consider viewpoints I might not have encountered on my own, and explaining my own ideas out loud helped me clarify my understanding. I noticed how the discussion format encouraged both careful analysis of the texts and reflection on real-world implications, showing how concepts from the readings connect to societal issues and personal experiences. Overall, the process strengthened my ability to think critically, articulate my reasoning, and recognize the value of collaborative learning in exploring complex ideas.
End-of-Unit Essential Question Answer
Society’s view of gender roles shapes relationships far more deeply than most people realize, because it doesn’t just influence how individuals behave--it influences what they believe they should be within a partnership. When a culture teaches, for example, that men are expected to lead, provide, and stay emotionally guarded, while women are expected to be nurturing, patient, and accommodating, those expectations become the “scripts” people unconsciously perform in relationships. Even when individuals intellectually reject these norms, they often still feel pressure to act them out to appear “normal,” “desirable,” or “adequate.” This can push couples into roles that don’t reflect who they actually are, creating imbalances where one partner "over-functions" and the other "under-functions", or where emotional labor is assumed rather than negotiated. At the same time, these norms can give people a false sense of what a “successful” relationship looks like, making them interpret conflict, boundaries, or independence as failures rather than signs of healthy partnership. Ultimately, societal gender roles turn relationships into performances, sometimes comfortable, sometimes restrictive and the struggle to either follow or resist those roles becomes a major force in shaping communication, power dynamics, and emotional connection.
Get in touch at parveen.jahangir.18228@wellspringsaigon.edu.vn
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