Human Traits and Gender Roles
A Modern Confusion
In modern discourse, there’s a growing confusion between human traits and gender roles. We often see traits like assertiveness, strength, or emotional sensitivity being ascribed to a specific gender. This confusion has led to a misunderstanding of what it means to be human, reducing complex traits into stereotypes and reinforcing rigid gender roles that create more harm than good.
At its core, human traits are universal. Assertiveness, for example, is not an inherently male trait, nor is emotional sensitivity exclusively female. These are human traits that can be expressed by anyone, regardless of gender. However, modern society has taken traits that occur across all people and tied them to specific roles.
For example, sure, men as a group tend to have a physical strength advantage over women. As a result, men have often assumed roles that require higher levels of physical strength, such as warriors or laborers. While this is a general truth, it’s critical to understand that these roles do not define the human traits themselves. Physical strength, assertiveness, and leadership are not “male” traits; they are traits that can be found in varying degrees in all people, regardless of gender. The issue is not the trait itself but the way society has historically tied it to gender roles. Women can and should be assertive too, but this doesn’t mean that assertiveness is a male trait. It simply means that assertiveness is a human trait that both men and women can express. Any role is just that, a role that serves a function in society.
By conflating traits with roles, modern society is creating unnecessary confusion. Roles are societal constructs, an expression of human traits at a certain level of expression. An ancient warrior, for example, is an embodiment of physical prowess, a role that has historically been dominated by men because of the physical demands. However, that does not mean the trait of physical strength is inherently male. It is simply that more men have historically expressed this trait in specific roles. What we need is a clearer understanding of the distinction between human traits and societal roles. The traits we express, whether emotional, physical, or intellectual are not bound by gender. They are part of being human. It’s the roles we choose or are assigned in society that are tied to certain traits at varying levels of expression.
Historical Perspectives on Female Strength: Feronia and Juno
In ancient societies, gender roles were often more fluid than we give them credit for today. Roman deities like Feronia and Juno exemplify how femininity was once seen as encompassing a broader range of qualities, beyond just maternal or domestic traits. Feronia, for instance, was a fierce goddess of freedom, fertility, and the wild, embodying independence and strength. She wasn’t just a nurturer; she was also a protector and a warrior figure, standing as a symbol of empowerment.
Similarly, Juno, the queen of the gods, was not only a mother figure but also a goddess of war, representing leadership, sovereignty, and fierce protection over her people. These figures challenge the modern hyper-feminine, passive archetypes of womanhood. They show that women in ancient cultures could be both nurturing and strong, both emotional and assertive, without being confined to a single role.
This broader conception of femininity, as seen in Roman deities, demonstrates that qualities like strength, independence, and assertiveness were never solely male traits. Ancient societies, at least in their mythologies, recognized the multifaceted nature of human traits, allowing for a more integrated expression of both feminine and masculine energies. Modern gender roles, in contrast, have compartmentalized these traits, leading to the rigid binaries we see today.
A Jungian Perspective on the Integration of Traits
From a Jungian psychological standpoint, much of this confusion can be traced back to how we fail to integrate our anima and animus, the inner feminine and masculine aspects of the psyche. Carl Jung, believed that every individual carries within them both masculine and feminine qualities, regardless of biological sex. The problem arises when society demands that we suppress one side of this duality in favor of another.
In men, the anima represents the inner feminine, encompassing qualities like empathy, emotional depth, and nurturing. In women, the animus represents the inner masculine, including traits like assertiveness, logic, and strength. Healthy development involves integrating these aspects, rather than projecting them onto gender roles. Jung argued that many of society’s psychological ills stem from a failure to acknowledge and integrate these aspects within ourselves.
However even when it comes to masculine and feminine qualities, and the Anima and Animus, this too can become seen from a too rigid lens. As the Anima and Animus are not tied to just feminine versus masculine qualities either. An Anima figure can be fierce and protective, next to assertive. Like with Juno or Feronia. So that itself shows that even the Jungian distinction might be still too rigidly divided. Even if it acknowledges the actual reality that all humans have these human traits. As they are human traits, not masculine or feminine.
When society rigidly assigns traits to gender roles, it enforces an artificial split within the psyche, leading to the repression of qualities that don’t fit the expected mold. Men are taught to suppress their anima, cutting themselves off from emotional expression, vulnerability, and care, while women are discouraged from embracing their animus, suppressing assertiveness, leadership, and independence.
This leads to a cultural imbalance where people project their disowned traits onto others, seeing them as "the Other". A phenomenon deeply tied to the creation of scapegoats. To return to a balanced and healthy state, we must untangle these human traits from the roles society has created. This is not just beneficial for personal growth but also for societal harmony, as it moves us away from projections, scapegoating, and the division caused by misunderstanding human nature. As we should not repress the natural expression of human traits no matter a persons gender. We should allow all people to express their human traits and their emotions. They are valid expressions of what it means to be a human in this world. So neither men or women should face societal pressure to conform to some rigid norm that is really a modern invention.