A norm is a standard behavior that is expected from a group of individuals. People must live by the expectations that their culture has set for them. Culture seems to have a major influence on people’s cognition. Ethan Watters believes that culture influences people. In “Being Weird”, Watters explores anthropologist Joe Henrich’s research on how culture shapes the world around us. Julia Serano also talks about culture in her essay “Why Nice Guys Finish Last”. Serano addresses how sexuality culture shapes the mindset of male and female, and the issues it creates in society. She goes on to argue how rape culture is normalized by the predator/prey mindset that culture embedded. Rape culture dominates individuals’ mindsets which causes …show more content…
Watters writes, “…individuals tap that cultural storehouse of knowledge simply by mimicking (often unconsciously) the behavior and the of ways thinking of those around them” (500). Children are sponges at young age. They take all that they see that’s happening around them. To have healthy gender development, society must avoid assumption that each gender is not interested in other gender’s activity. It also important in having a gender-neutral language, stopping the division among the children allows them to feel included, regardless of their gender. This also shows a variety of roles, allowing them to have the freedom to choose what they want to be. Individuals’ entire lives are filled with examples of double standards. Serano writes, “because of the predator/ prey mindset, when a woman does act in a sexually active or aggressive way, she is generally viewed as a sexual aggressor, but rather as opening herself to being sexually objectified by others” (416). With the predator/ prey mindset, there comes stereotypes between males and females. Males in society are stereotyped as strong and aggressive while females are stereotyped as passive. Society has normalized the rape culture where it’s normal for men to urge in sexual activity and have a violent behavior. It’s normalized to the point where if a woman gets raped, she is the one to blame because the way she dresses or how she met the man. Serano says, “as stereotypes, both
1.Based on Serono’s ideas rape culture is something that cannot be solved with “single-tact solutions”. The “men-as-predator/sexual aggressor assumption” (Serano 422) allows women to believe that the man is always a predator, and therefore leads to men being aggressive leading to the cycle of rape culture. Overall to change rape culture we must change this assumption that currently dominates out thinking.
Upon reviewing the details of Why Nice Guys Finish Last, the author Julia Serano emphasizes that with society being the way it is, men tend to become “bad boys” because society and culture is brought up to believe that the way to win a womans heart and attention is by being sexually aggressive. Julia Serano argues that in order to recognize rape culture, we must first learn to understand the predator / prey mindset. In this essay, I will argue that in order to neutralize the predator / prey mindset, society needs to stop looking at women as the prey and the men as the predators. I believe that if society learns how to overlook men as being hunters and women as the prey, that would make the amount of rape occurrences drop massively.
Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.
This article, “No Way My Boys Are Going To Be Like That,” converses that young children are becoming aware of gender processing, which means
This national best seller can relate to the opinions expressed by Peggy Reeves Sanday in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Sandy investigates the characteristics of a rape-prone, and rape-free society. Jon Krakauer was interviewed by NPR books, where he stated, “The upshot was most rapists walked away without any punishment, any accountability” (NPR 1). The response from Krakauer correlates to Sanday’s research in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Reeves Sanday writings examine, “When men discovered that they could rape, they proceeded to do it” (Reeves Sanday
Those who agree that gender is a social construct would also argue that gendered behaviour is not innate, and that it is learnt throughout development. Gender identity is defined as “the way in which being feminine or masculine, woman or man, becomes an internalized part of the way we think about ourselves” (Ryle, 2014). The idea of masculinity and femininity and the strong distinction between the two are taught to us throughout our lives. An individual’s earliest exposure to the concept of gender comes from parental influence. Many studies show that parents socialize their children from birth by creating distinct environments for boys and girls and treating son’s and daughter’s differently. For instance, parents are more likely to assign domestic chores such as cooking, mending clothes and doing laundry to daughters, whereas sons are more likely to be assigned maintenance chores such as mowing lawn, small household repairs and carrying out garbage (Lackey, 1989). Parents may also use more emotive language when talking to their daughter’s and might encourage certain interests such as math and science in son’s, by purchasing more math and science toys and committing to other promotive activities (Jacobs & Bleeker, 2004; Leaper, 1998; Tenenbaum &
Children learn as early as age two what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl” (Aina & Cameron). This is described as gender identity, a person’s sense of self as male or female. Gender stereotyping emerges hand in hand with the development of gender identity in Early Childhood (Halim). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males and females. When babies are born they are either put in pink or blue, as they grow up they still maintain the same “gender” colors. As young children start to socialize, they are playing with either “girl” toys or “boy” toys. When they get older they
Once a child is born, he or she learns to view the world based on the behaviors of others. The child’s primary caregivers, usually the parents, and others present in the child’s environment, such as siblings, peers, teachers, and even the media, contribute to the development of the child’s perception of himself, those around him, and society overall. This concept is called socialization. “The way we are, behave and think is the final product of socialization” and it is through socialization that we “learn what is appropriate and improper for both genders” (Crespi, 2004). This concept of gender socialization leads to the inescapable
This is called gender socialization, which exaggerates sexual differences physically, experimentally, academically, and psychologically. Most parents are unaware that they play such a large role in creating a male or female child. But they are the first and one of the largest influences on their child. When parents have a female child she is viewed as sweet and gentle. The parents will even hold their daughter closer than they would a son. As they grow older boys are encouraged to explore while girls are kept closer to their parents. They are taught different approaches to many different problems in life. They may not realize it but through their interactions with their children they are encouraging their children to grow into a certain type of person based on their gender. The toys they are introduced to are even gender-based. Toys for males encourage them to develop such abilities of spatial perception, creativity, competition, aggression, and constructiveness. Toys for girls encouraged creativity, nurturance, and attractiveness. Children’s rooms and clothing are specific color: girls are pink and boys are blue. Girls often wear dresses and skirts that limit their physical activity. These types of influences at such an early age lay a foundation for the child’s personality. By the time they reach school age they already have a sense of being male or female. In school peers and teachers enforce these differences even further. (Lips, 1979,
Ali Owens wrote this article to convince readers that rape culture is a very real and harmful thing that silences victims and allows criminals to run free. Victims around the world are silenced because of a society that chooses to blame them for the acts committed against them. Today, rape culture is evident in how the police and society treat the situation. Owens provides examples of rape culture through scenarios that women often find themselves in and uses imagery to allow readers to feel as if they are watching them unfold. A woman hesitates to call an Uber and is accused of “unfairly judging men,” but then, political leaders, such as Donald Trump, tweet about the inevitable sexual assault in the military because “they put women and men together.” A woman is scared
The acceptance of rape myths and sexual scripts are also major contributors to the thriving rape culture. Rape myths are the false but commonly-held beliefs about rape, and they are closely related to sexual scripts, the culturally established prototypes for how sexual encounters should proceed. Both of these elements support the act of rape and promote the victim blaming and normalization that rape culture entails. Key rape myths include: 1. Husbands can’t rape their wives, 2. Men must engage in sex once sexually aroused 3.Women ask to be raped 4. Rapist are different from most other men 5. Women enjoy rape 6. Women lie about being raped. These incorrect principles can be traced to the patriarchal system that accepts and fosters rape as an
While in fact, in today's society, more often than not, these gender roles have switched. I believe that in order to create a change we need to start to teach children more flexibility in applying gender-role
Within the American culture, our youth are taught that the masculine roles of the male has traditionally been associated with their role of being strong and dominant and the feminine role of a female has traditionally been associated with their role of being the follower and the nurturer. Children learn the gender roles beginning at birth through the socialization process. Historically our society has always identified male infants with blue and female infants with pink, however, with the turning of the 20th century more neutral colors are being thrown into the mix. More expecting parents are adventuring away from traditional blue and pink and choosing the neutral colors such as green and yellow. Children learn gender socialization through family members, education, other children and social media. Each reinforces the gender role by displaying and maintaining the normal expectation for each genders behavior. Our youth are taught at an early age of the separate expectations of each gender. Parents often teach the role not knowingly but through association. Boys are associated with trucks, toy guns and superheroes that teach them motor skills and independence, whereas the girls are associated with baby dolls, dress costumes, and toy kitchens which teaches them nurturing and social
The term ‘rape culture’ was coined by feminists in the United States in 1970. The term itself was designed to illustrate the ways in which society blamed victims of sexual assault, and how the normalization of male sexual violence was acceptable. Rape culture can stem from the acceptance of rape as a daily occurrence, manifested as a male prerogative. There is a hesitation by the authorities to go against the patriarchal cultural norms, hence linking nonconsensual sex to the cultural disposition of society. The patriarchal perspective of rape culture, embedded with gender inequality and misogyny are passed through generations which ultimately leads to the extensive institutional and social acceptance of rape. Actions which advocate sexist ideals are utilized to justify and validate normative misogynistic perceptions. Rape culture sexualizes violence inflicted upon women, as it serves as a continuum of a society which views a women’s body to be sexually available by default, deriving from the overall domination and objectification of a female. The underlying cause of rape culture is localized as it based upon the social aspects of culture. For example, countries with a prolific ‘war culture’ tend to emphasize violence and masculinity, and therefore rape is viewed as a normal facet of society. I intend to parallel the element of rape culture to the enforcement of social rules and the conditioning of gender roles. I plan on analyzing the notion that within the encompassment of
We are taught Gender by our family members from a very young age. For example, girls receive pink gifts and boys receive blue gifts. Shaw & Lee said, “Gender is embedded in culture and the various forms of knowledge associated with a given community.” (Shaw&Lee, p.116.) For example, in one community it might be acceptable for a girl to play football, and in another community the members believe, girl