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A Norm Is A Standard Behavior That Is Expected From A Group

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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

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