Androgyny: Rejection Of Gender Roles

I decided to take the Gender-Science IAT test. I thought this test would be relevant considering the material so far covered throughout the discussions. My results revealed that I didn’t associate either gender with science or liberal arts. I wasn’t surprised by these results, as I’ve always believed that both genders can study or work within those fields. However, I am aware that I may have that belief and could still have ended up with different results.

One who claims any gender other than male or female would be considered taboo or highly unusual by our society. Biological sex is often thought to determine one’s gender identity. Though sex and gender align for the mass of our population, there is a minority group that does not feel that they belong to either male or female genders. To understand gender fluidity, one must recognize that sometimes a person’s gender and sex do not align. A person may not feel that their biological sex reflects who they are, they may feel uncomfortable with the expectations and roles placed on them due to their sex. These gender roles are created by social expectations of our western society. Gender roles are merely social constructs, and if one does not want to conform to societies conjectures placed on them due to their biological sex, they should have the freedom to non-conform.

Parents of these children are not supporting their decisions of who they desire to be, leaning towards the sex of being more feminine (regarding female) or masculine (regarding male). As young as pre-school, children begin to show their common interests such as; playing with dolls, trucks, dressing up as princesses, building sky scrapers, playing with action figures, etc. This article mentions, depending on what they child plays with or how the child acts shows the risk of gender assessment. For example, this article is trying to say that if a young boy plays with a doll or dresses like a princess he

Throughout today’s society, almost every aspect of someone’s day is based whether or not he or she fits into the “norm” that has been created. Specifically, masculine and feminine norms have a great impact that force people to question “am I a true man or woman?” After doing substantial research on the basis of masculine or feminine norms, it is clear that society focuses on the males being the dominant figures. If males are not fulfilling the masculine role, and females aren’t playing their role, then their gender identity becomes foggy, according to their personal judgment, as well as society’s.

Gender and gender roles are a somewhat complicated idea to understand. Contrary to popular belief, gender and sex are two different things in that “gender is not inherently nor solely connected to one’s physical anatomy” (“Understanding Gender”). When parents automatically assign their child a gender based on their sex organs, it leaves very little room for change later in the child’s life, because children born with female sex organs are not necessarily girls, just as children born with male sex organs are not necessarily boys. Rather, gender is based on mindset, personal identity, outward presentations, and behavior of the individual. Binary genders, or the broadly

When a person is born, they are either male or female. Before they are born, their parents are going to set goals and expectations for them. Sometimes parents will name their child after a famous celebrity hoping they will be just as great as them. Each gender will have different ways they should live their life in order to stay within their gender role. Some will meet the expectations and other will not. That does not make them look less of their gender, they will just be expected to meet them. Over the years, some gender roles have submerged and others have risen above. They will be able to show how the gender roles are supposed to be in jobs, education, and marriage and also how they can benefit from stepping out of the gender roles.

I will be explaining the following; Queer Theory, Radical feminism, sex=gender, biology is not destiny, youth non conformity, hegemonic masculinity, transgender and gender based harassment. I have used these six concepts because they highlight how sexuality and gender are constructed by society. This construction causes a heterosexual norm, which some people do not identify under. I have focused on Queer Theory because it depicts what is considered ‘normal’ regarding gender and sexuality. I also chose Radical theory to show how the construction of gender and sexuality can have a negative effect on women.

A huge misunderstanding grows out of the words gender and sex. When asked about gender on an application or questionnaire, the frequent available responses are either male or female. Similarly, the terms male and female are also accepted as responses to questions regarding an individual’s sex. The terms sex and gender have components of their own.

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

Our text did suggest that there are several ways that genetics influence gender identity. My gender identity is influenced by my genetics because I was raised by my great grand parents. This means I am more apt to take on the old fashioned ways or believing in what a woman should act or be. I think that my gender identity has been shaped by the environment that I was raised in. I think that some evidence to support this would be that I do believe that me as a woman should do the cooking and cleaning. A woman should be married to one man in her life. A woman place in the world is behind her man. A woman must be able to do what a man does and work as hard as they can.

In present day all around the world, society has certain expectations for the actions and behaviors of males and females. There are many factors in our everyday lives that contribute to the gender norms that society has set. This essay will discuss how situations in life can play a part in how people treat other people based on their gender. It is believed that males are the leaders of our world, but in present day woman can do as much as men can do. From The Journal of Marriage and Family, Hu states, “Differentiated gender roles in adulthood are rooted in one’s gender role socialization. In order to understand the persistence of gender inequalities in the domestic sphere, we need to examine the gendered patterns of children’s housework time.”(2015, P.1). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females that they must be taught. These roles define how females and males are viewed in society, their household, and workplace. In The Journal of Sports behavior by Hardin, he states, “Although gender role differences from biological and “Natural” exists in popular consciousness, research has long demonstrated that instead, many are long time socially constructed… Individuals understand their gender because they are given names and treated in particular ways, such as dress in pink for girls and blue for boys, that reflect social construction of gender. Bandura's social cognitive theory is key in understanding the factors in socialization”(2009, P.3). Bandura's theory of of social cognition is that behavior, environmental events, and cognitive factors are the main keys that shape attitudes and actions of an individual. Although, gender roles play a very big part in our society, specific genders are treated differently while dealing with peer influence, media influence, as well as employment.

Gender has been a highly relevant topic of discussion in recent years, with more and more individuals being aware of the gender roles that society places on individuals. With education has come activism, and the question of how individuals perpetuate these roles. Women, in particular, have faced harsh criticisms based upon stereotypes placed on them. Essentially, there are four main ways that typical gender roles placed by society can be classified or broken down into. The first classification is based upon personality traits. When looking at the expected personality traits, in order to fit women should be meek and quiet, whereas men are supposed to be dominant. Seeing as this is the norm, outgoing women who go

The Bem test said that I'm androgynous on Bem's scale and I feel as though this is accurate. I feel this way because although I strongly possess female traits (a couple being that I'm sensitive to the needs of others and that I'm sympathetic), I also strongly possess male ones (such as that I'm willing to take a stand and that I have leadership abilities). I also believe this is the case because some of my friends are similar to myself in the sense that they strongly posses both female and male traits and some strongly possess female traits. I'm also very close to my dad who possesses male traits so both my dad and friends have impacted the traits I have

The film, Boys Don't Cry, Kimberly Pierce's brilliant work of 1999, is the true story of, Brandon Teena, born Teena Brandon, played by Hillary Swank, who created a male identity for herself. Brandon was born in 1972 and died at the hopelessly young age of 21. The actual story takes place within the last two weeks of Brandon's life, in 1993. The movie, a dramatized documentary, was released in 1999. Brandon is a transgendered individual; he was born a female, but feels that he would be happier living as a man. She leaves her brother and hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska, where everybody knows her as Teena, to start a new life as Brandon. Brandon ends up in Falls City and his short life, as a man, begins. It is in essence, the epitome of

Societies today are highly affected by the way people are believed to act. Gender roles are created by society, and they are a way to define how a gender should or shouldn't act. In “Answers” by George Singleton, there is a husband and wife thinking about getting divorced, and they begin answering questions in a book, and realize that the other turned out to be less manly or trustworthy, than they believed to be. In “Public Relations” by George Singleton, a man and his wife are out eating with his boss and his wife. While eating he gets fired for talking about how women should act, and how they will amount to nothing without an education. In both of these stories, men and women act differently than the stereotypes put on them by their