Are Gender Roles Forced Upon Us?

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

Gender roles are categories that characterize what it means to be feminine and masculine in society, on how people think about gender as they relate to one another (Adams et al., 2013). For example, women are expected to be accommodating and emotional, while men are usually expected to be self-confident and aggressive, this shows how men and women are to behave in society. However, these sayings were taught to individuals based on norms, or standards created by a society which is called Gender Socialization (p. 318). Growing up as a child, we were taught as girls to play with dollhouses, pretend kitchen sets, cleaning supplies and play dress up. Whereas boys are taught to play with cars, sports equipment’s, action figures, and weapons. However, if a boy was playing with dollhouses, or playing dress up, he would be considered gay, or not masculine and looked down upon by society, and families. The same goes for girls who play with boy toys, or dresses as a tomboy, this is what we are taught to play with at a young age. Our families tell us how to behave, our schools tell us what

Both Deborah Blum’s The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over? and Aaron Devor’s “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” challenges the concept of how gender behavior is socially constructed. Blum resides on the idea that gender behavior is developed mainly through adolescence and societal expectations of a gender. Based on reference from personal experiences to back her argument up, Blum explains that each individual develops their expected traits as they grow up, while she also claims that genes and testosterones also play a role into establishing the differentiation of gender behavior. Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and

The gender of a person is the masculine or feminine attributes of that individual with respect to the psychological and biological role in society. (Magar, 2009) A gender role can be defined as the way that a person lives in society with respect to its lifestyle. It can be argued that over time the major differences between men and women’s gender roles have faded. In the past traditional roles have been based in their society by their biological orientation. (Magar, 2009) Gender roles can also be described as the behavior and attitudes that are expected of men and women in a society. (Faqs.org, 2011) Although different cultures impose different expectations, many cultures have the same basic gender roles.

In every society, there is a profound distinction between the sexes and their roles within said society. In most societies, this is a diverse network of associations that not only covers those features directly related to sex, such as anatomy and physiology, reproduction, the division of labor, and personality attributes.

First of all I am going to begin with defining sex and gender. Sex in a sociological perspective is defined as the biological and physiological differences between men and women which are contrasted in terms of reproductive function(Abercrombie et al 2000 :313). On the other hand gender is sociologically conceived as the social roles allocated to men and women in society that is to say gender is learned not innate. However previously it was believed that sex determined gender thus the differences between men and

On October 6, 2017, I woke up and for an hour I thought about what social norm I was going to challenge for this assignment. After giving it careful thought, I decided I was going to challenge the gender roles, identity, and stereotypes that society has. “Gender roles are sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as male or female.” (Conley, 2017, p.133) I was going to challenge this with my clothing. So, I decided I was going to dress up like a man for the whole day. Gender roles are cultural and personal. They determine and control how males and females should think, speak, dress, and interact within the context of society. In the United States, these gender roles are

The idea of gender roles has been prominent throughout not only American History, but world history as well. Everyone understands that men are the ones who provide for their family while women are responsible for household work such as taking care of the children, cleaning, and cooking. The United States has come a long way in demolishing these gender constructs from presenting women the right to vote to recent strives in pop culture such as Benny’s gender crushing single and music video, Little Game, but the nation is still not quite to the point of completely shattering the often harmful gender roles that are set upon children and adults in society. As a means to prevent damage to future generations, parents should not assign gender roles to their children at birth.

For thousands of years, established gender roles have been a part of our society. Women are commonly known as sensitive, emotional, or passive. On the contrary, men are described as rational, competitive, independent, or aggressive. Believing women are more emotional than men is stereotyping. However, the stereotype is not entirely untrue. Development of gender roles is often conditioned more by environmental or cultural factors than by hereditary or biological factors. The development of gender roles between men and women involves the inference of peer community of each gender, the communication style of male and female and the intimacy or connection level of men and women.

Gender roles affect the way we view males and females in society. According to Public and Private Families an Introduction by Andrew J Cherlin, “sex” is described as the biological characteristics the distinguish the difference between man and woman such as their reproductive organs and hormones. “Gender” is described as the social and cultural characteristics that describe the difference between men and women. Gender roles in the United States have changed more for women than for men due to the asymmetry of gender change which is the bigger change in woman’s lives than males.

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits

A man working a nine to five job to provide for his family. Women expected to stay home, tend to the house; cleaning every speck of dust before her husband reaches home, all while he’s expecting there to be dinner on the table when he arrives. Women and men have been place into gender roles since the beginning of mankind. In different cultures, there are different types of gender roles associated along with them. With gender roles being unique in each country and culture, gender roles can be claimed to be a social construct than being a biological assumption. Gender roles cause great effects being the thought women being less superior to men, the sense of competition, and pressure of women changing their appearance.

I believe our gender roles today are irrelevant because In the late 1960’s and 70’s everyone believed a female should just stay home and be a house-wife, while the man brings home the money and does the yardwork. Now these days many of us believe that we females should be able to do what a male does. For example, I have a friend who’s mom is a Police Officer, when she first went in many of the guys looked at her as if she wouldn’t make it far in the program. Today she is one of the best female Police Officers out there. As for men, there are some females or just men period out there that think it isn’t okay for them to have “Makeup” on. When there is no rules on that, Men can wear makeup and they just so happen to do it better

Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender. Family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role.

In society, the biological difference between men and women is used as a justification for aligning them with different social roles which restrict and mold their attitudes and behavior. Merriam-Webster defines gender as the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex. Narrow minded society of today is not satisfied with the natural difference of sex, but each insist on adding a cultural difference of gender to it. The unsophisticated, ideal physical facts always become associated with the complex psychological qualities (Holter). It is not enough for a male to be a man; he must also be masculine. A woman, in addition to being a female, must be feminine (Magner). In a more evolved and accepting society,