Yvonne Perez
Professor Valle
EngWr300
5/10/15
Essay 4(Greer)
Intro-
From being a girl to becoming a woman or from being a boy to becoming a man is the journey we all take when growing up. Being feminine or masculine is a social and cultural trait. There are certain expectations depending on gender. For example author Jacobus explains a study that Germaine Greer did in which she discovered that male babies and female babies are treated differently by caretakers. Greer’s study results were that “The boy baby learns that he can have whatever he wants and quickly, the girl baby that she has to learn patience”. In different cultures gender plays a big role in your future. Certain parts of the world favor one gender over another. Our actions
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(TS) The “learned behaviors and coded interactions” that represent and produce the system and produces masculinity are: being aggressive, being in control and having a lot of power. As author Greer states in her cover story “Abolish Her”, “Though feminism is often said to have changed the world, it is still true at the end of the millennium that the surest strategy for a woman who is seriously interested in executive political power is to marry a man who either is or is going to be the president of the United States” this proves that a female would want a masculine man that has power in order to move herself up. Agree/Disagree: I agree with Greer when she talks about people are treated different based on their gender. I feel that it is unfair to both men and women. There should be no social difference either gender. The only difference there should be is with the anatomy of a gender. Conversation My experiences can add to the argument because I have observed females and males being treated differently. The expectations of a man are to go out to work and be the provider. However, a
Becoming a man is one of the most important things a boy goes through. It takes many years of hard work and guidance. At the beginning of the movie Friendly Persuasion, Josh Birdwell is still a boy, but as the movie progresses we can follow his steps in becoming a man. The dialogue and events in the movie show us what a man is, how Josh’s father, Jess Birdwell, is an immense influence in his passage into manhood, and how the war affects this voyage.
The determination of my gender identity was preset by my parents giving me the chromosomes XY, gave me an anatomic appearance of a female. Also being reared in a hetero environment had an influence in becoming a female as well. So the relation to the masculinity-femininity continuum is that I posses both traits feminine and masculine. In some situations I tend to carry myself as a caring and soft-spoken female, is typical for feminine behavior. On the other hand I express more masculine attributes like aggressiveness and self-reliance, which is typical for masculine behavior. Both add in the development in determining and sustaining my gender identity. The biological perspective by the way was inherited from my parents and aided in the development of the characteristics in becoming a woman, gender role of nurturing and caring individual, and maternal tendencies in taking care of my child. Then the psychological perspective according to my mother to which she insists that I was a normal girl with particular behaviors toward feminine toys and clothes. As a final point, the social environment offers an insight into the typical social role of an American woman, which was predetermined at birth by my social surroundings (Rathus, Nevid &
In “Manhood: The Elusive Goal”, Mark Gerzon argues that masculinity, or the "masculine code of conduct" is exemplified by smoking, drinking, and violence- acts that would be generally frowned upon in society. Mark Gerzon, attended Harvard University and was considered to be a best selling author by his senior year, due to his book "The Whole World is Watching: A Young Man Looks at Youth Dissent". Gerzon generally writes about topics dealing with men and masculinity in regard to modern day society. In "Manhood: The Elusive Goal", Gerzon reflects back on his own personal experience during his adolescent years, and how he wasn't considered to be masculine enough since he
Traditional gender roles (men performing instrumental tasks and women performing expressive tasks) are viewed as important not only for the individual but also for the economic and social order of society. Failure to maintain the traditional division of labor is believed to lead to destruction of family life as well as higher rates of crime, violence, and drug abuse. Human capital theorists claim that sex differences in promotion rates are due to sex differences in commitment, education, and experience; women are believed to have less to offer employers. Even if these differences exist, this position ignores the fact that women are in a system of inequality, where social expectations prevent them from having qualifications that are similar to men. The conflict perspective emphasizes men’s control over scarce resources. The gendered division of labor within families and in the workplace results from male control of and dominance over women and resources. Differentials between men and women may exist in terms of economic, political, physical, and/or interpersonal power. Men remain the head of household and control the property. Also, men gain power through their predominance in the most highly paid and prestigious occupations and the highest elected offices. Liberal/Equal Rights Feminists – seek equal access for females within the current social system; focus is on equality of opportunity (e.g., civil rights and occupational equality). Radical/Transformative Feminists –
Environmentally, a child’s experiences impact gender identity. Depending on family values or morals, a child could be confused by their gender. When a baby is born, there is much control on colors (if boy or girl) and ideas of the parents on how they would want to raise their daughter or son. For an example, a father would treat his son in a rough or unemotional way, while a girl would be protected and nurtured. Known as traditional roles, a boy doesn’t cry or play with dolls, but he can roll
Martin Luther King Jr. once said “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” However, I will not be silent. Sexism is a thing of the past, present, and future. Women have never been seen as equal to men. This idea and concept affect how women carry out their lives. Women may act different or speak different just based on society's thoughts about their gender. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and in today’s society it is clear that because of women’s perceived “weakness”, men now dominate women legally, physically and financially.
While someone may look like a male, they are acting as a female because they identify as a female. There is nothing wrong with going against the biological factor you were born with. Society can not force you to be someone who you decide you are not. Evidently, Pascoe has found another study that states that gender is the “activity of managing situated conduct in light of normative conceptions of attitudes and activities appropriate for one’s sex category. ”(468)
I thought the Greer chapter on "Masculinity" to be quite frivolous in her observation of men. She obviously spent too much time in pool halls, taverns and soldier barracks performing research. I did not find it fair or helpful to compare an entire gender to the basest subset of the male population. Greer’s thirst to assign stereotypes to men invalidated much of her "research" and conclusions in my viewpoint. I found Meade to be difficult to read and understand, but I liked that she performed some immersive and exhausting research on her subjects. I do believe that society places some expectations on people based on their sex. However, I think society places a lot expectations on people, and people act differently based on their society. Society
Gender is a major cause of a person’s identity. People act the way the do because of the gender that has been assigned to them. Have you ever heard someone say, “It’s just their nature to act like that.” A sense of identity can be seen in many young children. When a child is ready to make the decision of what they are and who they want to be, they will do so. The child creates their own
Throughout many decades women have been struggling to be equal to men, both at home and in the work place. Women have come a long way and are certainly fighting to gain that equality, but gender roles are very important in our society. They have become important in life from birth, and society continues to push these gender roles. The treatment of the male gender is very different from that of the female, and this issue has become very important to me, as a woman. As children we learn and adapt to specific gender roles, and as we grow they become more evident and more important to our role in a society. There is a lot of discrimination against the female gender. Carol Gilligan argued that
So, first, feminism values women as important and worthwhile human beings and second, feminism recognizes the need for social change if women are to lead secure and satisfying lives. The main social change that feminists promote is and end to any kind of domination: those of men over women and also among women in different classes. Conservatives on the other hand, promote to keep gender arrangements as they have been in the past years, with males holding public power and women being restricted to home and family. They have been also justified by both biological and religious grounds, so women should not be encouraged to try doing things that go against their “nature.” When there is an interaction between individuals, the influence of sex and gender associated. People use gender to make inferences about sex, as they use earlier observed sex characteristics to make inference about gender. For example, when man and woman go to buy a car, the sales person tends to direct the sales to the man rather than to the woman. The sales person acts according to his beliefs about which partner is more likely to make decisions, in this case to buy the car. These kinds of interactions are so ‘normal’ that they pass unnoticed when encountered.
Today when a human baby is born the first question that is asked is '' Is it a boy or a girl?'' In human culture the answer to this question is gigantically significant. This definition of ''femaleness'' or ''maleness'' is the hypothesis of the society which assumes that the child who is born a girl will remain female forever, while a boy will be a male. Gender roles are created by society and vary from society to society as it takes all sorts to make a world. It does not matter where ever you are in the world its just ''society'' which assigns the gender roles without even having enough knowledge about one's gender identity. We living in 21st century but when it comes to gender role orientation we are in total chaos.
It is difficult to imagine living in a world without the patriarchal roles that are present in society and have been throughout history. In the article “Feminist Criticism,” by Lois Tyson, the idea of feminism and how society has affected feminism is the focus. These ideas are seen because men have more of a voice in nearly everything and the oppression of women is very common; a society set up like this can be described with the term patriarchy which is “any culture that privileges men by promoting traditional gender roles,” where men are cast as “rational, strong, protective, and decisive,” and women are cast “as emotional, weak, nurturing, and submissive” (Tyson, 1). This thought that men are strong and women weak is not uncommon in
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.
The two themes that need to be discussed in order to explain gender differences are difference and inequality. Difference is how men and women are differentiated. It is the way social relationships, processes and institutions distinguish between men and women that sociologists are interested in. also how them processes “create meanings about femininity and masculinity” (Marsh and Keating, 2003 p.265). Inequality refers to the way gender distinctions and inequalities are linked together, as well as power relations and hierarchy. Sociologists are trying to determine whether inequalities between men and women are due to social distinctions (Marsh and Keating, 2003). Feminist sociologists argue that women experience a drawback