Commentary on Lorber´s Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender

This reading centers around the idea of gender being a social contrast rather than being biological. The reading argues that what we perceive as man and woman has little to do with the biological make up of a being and more so the role that being plays in society. Judith Lorber gives examples of two men she recalled seeing in New York. Both men were caring for children. One was carrying the baby on his chest and the other had the baby in the stroller. She could tell that both individuals were male almost instantaneously. But why? When she looked at the babies in which they were holding the job was not as easy. Was the baby male or female? This raised the question that maybe we identify gender by social signs and imagery rather than

Gender is one of the most heated terms in the English language during the 21st century, whose role seems to be constantly changing, always on the move, reflecting new updated meanings for society. Gender roles often portray the fairness and justice of any given society, hence the more equality genders reach, the more advanced and sophisticated the society is considered to be. They also suggest a set of rules that males and females have to follow and play their parts in order to define genders. However, the ambiguity of society’s confinement, like an invisible hand around everybody’s neck, draws attention to the artificiality of what we define as “acceptable” behaviors.

Clearly, society has been created around two separate classes or genders: men and women. Lorber argues that much of what we consider to be gender has no place in the natural order of the things. She is able

Scott Carpenter displays gender as multilayered and explains “Each layer reveals another, and another, and yet another—until we get to the center of this philosophical onion, only to find that, just maybe, there is no core. Or, at the very least, this core may be less of a precise identity than a kind of biological tether” (109). He explains that gender identity is more than just a mere male and female description, and it has such wide definition that one can have a hard time to think. Female can also be masculine whereas male can be feminine. Therefore, he is emphasizing that even with cultural and traditional bounds, individuals can choose their own interest, and emphasizes that gender studies are great way to figure out “the flexibility of roles, as well as the malaise that this elasticity can elicit” (Carpenter

West and Zimmerman’s theory of “Doing Gender” defines sex and gender as two separate entities within this binary society. Sex refers to the biological characteristics that are typically attributed to males and females. Gender is the status of the individual performing the activities that are commonly associated with masculinity and femininity. These traits are rigid in dictating the individual’s consistent performance of them. A gendered individual must execute the appropriate acts that are linked to masculinity or femininity respectively. It is a learned behavior that is taught at an early age through observation of society. Therefore, it is society that decides whether an action is attributed to masculinity or femininity. Gender is a socially constructed idea of thought that people unconsciously follow. The acts that constitute a particular gender can change based on the views of society within a generation. Certain activities and forms of appearance have shifted between males and females. As society evolves throughout history, the interactions between individuals and their gendered actions have changed. West and Zimmerman state, “When we view gender as an accomplishment, an achieved property of situated conduct, our attention shifts from matters internal to the individual and focuses on interactional and, ultimately, institutional arenas” (West and Zimmerman, 1987, page 126). Thus the performance of gender has developed passed the individual and is engrained within the

In the article, “Doing Gender,” West and Zimmerman (1987) argues the concept of gender as a social activity or interaction, as opposed to an intrinsic individual value. These activities and interactions are socially constructed norms of male and female, masculinity and femininity. To further explain gender, the authors define 3 important concepts: sex, sex category, and gender. Sex refers to biological factors (e.g., hormones, genitalia), sex category refers to visual markers (e.g., dress, hairstyle), and gender is the interactive piece. The authors state that doing gender is always certain and ongoing as it is embedded in everyday life (e.g., the way we dress, walk, sit, and communicate) and it is the individual who holds sole responsibility

In the article, “Night to His Day,” Judith Lorber argues that the gender is social constructed based on an individual society norm. Lorber quotes, “The life of everyone placed in the status “woman” is “night to his day-that has forever been the fantasy. Black to his white. Shut out of his system’s space, she is the repressed that ensures the system’s functioning” (Lorber, 62). Society has influenced and oppressed individuals to behave and act a certain based on their gender. The definition or the meaning of gender is artificial since it is social constructed. Society—family or religion—defined what is to be a woman or a man, they defined was is masculine or feminine. Judith Lorber titled her article, “Night to His Day,” to argue that society

In the reading, Judith Lorber discusses the social construction of gender. She talks about “performing gender” as a way to fit into society and describes how gender construction begins at birth and has to be either reaffirmed or redefined. Mock

Gender is socially constructed, signifying processes and practices of conduct ("doing", "undoing" and "re-doing" gender) (West & Zimmerman, 1987; Deutsch, 2007; West & Zimmerman, 2007) based on an assigned sex category (Hird, 2000; Risman, 2004; Connell, 2010). Sex, in contrast, refers to the biological differences between men and women (chromosomes, hormones and genitalia) (Harding, 1996; Hird, 2000).

Lorber and Martin use social construction feminism to explain how bodies are used as cultural signifiers to identify a person’s gender status. This theory focuses on how society constructs the idea of gender based on accepted notions of what is “masculine” and “feminine.” The term gender is used as a distinguisher from biological sex and is one of the most important factors when researching how bodies are used to emit masculinity or femininity. Gender refers to the socially accepted norms of what defines femininity versus what defines masculinity, whereas biological sex refers to the reproductive organs assigned to an individual (regardless of personal sexuality identifications). In this chapter

To understand gender as a social construction, one must know the meaning of some terms; 1) gender is a social concept, 2) sex is a biological concept, and 3) gender roles ascribes to a society’s expectations of peoples actions and perspectives depending on whether they are male or female. Furthermore, “social concept” refers to the cultural and social differences a society assigns to people based on their

Gender and sex are two words frequently misunderstood and mistaken for each other. To simplify, sex is considered the biological aspects of male/female (the reproductive system, genetics, and outward physical characteristics). Gender, on the other hand, comprises the psychological and social aspects of identifying to a sex (social roles, the way one thinks, and gender identity). These biological and psychological factors ultimately play a role in the way an individual thinks and acts as a person. Gradually, society has acknowledged and added mutability between gender and sex; individuals' social identity determines how they act and think, and anyone behaving differently may be regarded as abnormal.

During this week’s readings and discussions we talked about how gender has a major effect on everything we use and do in life. "Gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and is the texture and order of that social life" ( Lorber, 55). As I read the Social Construction of Gender some new perspectives that I considered that I didn’t previously consider was that "gender is a daily part of our lives" (Lorber, 55). I feel like if gender is a major part of our lives we as people should better know how gender roles work.

In her essay, “The Social Construction of Gender”, Judith Lorber explains that in society we often “assume gender is bred into our genes” (112), meaning that as a society we often times relate a person’s gender (behaviors, traits, and identity) with their sex (biological makeup), thus labeling a person’s gender as something grouped together with their genetic makeup. The reality of this is that gender is created, and “done” by every individual person. Lorber states that gender, “like culture, is a human production” (112), and “doing” gender can appear as small as how a parent chooses to dress their child, resulting in how the child looks. This then

Gender is not just a natural and eviatable consequence of one’s biological sex (Weatherall 2002). It is, rather, ‘part of the routine, ongoing work of everyday, mundane, social interaction’; that is, ‘the product of social practice’ (Eckert and McConnel-Ginet 2003). Moreover, gender is ‘not something a person “has”, but something that a person does’ (Cameron 2005). Gender is not a result of what people are but a result of, among other things, the way they talk and what they do.