Communication And Culture: A Separate Ideas

This essay will look at the question of whether we learn our gender. It will begin by looking at the sociological meaning and interpretations of gender and how this is important. Following the discussion of how socialization plays a vital role in the argument of if we do learn our gender or not. Further to this it shall look at how gender roles have changed, comparing in particular pre-1960 to the modern day and also what key factors played crucial roles in this change. Throughout this essay the work and views of different sociologists will be relied upon in order to provide a detailed discussion in the analysis of the question.

Gender has been traditionally defined as male or female with the allocation of stereotypes and set gender roles assigned to men and women. However, in contemporary society the definition of gender has been altered, forming a societal divide between the concepts of gender and sex with the removal of gender roles. Gender is currently defined by a person’s form of self-identification and sex is based scientifically on biological factors. Culture is an intangible collection of a wide variety of societal customs including language and traditions. An assemblage of both concepts develop an individual’s personal expression of identity.

Gender is one of the most prominent features of a human being and not enough people pay attention to the development of such delicate trait. Our gender contributes a lot to our daily lives. Whether we are shopping or talking to somebody, people act differently based on your gender. Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet wrote just about this peculiarity in their article “Learning to be Gendered”. Penelope Eckert’s and Sally McConnell-Ginet’s article exposes some things that define a boy as a boy and a girl as a girl.

1.A. In the “doing gender”, author’s definition of sex is combined social condition and it is not just focus on the biological area. And also, author mentioned that different definition about sex, gender and sex category. Firstly, sex is build on traditional biological standard. It distinguished male or female by genitals. As the definition of sex, the people who was born without clearly character of male or female, those people called intersex. People’s definition of sex brings some bad influence to children’s growth. According the reading “Beyond Pink And Blue”, Intersex always received the medical treatment, and people usually can not give a right definition to the intersex people. “Recent estimates indicate that approximately one or two in every two thousand infants are born with anatomy that some people regard as sexually ambiguous.” (Preves. 2003) We can’t definite the sex just through the sexual organs but also need to combine the social implications. Secondly, sex category is a good way to definite sex, which through people’s actors, behaviors to help create definition of sex. In the article “doing gender”, author argues that people need to combine the physical characteristics and social norms to definite gender, rather than just use biological characteristics to definite the gender. It is more like the sociology of gender. For instance, in the society masculinity is more appropriate for men. otherwise, femininity is more appropriate for women. As a conclusion, 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

Gender has been a big issue in society. Sex is biological, and it is through sex that gender is produced (which according to West and Zimmerman, “gender, we said, was an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social mean” (West and Zimmerman 1987, 125) - in other words, it is the categorization of both sex to act in a certain and acceptable way by the society, also known as norms) and can be recreated through human interaction and social life. All of this is being constructed by our environment; Inequality is being formed through identity. Everything all begins from when we are born. In society, it is believed that boys are tough while the women are believed to be soft and nurturing. There

Gender is a very important and influencing issue in this novel. Before dealing the issue with sex, and sexuality, it is important to differentiate what exactly is meant by these two categories, ‘gender’ and ‘sex’. While the term ‘sex’ defines the biological makeup of an individual, it is suggested by some scholars that the

Gender is a social construct that consists of a set of social arrangements that are built around sex. Gender roles are sets of behavioral norms assumed to accompany one’s status as a male or female. According to Lorber, Gender is a social institution because these gender roles are being changed over time. Moreover, she defines gender roles as process of creating distinguishable social statuses for the assignment of rights and responsibilities. As a process, gender creates the social differences that define "woman" and "man." In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, see what is expected, act and react in expected ways, and thus simultaneously construct and maintain the gender order. In this paper, I will discuss how the article untiled “"Night to His Day": The Social Construction of Gender helps clarify how gender roles is a social constitution.

What is gender? Most people feel as though gender consists only of the terms “boy“ & “girl“ , but it’s so much more than that. Gender is a very complex reality that is not just about what genetalia you have. In this paper I will explore all the subcategories and misconceptions of gender.

For this exercise I have decided to analyze three short clips from the American TV show The Office. By doing a thorough analysis of the interactions I saw many of the themes we discussed in class such as form versus meaning, gender, power in relationships, culture, and speech patterns. Each of these factors played a role in how the conversation played out. The most prevalent, however, was power and its relationship (or lack thereof) to gender. According to Henley and Kramarae’s “Gender, Power, and Miscommunication,” differences between male and female patterns of speech are a direct result of male’s higher level of power compared to females. In my analysis I show that, contrary to the opinions above, gender does not automatically determine power in conversations; the context of the situation is largely responsible for determining who is in the higher position of power.

Firstly, this essay will examine the fundamental concept of gender. According to West and Zimmerman (1987), the concept of doing gender is all about the routine people accomplish in their everyday lives. However, gender is not about what a person is, but it is something a person does in the process of interacting with others. West and Zimmerman (1987) argue that gender is something we do everyday, all the time, and it is an ongoing activity, so we cannot stop doing it. However, people do gender knowing that they will judge by other. By this they have been held accountable for their gender performances. Deutsch (2007) mentioned that doing gender has had an impact on the study of gender relations. However, this concept has social interactions

Although still problematic, gender roles constructed by society and cultures have progressed throughout the years, not as much as hoped but in small ways. The social and cultural construction of gender in definition means the construction of gender roles created by others that determine their behaviors and develop standards based on their sex. In the article Social Construction of Gender by Lorber the author demonstrates the social and cultural construction of gender stating, “Yet in Western societies, we see two discrete sexes and two distinguishable genders because our society is built on two classes of people, ‘women’ and ‘men’. Once the gender category is given the attributes of the person are also gendered….”(Lorber, 11). In the poem

Amongst the many popular misconceptions in today’s society, the in depth differences between sex and gender has grown to be one that is discussed extensively by psychologists and sociologists too. Sex in itself is a more scientific term that explains the innate physical attributes of an individual. On the other hand gender carries a more social tone. Meaning, that it refers to the different clothing, activities, career choices, and positions people hold in society. This essay aims to highlight some of the key differential aspects between these two concepts; while the term sex has been well defined over the years, we learn how the topic of gender managed to rake up an in-depth study as well as gain its own significance in society.

Intercultural communication competence refers to the ability of an individual to adapt and communicate appropriately and effectively across a wide array of cultural contexts. That is to say, for an individual to be considered an intercultural communicator they must understand other’s cultures as well as they understand their own, and apply this understanding to communication (Chen 1-2). With the increasing diversity at the workplace, school and other social settings, it has become increasingly important to learn how to communicate with people from a diverse array of cultures. More importantly, adapting to a more effective intercultural communication competence model provides us with learning opportunities occasioned by the interaction with people from other backgrounds. The intercultural communication competence model comes with some key components including tolerance for uncertainty, self-knowledge, and motivation. The greatest and most important of these aspects is motivation. An individual must be willing to foster relationships with people from a different cultural background. If an individual lacks the willingness to promote intercultural relationships, then other aspects of the intercultural communication model become moot.

"We didn 't all come over on the same ship, but we 're all in the same boat."- Bernard Baruch