Critical Gendered Lens

The Lenses of Gender by Sandra Bem begins by introducing the three lenses that will be discussed in the book: androcentrism, gender polarization, and biological essentialism. The most significant aspect to this reading was the concept of females being an addition to males or the ‘other’. Specifically, this idea is derived from a biblical view. When taking a look at the creation of man and the story of Adam of Eve, “Adam is explicitly given the power to name--that is, define--every single creature on earth, including women… Adam is unambiguously said to be created in God’s image. Eve, in contrast, is an inferior departure from this godly standard,” (Bem, 1993, p. 46) This perception of females being below the male standard carries out throughout

How we learn gender is part of gender socialization. It begins the moment we are born and continues till the end of our life. We are exposed to many factors that may influence our gender identity. Some of the factors are, media, our experience in school and our parents. In Martin & Kazyak’s essay titled “Hetero-Romantic Love and Hetereosexiness”, he explains how the media plays a part in shaping a child’s gender identity. In Thorne’s essay titled “Girls and Boys together…” he explores how sex segregation occurs predominantly in elementary school. In the film “Tough Guise”, Katz explains that men aren’t naturally violent but are taught to be so. And lastly, in Cornell’s essay titled “Masculinities and Globalization” he says that there are

In order to better comprehend the issues in which I will be examining, it is important to have an understanding of the difference between sex and gender, the role and definition of a 'patriarchal society',

She believes that because women generally have smaller groups of friends, they feel uncomfortable talking in areas with more people. And since men use their words to fight for a higher place in their social hierarchy, they feel more comfortable arguing in a large group. While this may be true for some cases, Tannen completely disregards the fact that women also use words to fight for dominance. Girls are simply more discrete about it. Instead of arguing and “exchanging playful insults and put-downs,” (Tannen 2) women talk behind each others backs and ruin each other’s appearance that way. Arguments with females are much more verbal than physical as they can be with guys. So if anything, women use language to argue and debate more than men. This completely goes against Tannen’s original thought that women don’t use language to compete, and it doesn’t explain why women talk less in class. At a young age parents tell little girls to be “quiet and ladylike.” This creates the stereotype that girls do not argue or debate. Girls simply do not participate in large group debates because they are raised to be calm and soft

This supports the author’s goal because, it brings to life her negative thoughts on people referring to males and females as "persons" in order to accommodate the sensitivity of the other gender. I disagree with McFadden's thoughts on referring to people as persons is ludicrous. By mocking the accommodation of a new gender sensitive language, it’s as if Cyra McFadden is bringing women down, instead of uplifting us. We live in a time where women can be first responders, on the front lines of war, and have important political power, yet it is easy to see as a woman that we still have to fight for equality. This is the reason it is imperative to make the changes towards a gender neutral language.

The film industry has created the conventional gender roles of society into their movies; A majority of films have supported some of the male and female stereotypes. In the history of the film industry, the role of men is primarilythat of the stereotypical working class man or hero, while the roles of women are primarily portrayed as being somewhat inferior to men. In the 1930s through the 1970s, men held the leading roles in films while women played smaller roles. Men were typically employed, successful gentlemen, while the woman’s only job was a housewife. The film industry was mostly dominated by men. In terms of jobs, women were given mostly family roles and rarely were shown outside of their homes, while men had

One reason gender immensely shapes one’s outlook is that it molds communication. Looking at Tannen’s “But What Do You Mean?”, it is clear that males and females have difficulties conversing with one another due to their opposite sexes. She discusses their speech patterns and how they differ from each other in various aspects of conversation, such as apologies, criticism, and praise. In the case of complaints, “[a] man might take a woman’s lighthearted griping literally, and she can get a reputation as a chronic malcontent” (Tannen, par. 26). The translation of a “woman’s lighthearted griping” into “chronic malcontent” within the eyes of a man conveys the common stereotype of women as peevish. Due to their privilege in society, men are expected to solve issues and possess no weaknesses whatsoever. This encouragement of strength simultaneously encourages invulnerability and the lack of emotion. On the other hand, a woman’s standing within civilization has been defined through terms of fragility, and she is assumed to be emotionally sensitive and overdramatic. With this notion in mind, men are prone to disregard a woman’s expression of her concerns, no matter how genuine and important they may be. This complication can be easily avoided if people overlook gender stereotypes

Gender and language initiate an approach to the study of language use and looks into relations between the meaning and gender. Christie provides a systematic introduction to pragmatic approaches explaining the rules of social language and how pragmatics can be realized be feminist analyses of language’s nature

I took this class because it was one of the options for my major that was required. This course was appealing because I read that it went through the different aspects and changes that gender norms have gone through and I thought it is a current topic today so I might as well dig deeper. I never really gave this topic or some of the chapter’s issues much thought before this course and I feel that after completing it I have been able to learn and develop new ideas on sensitive subjects. Without this course I would have never have learned about the political and social issues surrounding gender. I identity myself a female with the traditional characteristics that are found in parts of the book but, I now am able to distinguish and recognize

The way society is taught to be socialized is salient and goes unnoticed, therefore it is valid to claim that gender is socially constructed through our everyday practices, whether we are aware of the construction or not. With socialization beginning the instant a child is born, the process is continuous through out adolescence and varies dramatically across the two genders. With guidance from institutions and arenas such as education, sports, music and the mass media gender seems to be coerced, as it comes with a scripted set of behaviors and attitudes. This essay argues that gender is socially constructed on an everyday basis. To further explain this thesis the essay will draw on early childhood socialization of masculinity and femininity,

Prior to reading the article Doing Gender, I have never paid attention to the concept of doing gender. I found it interesting how these roles go so unnoticed because they are so enforced in our society. We never stop to think or questions if an individual’s actions are masculine or feminine. For example, some of us are just so use to having our mothers cook and our dad’s do all the heavy lifting but we never stop to think why is it like this or what does this represent.

Gender identity display people’s understanding of themselves according to cultural definitions of female and male. In this essay I will attempt to enhance our understanding by exploring different aspects of gender identity, gender roles & sexual identity issues. Relying mostly on my research that is conducted in the U.S.

Society should be socially acceptable to all members of it no matter where they works, how much money they have, or don’t have, the color of their skin, there sexual orientation, where the geographically live, etc. when it comes to topic of this nature, most people are very hesitant and don’t want to talk about it. Is it because they know that there are problems that need to be fixed, or because they know that no matter how much you talk about the topics it’s a lot harder to change the way society is than to just accept it and let it be. The paper discussed the two theories of standpoint theory and the gender theory. They both are present in everyday society but it just isn’t that clear at all times.

The textbook identifies four approaches to gender development: biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical. Define each theory. Then answer the following question: which of the theoretical approaches to gender do you find the most valid? Be sure to include at least two examples from your own experience as well as two scholarly sources to back up your claim.

Various theories have been used to explain the experience of IPV. The social structure theory stems from the feminist ideology which explains IPV in relation to gender and power relations in society, including the role of patriarchy in providing the requisite grounds for the normalization and perpetration of IPV against women (Kimmel, 2011; Okenwa-Emegwa, Lawoko & Jansson, 2016). For feminists, patriarchy refers to the systematic domination of men in society’s various institutions (Scott & Marshall, 2005). DV is a phenomenon that has always attracted the interest of feminist theorists and it has been explained based on some variant of feminist theories such as radical, Marxist and socialist feminist perspectives. Radical feminists believe that the existence of patriarchy is the root of women’s oppressed and disadvantaged position in society (Beirne & Messerschmidt, 1991 cited in DeKeseredy & MacLeod, 1997). For them, violence is an expression of male dominance over women. They apply this idea to their explanation of the women’s abuse of women and argue that men engage in violent behaviour in their desire to control and dominate women (DeKeseredy & MacLeod, 1997). Socialist feminists believe that not only gender relations but also social class are important and intertwined factors in determining the social order at any particular time in history (Messerschmidt 1986 cited in DeKeseredy & MacLeod, 1997). They argue that most incidents of domestic abuse