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Culture Gender Identity

Decent Essays

“Gender identity is our psychological awareness or sense of being male or female, and it’s one of the most obvious and important aspects of our self-concept” (Rathus, p. 159). The main source of gender identity in our culture is physical appearance. Our culture is accustom to being able to look at a person and instantly judge their gender based on the common physical appearance and traits of being male or female. Male gender identity can typically be recognized based on having short hair, facial hair, taller and more muscular body shape, and the traditional style and color of clothing such as pants, shorts, and t-shirts. Female gender identity can typically be recognized based on having longer hair, wearing make-up, body shape including breasts, and traditional clothing for females including a colorful wardrobe, skirts, dresses, and high heels. …show more content…

Including dressing babies in gender specific clothing and colors such as a pink dress for a baby girl and a blue shirt with jeans for a baby boy. Additionally, parents generally let their girl’s hair grow long and keep the boy’s hair short. “Caregivers also rear us as males or females, according to our anatomic sex” (Rathus, p. 159). With the technology of ultrasounds and the ability to identify the child’s sex while in the womb, parents plan for gender identifying decorations and clothes before their baby is even born. In our culture, it is expected that we know the sex of our baby before birth, that we dress them traditionally, and that we treat them according to their biological

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