When a child is born, the parent places an imaginary label on the child that defines them as either male or female, not really anything in between. The parents determine the gender of the child based in their anatomy and disregard everything else that can happen during their child’s life that can be a negative experience for them. Gender is not something that can be easily identified by someone since there are a number of different factors that are taken into place in the determination of one’s gender. Gender is defined as the state of being either male or female, but it doesn 't say how the person 's gender is determined or by who. I believe that although there are many factors that can identify one 's gender, it is ultimately what an individual personally identifies themselves as and not what others identify them as. A person can identify themselves as a man or woman, or whatever gender they wish that they feel comfortable as. Some of the factors that I believe can determine the gender of a person are partly chromosomes and most importantly personal choice. I do not believe that physical appearance determines the gender of an individual because of many factors. Chromosomes are one way in which an individual can somewhat determine gender. The way in which gender can be determined by chromosomes happens before the baby is born and is often chosen by the doctor who tells the parents their baby’s gender. Before birth, one can identify if the baby is going to be a girl or a
Gender is defined as whatever behaviors and attitudes a group considers proper for its males and females. Unlike sex, gender is something that we learn from the day we are born. “Young children begin to acquire gender role stereotypes at about the same time they develop gender identity and by the age of 3 or 4 most children” (Amanda Youmans). Peers, community, media, religion and our upbringing all play a role in the understanding of our culture and what is considered acceptable for males and females. When the sex of a child is revealed, they are automatically placed into a gender specific role with certain expectations. There are things in this world such as colors, toys, media depiction and taught behaviors that play into these gender roles.
Gender is defined as the state of being male or female. In most instances, this state is determined based on the biology of an individual’s genitalia. Those born
Gender being ‘biologically determined’ means that whether gender is inherited or passed down by genetics. If a person is a man or woman, (which is usually called ‘The Sex’), that is biologically determined because they inherit the chromosomes to be born a man, or to be born as a woman. In the early 1970’s sex was described by “biology as: anatomy, hormones, and physiology” (West and Zimmerman 1987). Apart from gender being a biological factor, there are other things which are not biologically determined; “Gender was an achieved status, which was constructed through psychological, cultural and social means” (West and Zimmerman1987). Hence the answer
Biological sex is determined by chromosomes in your genes. At prenatal development, only a few weeks after conception, there is no notable difference between male and female structure until the Gonadal Ridges, the structure which develops either female or male sex organs, grows to determine the sex of the baby. All prenatal babies have genitalia that appears distinctly feminine until at three months, hormones- testosterone if the baby’s to be a boy, and oestrogen if the baby’s to be a girl- is released and the baby develops into the hormone determined gender. For these reasons it is believed that there is a direct link between chromosomes and sex, and therefore sex and
Relevant Terminology: Gender identity: refers to an individual’s sense of gender, may be different from one’s assigned gender at birth
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
The concept of gender is not as cut and dry as you might think. The term gender is often used incorrectly as a synonym for our biological sex. Gender is more of a predetermined set of ideas and characteristics used in identifying socially acceptable behaviors and appearances for the sexes. It is not determined by the biological sex of the person. From an early age we begin to develop ideas of what it means to be male or female by observing others. Gender falls on a spectrum from masculine to feminine with many combinations in between. Gender expression and gender identity are also not the same thing. Gender expression is not related directly to how a person perceives their gender,
Gender and gender roles are a somewhat complicated idea to understand. Contrary to popular belief, gender and sex are two different things in that “gender is not inherently nor solely connected to one’s physical anatomy” (“Understanding Gender”). When parents automatically assign their child a gender based on their sex organs, it leaves very little room for change later in the child’s life, because children born with female sex organs are not necessarily girls, just as children born with male sex organs are not necessarily boys. Rather, gender is based on mindset, personal identity, outward presentations, and behavior of the individual. Binary genders, or the broadly
The formation of gender identity is not completely understood as it is much more complex than just getting a sperm and egg cell to join; an XX or an XY genotype is only the first part in gender identity. There are many biological, psychological and sociological factors involved. The biological includes chromosomes, gonads, prenatal hormones, internal accessory organs, external genital appearance. The psychological includes assigned gender role and gender identity. The sociological could come from family, mass media and society (Kenyon, PhD, 2006). Sammons (2007) states that biological psychology
In my preadolescence, my theory of developing from a girl into a woman was confirmed by my biology teacher. My biology teacher explained how a male and female sex was selected. She stated, a male consists of an X and Y chromosome; therefore, a man sperm predicts the sex (gender) of the baby during conception. During, this time, I learned that my gender was selected and identified before I had
Let me give you a scenario; It’s 3:00am. Rushing down the halls of a hospital you are on your way to support a person who is doing one of the most beautiful and complex things in life. Giving birth. You are the doctor in the room. Cutting the umbilical cord you hand the mother her child. She smiles up at you with tear rimmed eyes and you wrap the child up in a blanket and hold out to her a beautiful baby _____. Boy or girl? It doesn’t really matter which you say so long as you say one or the other, right? Within a few moments after birth and a quick scan between the legs of the child will enable you to develop a gender label for the child that they will carry for the rest of their life relevant to their sex.
The biggest question asked is how it comes around, however there is not a solid reasoning or proof of one main causal factor. According to Lippa, exposure to testosterone during the second trimester of pregnancy, when the development of both male internal and external genitals and a male-typical nervous system forms, may influence gender identity. (98) Brown counters this argument by saying the formation of a secure unconflicted gender identity and gender role is influenced by social factors, such as the character of parent’s emotional bond or the relationship each parent has with the child; he asserts that the biological factors (genetic complement or prenatal hormones) do largely determine gender identity however they do not act alone, more or less just setting the stage to go one way or the other.
In the beginning, there was nothing. At some point, nothing became something and that point has been of hot debate for centuries. It quickly became apparent that the human race was fundamentally flawed in that it could not exist without scapegoating at least one demographic of their own people, creating another hot button issue to never cease. The easiest way to separate a group is to bisect it – generally in terms of black/white gender identification (male/female) – and when early homo sapiens found themselves settling down amidst the Neolithic Revolution and discovering agriculture, daily chores became more abundant and necessary. Thus began the base for a growing trend in sexism and ignoring the capabilities of one sex over the other, for “wo/men originally did ____, so they obviously can’t do ____!” As Western civilization blossomed into a bountiful land of oppression, incest, and materialism, wealthy societies enabled lavish lifestyles, which in turn e nabled the ideal of the posh and wealthy – people who n ever had to lift a finger, even to wipe their own buttocks. To the surprise of many, not all were able to afford such a lifestyle, and some were even rather upset with the development of the vast class system. This prompted the rise of satire as means of retaliation, a way to point out flaws in that which people were not allowed to view as flawed. As satire became more mainstream and popular, the main topics for satire were politics, religion, those gosh-durned
Gender is not based on physical attributes. Sex is the word that should be used when speaking about biological characteristics. So, based on the definition of gender by LeVay, gender identity is one’s personal attitude towards being more male or female.
You are born with sexual attributes but gender qualities are developed after birth (Tovey and Share, 2003). The variations between the two sexes are an outcome of culture and society (Giddens, 2001). The best way to prove the difference between the terms ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ is the situation of transsexuals. These people fit biologically into one sex but feel they belong to the other. Through surgery and hormone treatment they try to change their biological sex and by doing this they also have to learn how to act like the sex they have changed to. They also have to take on new masculine/feminine roles (Browne, 2005). One in every two thousand babies is born intersex which is a baby with mixed female and male characteristics.