Film Analysis: Don T Know Dick In The Class

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

In our society today, there are many ways identity plays a role in how people live their lives, as well as how people are viewed or treated by others. A big part of a person’s identity comes from their gender. Men and women are raised differently, whether it be their beliefs and ways of thinking, how they view their future, or the actions they choose to take throughout their lifetime. In both Katha Pollitt and Silko’s essays, they discuss the differences in the lives of men and women and how these differences result from society’s expectations by using metaphors and life examples to explain their message to the reader, as well as allow the reader to connect to this message.

What does it mean to be a woman or man? Whether we a man or a woman, in today’s society it is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex mix of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a woman or man? Are you feminine or masculine, both, or neither? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity. Gender identity is how we feel about and express our gender and gender roles: clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It is a feeling that we have as early as age two or three. In the article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,” the author, Aaron Devor, is trying to persuade his readers that gender shapes how we behave because of the expectation from us and relate to one another. He does this by using an educational approach, describing gender stereotypes, and making cultural references. He gets readers to reflect on how “Children’s developing concepts of themselves as individuals are necessarily bound up …to understand the expectations of the society which they are a part of” (389). Growing up, from being a child to an adult is where most of us try to find ourselves. We tend to struggle during this transition period, people around us tell us what to be and not to be, Jamaica Kincaidt in her short story, “Girl” tells just that, the setting is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly. The mother soberly

Gender is a concept constructed entirely by society. We base gender off of what we perceive and what others perceive of us. Until fairly recently, it has been categorized as one of two things: male or female. When we watched the documentary in class, we saw evidence of society 's socialization of young children. Commercials for Nerf Guns, action figures, and cars and trucks were all depicted with young boys as their users. Never did we see a girl playing with GI Joes or with Hot Wheels, only boys played with those. Meanwhile, dolls, baking sets, and make up kits were only advertised to girls, and no boys were shown playing with Barbies or Bratz. Society begins to shape gender notions from a very early age, where people are shown that they are one or the other, either male or female.

This semester, I am taking Intro to Sociology and we have been looking at different perspectives of our society. One thing we are studying is how from at such a young age, we are taught to assign gender roles. In Patricia J. Williams’ magazine article, “Are We Worried about Storm’s Identity- or Our Own”, an essay taken out of the Nation magazine (June 2011), she tells a story about Storm, whose parents choose not to reveal the sex of their baby. She is a legal scholar and examines issues related to law and culture. Williams focuses on all the stereotypes that we associate with gender, how we as a society find social order in assigning gender roles, and the need to have the proper pronouns so that we know how/what to label a person. The author’s use of ethos and logos really brings the point home that we need to be more open about all the possibilities associated with gender and pronouns.

They should have the right to dress as they choose, love who they choose, and be who they choose. It angers me that people believe differently considering they’ve never been in their shoes. In the “Paradoxes of Gender” Judith Lorber states, “We need to change biological sex in order to uphold the principle that biological sex determine one character”(41). Lorber's’ preconceived notion that one’s sex dictates their personality is flawed. It proves that society is unaccepting of people outside of the “norm”. Middle Sexes speaks to a wide variety of people but is mainly directed to transphobic people. However, the film isn’t very compelling because it doesn’t take the audience’s outlook into consideration. Through biological evidence and personal stories, the film strives to persuade transphobic people to be more accepting. Thomas attempts to persuade his target audience by referencing the science behind people who blur the lines between female and male. His unique approach is more convincing than an argument that stems from one’s opinions. However, his lack of counterarguments makes it difficult for the audience to relate.

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

There are countless factors throughout the book that help to create a critical gendered lens. However, I have found that the four most helpful have been the discussions of intersectionality, gender performance, gendered/sexed language, and the three prominent theories of gender/sex. Learning the term intersectionality and what it means in terms of gender and communication really helped shape the way that I looked at all of the content of this course. The idea that a person’s identity is multiplicative rather than additive gives clearly explains intersectionality. The idea that all of the components of a person’s identity work together to make up who they are and how they view the world and are viewed by others is critical to the study of gender

Whether we consciously notice or not, doing gender is occurring everyday within our society. Every interaction we have with another individual is doing gender. Doing gender has become a part of our every day lives the same way without realizing it the same way we breathe air without really paying attention that we are breathing. The meaning behind this is that it is occurring unconsciously. Candace West and Don Zimmerman coined the term doing gender in an article they composed. West and Zimmerman argued that gender is something that humans created. As humans, we have the urge to categorize and define everything. If someone was not in favor of their gender role or did something that was not deemed correct for that gender, this person would be committing an act of social deviance. This paper will discuss what doing gender means along with other attributes of doing gender. These attributes includes what pushes us to do gender, why we do gender, the results of doing gender along with discussing what the boys in C.J. Pascoe’s article of Dude you’re a fag accomplished. This essay will discuss what doing gender is along with what causes us to do it and finally what doing it accomplishes.

Traditionally speaking, most people view sex and gender as interchangeable, synonymous, and biological. As more studies and research are done, more professionals are realizing the vital difference between the two terms. Sex, according to sociologist Doctor Zuleyka Zevallos, is the “biological traits that societies use to assign people into the category of either male or female, whether it be through a focus on chromosomes, genitalia, or some other physical ascription”. She goes on to say that the definition of gender is “the cultural meanings attached to men and women’s roles; and how individuals understand their identities including, but not limited to, being a man, woman, transgender, intersex, gender queer, and other gender identities” (Zeyallos, 2014). We see sex as something we are assigned at birth due to the body parts we are born with, and we see gender as the way one identifies with their assigned sex. In the majority of cases, assigned sex and gender identity line up, but less often it does not. In these cases, we see individuals who are transgender, gender queer, gender fluid, and more. More people are coming forward about these different ways they are experiencing gender, so many people assume these ways of experiencing gender are new.

When contemplating the topic of gender role and its impact on identity one cannot help but realise that these gender roles have a huge part to play on a person’s identity. As gender is a combination of male and female it gives way for a number of characteristics to accompany each sex making them different from each other. This has an important position to play on identity which Kath Woodward stated in her book “Questioning Identity: Gender, Class, Nation” where she said “Without difference there would not be such thing as identity”. (Woodward, 2000, pp.51) Unfortunately, however, with these differences there are inequalities. In this essay I would like to elaborate on this further by looking at the meaning of gender and how it impacts

On the other hand, the last two years of school have changed my attitude toward gender and sexuality, gave me a profound understanding of feminism and sex, and prepared me to be a responsible woman. Since I had been going through a hard time when I was embracing ambiguous forms of deportment to be attractive but not too sexual, I decided to find answers in the books. I took many classes related to gender, such as Feminist Studies: Sex, Love, Romance. I learned how women were described as a weak group in terms of body, intelligence, and psychology, how these weaknesses became the excuses to legitimately exclude women from political life and made them be erroneously and slanderously classified as disabled people, and how gender was the excuse for

Throughout today’s society, almost every aspect of someone’s day is based whether or not he or she fits into the “norm” that has been created. Specifically, masculine and feminine norms have a great impact that force people to question “am I a true man or woman?” After doing substantial research on the basis of masculine or feminine norms, it is clear that society focuses on the males being the dominant figures. If males are not fulfilling the masculine role, and females aren’t playing their role, then their gender identity becomes foggy, according to their personal judgment, as well as society’s.

“Gender” is a social construct that is developed solely by our society and the early developmental stages of an adolescent’s life. By introducing youths to the roles, behaviors, expectations and activities that correspond with males or females we give a clear guideline of what is accepted from a young male or female. An individual however can identify his or her gender based on their own system of beliefs without corresponding to their natural biological sex. Our lives are shaped by our true biological identities but the influence of the world and society is enough to define what a male and what a female truly is to an individual.

Firstly, I would like to discuss the different gender identities that I learnt in this class. In my home country, everyone is just assumed to be a man or a woman. I never had to think otherwise because I myself have always identified as a woman. While I was aware of homosexuality and transgender people, in Sri Lanka we were not exposed to it so much. From my research that I conducted for my research paper, I learnt that act of homosexuality will be criminalized and transgender people are disregarded and do not have access to many resources to help them. This explained a lot as to why I was not exposed to anything other than what was considered the “norm” when I lived back home. It was only after coming to the US that I have had the opportunity to learn more. After taking this