Gender Analysis : X : A Fabulous Child 's Story

Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.

When someone is pregnant, people will usually ask for the sex of the unborn child thus proving that people are socially categorized from the beginning of life and is something that is continued throughout life. One is expected to behave the way their assigned gender is supposed to behave. Gender socialization is when people are expected to act a certain way based on their “gender”. Through the following agents: family, schools, peers, and media, gender socialization is emphasized and made very real in the world today.

Throughout many studies, researchers have said that gender develops from families, which is part of the social construction in children. According to Coltrane and Adams, Gender is defined as “To what it means to be a man or a woman in a specific time and place” (Coltrane and Adams). People in this world think that gender is automatically part of biological sex, but according to Coltrane and Adams, it is not a direct result of biological sex. The term is defined as “to refer relatively distinct biological differences between male and females such as genitals, hormones, and chromosomes” (Coltrane and Adams). For gender it is also social and it refers to how a person thinks that someone should look, act and feel (Coltrane and Adams). On the daily life, people will usually assume that a person “is” the gender that corresponds to his or her sex: females are feminine and males are masculine (Coltrane and Adams). In addition, gender also describes how the typical man and woman are supposed to present themselves. A man presenting himself as masculine and a woman presenting herself as feminine in particular cultures (Coltrane and Adams). In other words how women should act and how men should act.

Gender can sometimes be seen as biological characteristics humans have, when in fact it is the social characteristic ones society deems either masculine or feminine. Sex, on the other hand, is the biological differences in humans, for example, hormones and sex organs. People usually play gender roles in society, otherwise known as gender ideology. Gender ideology is when men and women have certain attitudes regarding their ‘fixed’ roles, responsibilities and rights. Throughout history men and women have been socialized to play these expected roles that have been placed on them due to their sex. In my own personal life I have encountered many instances where I have been socialized in relation to sex and gender.

This course has given me plentiful information about how men and women live their lives differently due to societal expectations, gender norms, inequalities and above all the pressures of fitting into the gender binary. As a class, we discussed how children are often born into a family that has this ingrained concept that their child will either be a masculine boy or a feminine female. This is known as the gender binary, which is the idea that there are only those two categories a person can fit into, and they have opposing qualities and traits. An example of how this is placed into a child’s life even before it’s born is a gender announcement party. If the child is a girl, the color pink will be uncovered, and if the child is a boy, the color blue will. One may not see this as a negative thing, however from that point on the parents are often expecting their child to stay within the gender norms, to try and raise a normal child in a normal family. What exactly determines if your child is normal? Society, society decides what is expected of a person and polices anything and anyone that veers into a different path. What is typically overlooked or turned a blind eye to, is the fact that these early implanted gender expectations can turn into inequality, and more specifically justifying inequality. Since we have this idea in our minds that men and women have opposing traits, then we begin to think that for specific tasks and jobs, there

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits

We are taught Gender by our family members from a very young age. For example, girls receive pink gifts and boys receive blue gifts. Shaw & Lee said, “Gender is embedded in culture and the various forms of knowledge associated with a given community.” (Shaw&Lee, p.116.) For example, in one community it might be acceptable for a girl to play football, and in another community the members believe, girl

According to Judith Lorber author of the 1994 article “The Social Construction of gender” gender is built within our everyday lives. Lorber states that gender construction starts with the assignment to a sex category based on the baby ’s genitalia (Lorber 1994, pg. 141). Once the baby’s sex is determined, his or her life experiences are influenced by the sex category that they received at birth. For example, let’s say you have a baby girl, people expect you to dress your baby girl in dresses, because this is a societal norm.

The readings and film for this week provide us an insight of the true meaning of gender. Based on the readings, the concept of gender is totally made by the society. As discussed in Wikipedia, it means that the society created gender roles for each male and female category. These gender roles are essential because the society suggested them as the appropriate behaviors that one specific gender must adhere. The lecture notes also state that gender is categorized in a set of behaviors, which is known as the normal behaviors for each specific gender. In addition, there is really no such thing as a real woman or a real man because these two gender categories are unstable and unpredictable, and must be continuously repeated for them to be intact

First let me define gender. Gender is composed of three parts: biology, gender roles, and sexuality. Gender roles are the behaviors, attitudes, appearance, and etcetera that a specific culture has deemed appropriate for a specific sex. May I note that gender roles can and do vary between cultures. Some cultures even include a third gender category because not everyone fits within

Gender is the social roles based on the sex of the person; “Gender refers to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person 's biological sex. Behavior that is compatible with cultural

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once said, “The problem with gender is that it prescribes how we should be, rather than recognizing how we are”. When we are born, we don't know what the meaning of “ gender roles”. We learn as we grow through social interaction. The way we identify our gender comes from many aspects of our life. For example, we identity our gender through our parents, our schools and teachers, through the internet, and through work. The way we are raised reflects how we identify ourselves as we grow older.

Gender is considered a socially constructed idea that is infused in individuals during their childhood and it encapsulates a social code of behaviour that will facilitate their later integration in a social group. Additionally, it

First, what is gender? What does it mean to say that gender is a social construction? Gender refers to the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female or male. (Macionis 2015:308) The society in which we live produces our views of what women and men are and what they are supposed to be. However, many people say that gender is “socially constructed”. Basically meaning it is constructed by society. For many decades, it has been what gender should represent and what it should look like. For instance, if someone is labeled with the gender, boy, they are supposed to wear blue, like trucks, and cars, be rough, like sports, make the most money for the family, etc. If someone is labeled with the gender, girl, then they are supposed to wear pink, like dresses, makeup, be polite, be nice, be nourishing clean the house, etc.

Gender socialization, implementing societal gender norms, instilling what it means to be feminine or masculine (Baril, 2017). Analyzing how external influences and a child's perception consolidate the frame of their formation of gender roles in addition to combining the cognitive-development features and social-learning theory, is the Gender schema theory (Berk, 2010, p. 216). What are the societal requirements of being masculine? What is society's definition of attributing characteristics to femininity?