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Gender And Gender Essay

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The society in which we reside has an immense power to model our thoughts, actions, attitude and conduct. It plays a huge role in shaping us. The construction of gender is one instance of outcome of societal influence. The society has imprinted an image in the minds of people about how certain limited perspectives should be looked upon while considering the topic of gender. Gender is often associated with the biological sex. It is believed that sex and gender shares an intrinsic connection. It is thought that since biologically there are two sexes, there must be two genders. But gender and sex are two different notions. Sex is determined by physical anatomy of a person and affected by a combination of genetic and hormonal influences. In contrast, gender is shaped by culture, social expectations and behaviors assigned by our social associations to being man or woman (Giddens and Griffiths 461). In other words, gender is an outcome of series of acts that one performs and is not mandatorily linked to one’s sex. The disregard of separateness between gender and sex and how the society plays role in labelling an individual composes the social construction of gender. An individual throughout his/her development experience certain social pulls that leads to construction of gender. The various expectations linked to one’s being a male or a female starts as soon as a child is born. The moment after child’s birth, he or she is welcomed by blue or pink stuff based on physical sex.

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