Gender And Its Effects On Society

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.

Children are born into a world that is already built upon gender stereotypes and gender roles. From a young age, children are already forming schemas about what it means to be a boy or a girl (Bem, 598). Psychologists Hilary Halpern and Maureen Perry-Jenkins defined gender as the “sociocultural expectations about the meaning of being male or female as it is constructed and enacted through experience within a social context” (1). The existence of a concept of gender creates gender stereotypes which researchers describe as the beliefs and expectations that surround gender (Halpern & Perry-Jenkins, 1). Stereotypes are a direct outcome of our tendencies to categorize and label the world around us and based off children’s experiences they develop schemas onto which these stereotypes will develop (Martin & Halverson, 1120).

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

Heteronormativity is the idea that heterosexuality and male and female gender binaries are the default. It has an emphasis on strict gender roles that feed into the idea that males are supposed to be strong protectors, sole providers, and reject anything deemed “feminine”. These ideas are further advanced by the notion of courtly love, which see the males as a dotting servant to women, the objects of their affection, but in reality is a tool of narcissism.

In society, children are taught expectations as to what is sociably acceptable: who to like, what to wear, and where to live, based on of the environment they grew up in. As children grow up, and go on through life, they then begin to impose these expectations onto the people around them. More often than not these societal expectations conform with that of a heteronormative mindset1. In a modern western context, heteronormativity is the notion that people fall into distinct genders, male and female, and lead natural roles in life all while conforming to the ideology of traditional binary gender roles. Such heteronormative bias asserts that traditional binary gender

Since birth children are taught the necessary components of human interaction; the lesson of how to be a male and female is one that is never-ending in their development. Whether or not the parents choose to teach these barbaric messages of what is conventionally expected from a male or female, their children will be bombarded with this agenda by other aspects of western civilization’s culture. The machine, which is known as society, facilitates the media, our peers, and social interaction which will in result shaping its citizens as it sees fit. Steering clear of these messages is impossible, but the ability to recognize these lessons in gender for what they really are will be liberating and vital to an

Heteronormativity is the idea that humans exist in specific, complementary genders and that having either of these two genders means that you are to follow the roles set by the society that you live in. It assumes that heterosexuality is the norm for humans and that marriages and sexual relations should occur exclusively between members of the opposite sex. Men should be masculine, emotionally conservative, have financial and social power and be interested in women, while women should be feminine, loving and emotional, instinctively maternal and be interested in finding a husband (Schilt & Westbrook, 2009).

In class we discussed as a group about sexism and its effects on society. It was an interesting class that put so much perspective about the ramifications of this behavior. This discussion was around the same time of the Donald Trump scandal, where he made sexist comments and putdowns towards women. It made me realize that this is a current issue within the United States, where women especially are stereotyped or discriminated because of gender expectations or appearances. Thinking about the scandal, my outlook on the issue was that ‘men will be men.’ I wasn’t aware of my own micro-aggression that was being targeted towards my own gender. This class was an eye-opening experience where I began to realize my own perceptions and how I normalized

From the moment we are born we are put into one of two categories, boy or girl. We are never asked or considered to be anything but. No in between, no blurred lines. And because of the society we created, we attach extensive stereotypes to each of those genders. This is simply known as gender roles, or more specifically; “a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex”. This includes all kinds of stereotypes, like, that women should stay home, cook, and be “girly”, and that men need to be strong, the sole provider of the house, and “manly”. Not to say you can’t be those things, but those roles can be very constricting for most of the population. Gender roles can be so restricting that they affect our lifestyle, workplace, and mentality and self image.

From an early age children are taught that they are to play with material objects, based on their gender, they are to dress a certain way, based on their gender, they are to like certain things, based on their gender, and they are to view themselves not as they please, but as the manipulated image society puts in their mirror. These thoughts and ideas are thrust upon children as soon as the sonogram confirming their sex is placed in the hands of their parents.

From a young age, people are told who they must be and how they must act determined by their gender. Gender roles are a set of societal norms that dictate a person’s behavior based on the appropriate and acceptable rules for their gender. This notion derives from the assumption that girls favor dolls and dress-up, while boys prefer toy guns and trucks. These instances contribute to the concept that those of male and female gender must fulfill a specific ideology. These societal standards are ingrained within us as children and we are taught to become exceedingly aware of them. Girls are trained to become vessels of unstable emotions with an excess amount of vulnerability and sensitivity. Females must be the picturesque embodiment of

People all over the world with different cultures, religions and beliefs teach us that they are two different genders, which are male and female. This fact is the foundation of social structure; some people are discriminated because they do not fit in any of the categories in society’s structure. On that note, social construction of gender, is how the “stereotypes” or the expectations of what each gender has to do, or is expected to do, shapes a child as they grow. For instance, the pink and the blue, how the girl areas in stores are full if pinkish delicate stuff and the boy are full of blue and cars and dinosaurs. In other words, people feel the need to separate these two genders in such drastic ways that if a mother decides to dress her baby boy in pink, people will mistake the boy for a baby girl. Furthermore, some people that do not identify themselves as male or female, are classified as genderqueer. “We may use scientific knowledge to help us make the decision, but only our beliefs about gender—not science—can define our sex. Furthermore, our beliefs about gender affect what kinds of knowledge scientists produce about sex in the first place.” (Ann

lastly, the most significant change in the past 50 years is the roles of gender that has made an incredible turn when it comes to evolution. transition has become more common that ever, if you are not satisfy with the sex you were born like, they can change the outside to meet their inside personality. This is a huge and controversial change and eve tough a small percentage in America are transgender, they often suffer discrimination in various aspects of their lives, including employment. Society doesn’t recognize this changes easily, we all have to respect someone else's

Even in today’s society, many individuals do not understand the vast distinctions between sex and gender. According to Dahl, Sex is defined as the physiological distinction of male and female based on their genitalia.1 Gender, however, consists of the socially constructed roles and behaviours that

From the moment they are born, parents, peers and advertisements bombard children on what a males and females should look and act like creating stereotypes and societal norms. Males are groomed to be leaders and protectors and women to be nurturers and housewives. These stereotypes control not only young children but the adults that are raising them. Lois Gould, author of X: A Fabulous Child’s Story, details how it would be difficult to be a unisex child not only because of peer alienation but also because the judgement parents would inflict because they too are slaves to societal norms. These societal norms negatively affect gender identity in adolescents by pressuring them to uphold gender norms.