Gender As A Socio Cultural Construct Of Female And Male Identity That Shapes How Individuals Live And Interpret The

Debates about identity as environmentally or biologically constructed have been on going in several studies. The belief that identity is innate is a form of common sense understanding that is challenged by the constructionist perspective of identity. The sex/gender identity is when a person who is determined as male or female based on biological criteria is required to act according to assigned gender roles of masculinity or femininity (Carrera et al. 2012). That being said, the sex/gender identity creates limitations on the categories a persons identity can fall under. Although we have these fixed categories, gender identity is socially constructed because there are groups outside of being a man and woman. Also, there are different types of gender identities across the world and identity is created over time.

Gender as a Social Construction This annotated bibliography is focused on research that supports the idea that gender has been socially constructed. Haslanger’s chapter offers an understanding of what is meant by the term ‘socially constructed’ and how gender can be defined from this viewpoint. Zimman complements Haslanger’s argument by explaining that it is our discourse that influences our perceptions of gender. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet’s chapter is helpful when explaining how gender is socially constructed by exploring how from birth we are treated and labeled according to whether we’ are male or female.

A significant point in Bems’ (1993) chapter in Lens of Gender on gender identity was the concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy when it comes to the treatment and development of young boys and girls in society. The first point discussed is how the ‘maternal instinct’ is not so biological as much it is women being confined to the private sphere, in turn having the most interaction with children. This point stood out as I was reading because I have known from a young age I did not want children. Many told me that my opinion would change when I grew older, and when you have your own child being a mother comes naturally. As I reflected I was reminded of the point later made by Bem (1993) that “adults in the child’s community

The word identity has become the most discussed idea in our society. It is described mostly, to be a word that stands for who we are. Therefore, because of who we are, identity has come to be a word that we use to claim and understand people’s actions in our society. So in this paper I will be analysing how social practices surrounding identity relates to gender in social, personal levels, through the work of three authors; by Ian Hacking on “kind making”, Margaret Somers on “Narrative construction of identity” and finally, Frederick Cooper and Rogers Brubaker on “beyond identity” . However, I will tilt more toward Frederick Cooper and Rogers Bruakers article on identity. This is because I feel that their article contributes better to my

On a different note, Schmitz and Sarah (1998) examined traditional gender roles among men and women in the United States as well as in Mexico. The study revealed distinct differences between traditional gender roles perceptions held by Americans and Mexicans. The authors state that family settings in Mexico have been characterized by a dominance of the husband. The women are expected to make sacrifices for the sake of their families. They engage in household chores while the men are tasked with the role of providing income to the family. Some of the ultimate sacrifices that the women have to make include: the acquisition of education, development of careers, and having a social life. On the other hand, men enjoy all these rights as their work is majorly within the public sphere and their involvement with their family’s actual functioning is minimal. Due to Mexicans’ beliefs that gender roles stabilize families, they believe that “men should play the role of decision makers while women should play the roles of homemakers and family caretakers” (Schmitz & Sarah, 1998, p.140). On the other hand, the study found out that gender roles in the U.S were not generally delineated according to gender since they are more focused on the attainment of gender equity. Therefore, household chores can be done by either gender. However, the general trend was that women mostly performed household chores especially in households where both the husband and the wife were professionally working.

Transgender can be defined as a person whose self-identity does not conform precisely to conventional notions of the male or female gender. This self-identity problem can usually be accompanied by numerous forms of treatment to change ones’ physical appearance, and make it more consistent with their identified gender identity. In many cases, the individual can identify with the gender of the opposite sex to the point one believes that he or she is a member of that gender group trapped in the wrong body. This is also called Gender Dysphoria or formerly known as Gender Identity Disorder. The person with gender dysphoria or GD at times does not know that he or she have an actual disorder but more of a general discomfort with his or her biological sex. This also creates complications in their everyday life, when they are unable to interpret their feelings or rationalize problems they experience in a social setting (Gender Dysphoria, 2014).

Gender is considered an axis of social order. Its categorisation into masculinity and femininity is social constructed and maintained in everyday life (Clark and Page, 2005; Mackie, 1994). Gender identity is our innermost understanding of our self as ‘male’ or ‘female’. Most people develop a gender identity that matched their biological sex (their body). Gender identity can be affected by, and is different from one society to another, depending on the way the members of society evaluate the role of females and males. Our gender identity can be influenced from the ethnicity of the group, their cultural background, and family values. Gender like social class and race can be used to socially categorize people and even lead to prejudice and discrimination. From day –to-day, continuous production of gender has been called ‘doing gender’ (West and Zimmermann, 1987), meaning that gender is “made” by us in everyday lives in our interactions with others.

For many years, society’s view of gender was a simple matter of assigning the appropriate roles for both men and women. In this way, they are defined in an important way based on their gender. However, many studies over the last decade have altered society’s view by showing how gender is a cultural invention. These studies have also demonstrated how men and women are shaped by the culture and environment they’re born into and that what is expected of them may differ from what we deem to be appropriate in our culture. In today’s world, we still are dealing with the same problems that we were hundreds of years ago. These problems being equal rights between men and women, along with breaking away from societal norms revolving around what is expected

Gender construction is associated with society’s expectations of human beings based on their biological sex. Before humans are born, they are already classified as boys or girls through a sonogram. In Reading Lessons, An Introduction to Theory, Scott Carpenter explains that “gender has served as the primary human sorting feature since time immemorial” (89). In addition, children’s behaviors are developed from the fairy tales and characters from the cartoons that they watch. Boys are more likely to become superheroes while girls are encouraged to be pretty like Disney’s princess characters such as Snow White and Cinderella (Carpenter 92). Thus, girls are more focused on their physical appearance than boys. The different roles that actors and actresses play and the identification of men and women or boys and girls in movies, fairy tales, and the society influence people to expect what men and women should do and how they should live to get the ideal type for their gender roles.

The word gender can be described as the state of being male or female and is typically used to describe cultural differences as opposed to biological ones. Additionally, the definition of gender has continuously been a controversial issue due to its lack of clarity in regards to battling complicated social injustices. Furthermore, the construction of gender as a social category has recently been criticized for the lack of inclusiveness to women of color and the consistent habit to view both gender and race as restrictive divisions of experience and reasoning. Seeing those criticisms has led to the development of the term intersectionality which deals with various layers of subjection that women live with and addresses more than just the

We all are humans, so we all want to be part of a certain group of people in order to feel us accepted and completed. Consequently, people in a community decide to develop their guiding principles and values that rule us as society. There are many reasons why society demand certain obligations for both sex, man and woman, but there is no manual to follow to show us how to live this life perfectly. The way we live the life can differ from one country to another, and even from one state to another. Mexico, as other countries around the world, has been experiencing changes related to gender roles because we all are part of a society, and we create our own perspective about what a man or woman should do or not. The three main reasons for changing

The behaviors practiced by a culture, especially those concerning the treatment of men and women in a society, are reflective of how a society views its members, both by age and gender. Many societies, such as rural China and Taiwana, view their women as inferior, and the men dominate them. Women are basically powerless and at the will of their husbands. Viewing women as inferior to men often stems from the idea that a man’s work is important and a woman’s work, mainly around the house, is unimportant. This severely hinders a woman’s ability to reach their potential in both the household and society. The !Kung San and the Mbuti hold a woman’s work as a great asset and value it. It is no surprise that these societies respect both men and women as one and the same. This is portrayed by the Mbuti’s tug-of-war games between the men and the women in which neither side dominates the other, and the game ends in a truce with laughter on both sides. This is to teach the children that men and women are both equally important.

Race is a system of categories put in place by society in order to make each individual fit into a certain social group. It is due to societies implementation of such a system that individuals in these racial categories do not always look at each other as equals, causing a race to not always identify themselves as a homogenous front. This essay will delve into the poetry of a popular Def Jam spoken word artist Black Ice, whose piece Bigger Than Mine looks into the dualism within Black society in the United States with an undertone of what it means to a man. A schism as described by Black Ice being between two distinct groups, Blacks and “Niggas”.

Gender identity is the personal conception of being a man or a woman and the society creates standards and comes up with gender roles basing them on existing norms and traditions which will in turn influence gender identity. For instance, most societies associate strength and dominance to be masculine roles while caring and assisting or subordination known to be feminine roles. This clearly makes gender identity be bred within the society. One’s identity is important as it influences his or her life through events like life experiences, how one is being taken or treated, how to do one associate or socialize with others, the type of job one will have to do and also opportunities that may come up favoring a certain type of gender identity. One is also likely to face obstacles or discrimination due to his or her identity.

The construction of a self-identity can be a very complex process that every individual is identity is developed through the lenses of cultural influences and how it is expected to given at birth. Through this given identity we are expected to think, speak, and behave in a certain way that fits the mold of societal norms. This paper aims to explain how gender perform gender roles according these cultural values. I intend to analyze the process in which individuals learned and internalized their respective gender identities, through their cultural background. I will be conducting a set of interviews with the intention to compare my experience as a self-identified male of Mexican descent, to the experience of another male character of Japanese heritage in order to understand how we come to self-identify as masculine in diverged cultures. In this paper, I argue that the construction of gender identities is a direct consequence of societal influential factors such as family values; values that reflect the individual’s culture. This analysis will not only utilize evidence from these identity formations, but also in explaining why and how these self-identities were constructed using both theoretical sources and empirical studies as a framework.