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Gender, Gender And Gender Roles

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Remember the 50s in America, how men were the predominant head of the household and women were expected to cook, watch their kids, and clean? This is an excellent example of gender roles, and how they control some aspects of life. Gender roles according to multiple sources are, the way people behave, what they do and say, to express being a female or male. (“Gender Identity”, Blackstone, "Gender Spectrum"). They are forced upon an individual from the day that person is born even in the most trivial of terms of putting boys in blue clothes and girls in pink. Throughout that person’s life from then on, they will face everyday cultural expectations to act according to their sex. Gender roles can often be confused and hurtful, many stores have moved away from assigning products to a specific gender, but not only can gender roles affect behavior, it plays a huge role in transgenderism. Many people confuse the definition of gender and sex. “Gender, on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, and characteristics that people ascribe to different sexes. Sex is a biological concept, determined on the basis of individual 's primary sex characteristics.” (Blackstone) Society gives social cues on the appropriate behavior for each sex. For example, women are to exert more feminine traits such as dependent, emotional, passive, innocent, nurturing, and/ or self-critical. On the other hand, men are to behave more masculine such as independent, non-emotional, aggressive, competitive,

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