Gender Identity And Gender Oppression

​​Gender is defined as whatever behaviors and attitudes a group considers proper for its males and females. Unlike sex, gender is something that we learn from the day we are born. “Young children begin to acquire gender role stereotypes at about the same time they develop gender identity and by the age of 3 or 4 most children” (Amanda Youmans). Peers, community, media, religion and our upbringing all play a role in the understanding of our culture and what is considered acceptable for males and females. When the sex of a child is revealed, they are automatically placed into a gender specific role with certain expectations. There are things in this world such as colors, toys, media depiction and taught behaviors that play into these gender roles.

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

In this critique, Devor effectively shows and informs the reader of the imbalance of gender identification and the unfairness between masculinity and femininity.

In addition to socioeconomic status, my gender identity also plays a huge role in who I am. I identify myself as a female. To me, that means I can wear a wide variety of clothing: skirts, dresses, blouses, pants, short shorts, etc. I also wear makeup, and enjoy putting it on. I have always been told, “You don’t need to wear makeup! You look beautiful without it!”. Let me set the record straight, I KNOW. I know that I am beautiful, I am secure enough with myself to know that. I chose to wear makeup sometimes because it’s fun. I like to paint my eyes different colors; I like to put on crazy shades of lipstick.

In this way, at its core, the problem at hand is one of power. Because she is different, she is a threat to their own identities and own position within the system of power. As a result, Jess’s peers must take her identity away from her. By creating a guessing game out of her gender gender [“a group of girls squealed as I passed, ‘Is it animal, mineral, or vegetable?” (24)], or letting her know Jess “[isn’t] a girl’s name” (25), her classmates deprive her of the option to define her own identity. As she and her peers “mature”, so does the caliber of harassment. When she’s young enough to describe the sky as “crayon blue” (17) the bullying manifests as tying her up and stripping her to “see how [she] tinkles” (18) and once she’s in high school, it progresses even further to the rape. The dissonance of needing to categorize her while at the same time being unable to do so is perhaps so conflicting they have nowhere to go but violence.

The book is split into two parts, one dealing with the character George, while the other dealing with Francesco, but, at the same time, dealing with both. George is a teenage girl grieving over the loss of her mother, and through Francescos paintings, remembers her and connects with her. Francesco del Cossa is a 13th century Italian painter, who through George, is revived and follows George through her loss. Both stories discuss the ambiguity of gender. Francesco is born a female, but assumes the identity of a male to sell her artwork and live as a painter. Whether or not Francesco identifies as male is never explicitly discussed, however, this is the exact point the author is trying to make. This book is full of questions that are never answered. Francesco’s gender is never explicitly stated because she embodies the idea of “both”. George’s name is also used to promote gender ambiguity as the name is traditionally a male name. The disembodied Francesco believes that George is indeed male. For both Francesco and George, gender is something that is not set in stone. This book is a fantastic example of queer representation in media. We as a society need more books, TV, movies, music and other forms of media to include honest stories of queer people. It is our media that influences public opinion. As we get more visibility, we will begin to be more accepting of those who fall outside of the gender binary. The article “Trans Tipping Point” that was mentioned earlier discusses how influential Orange is the New Black has been in creating visibility for trans people. We need to be seen to be heard. People will stop denying our existence when we are seen existing everywhere. It will allow children to be exposed to trans people earlier in life, helping those who are struggling with their gender to know that this is not “weird”, but acceptable. Queer representation is not wanted, but necessary. To everyone who doesn’t fit the

The stories of my respondent and I both demonstrate the importance of gender socialization processes to the formation of gender identity. Emphasis on conformity to gender norms is strong around peers at school. Students that are different or unpopular are sometimes repudiated by peers for their deviation from the criteria for popularity and “appropriate” masculinity or femininity. The views of gender my respondent and I developed were directly related to our inability to live up to this criteria. For the project, I interviewed twenty-three-year-old Archie Griffin, who identifies as a man. My respondent and I share similar racial and ethnic backgrounds. We both grew up in Walla Walla and attended the same schools. Our

Set with the task of interviewing three people about their life experiences and perceptions in hopes of gleaming a bit of insight into gender identity, I had several people say to me that gender was not an issue in their life, and I should just find someone else. Most people never think about their gender or how they express it, or they think that gender and sex are the synonyms ( American Psychiatric Association, 2013). That is, until confronted with a significantly different culturally expressed gender role, or unless your gender identity is not accepted as normal. Therefore the three individuals I ended up choosing Hector, Amy and Leta, are somewhat diverse but also similar in many ways in which one should be able to appreciate but the

By outlining the social and racial inflicted prejudice which consumed British ideology, there is a clear identity crisis for the black female characters in The Final Passage, Small Island and Second-Class Citizen. The inexplicable cultural ties to the colonial country indicate an erasable diasporic history which often surfaces within the relationships and liminal spaces which the Black female characters encounter in the mother country. As a result, we can see the character of Leila in severe turmoil due to her hybrid identity and the racial discrimination inflicted upon her. Thus, racial identity is crucial in mapping, re-negotiating and constructing the female diaspora throughout the texts. The positioning of Black women in post-war Britain

From the list I made about the characteristics of genders, what surprised me while, writing out the list the most was that I could think of more characteristic of the male but not from my own gender-woman. Stereotypes continue because everyone judge on each other whether it’s their personality traits, domestic behaviors, occupations or physical appearance. Not only they judge on each other, but stereotypes are all around us. Regardless of these stereotypes, there are ways to challenge these types of stereotypes to help everybody whether it’s their gender or any type of gender identity to help them feel wanted into the society and equal like everybody else from our society. Some of the things that could help these people are to speak up with

In light of performativity, political transformation via hegemonic cultural practices continues to advocate for gender parody. Overall, the recent exploration of alterity ethics complements performativity politics by exploiting the subversive potential of gender identity as well as female identity. For the oppressed individuals, power should be subverted via political strategy guided by the consequences and punishment with the objective of maximizing the good in the society. In other words, performativity politics described by the recent works of Butler takes the form of action consequentialism. Still, Butler’s politics is reversed by the ethics without coming to a satisfactory position.

Our lives and gender identity are shaped from the moment we are born. Culture, social, and environmental forces influence people’s biological identity. Discovering what it means to be male or female begins very early in people’s life. Most of the time people behavior or attitudes are influence by the gender role expectations by particular culture.

Gender appears to be a fundamental category taken place in our identity and has emphasized to us at an early age. Going to Wal-Mart and Target we discovered that tons of our preferences are made for us before we are even born. As an infant, it seems that boys prefer blue and girls prefer pink. Because of our gender ideology and socialization, it is easy to differentiate which clothes/toys are for boys and which are for the girls.

Gender identity is defined typically as one’s concept of oneself as male or female. In our modern society, however, there are many people who are outside of the gender binary. One’s gender identity may not match their assigned birth gender, as shown with transgender people. Another example of a group existing outside of the gender binary are intersex people, who represent seventeen out of every thousand. Despite the diversity in gender identities, most cultures revolve around a exact male and female binary with no exceptions. This socially constructed gender binarism can be potentially dangerous for gender nonconforming people. They could face discrimination, violence, harassment, and marginalization for no other reason except for being themselves.

The issue of gender identification is a pressing topic that almost everyone has input on, some more aggressively than others. We find ourselves in a place where we have to decide to classify people as what they say they are or what the government says they are. In a time such as this, we strive to be as progressive as possible, but it is harder and harder to move forward when the chains of the past hold us back, social injust is running rampant due to the lack of laws that would protect genderqueer individuals from workplace discrimination. “As the national debate escalates over accommodations for transgender people, the new figure, though still just 0.6 percent of the adult population” (Hoffman). Genderqueer individuals are still a minority that needs legal protection, which is why it is as important as ever to create a law that would add gender identity to anti-discrimination laws as well as more genders on legal documents to promote individuality and personality.