Gender Identity And Its Effect On The Way People

Gender is a complex socially constructed idea. Often people interchangeably use gender to refer to someone’s sex. This is not the case. Sex is the biological characteristics that makes someone a male, female or intersex. Gender however is made up of expression, identity, and sexual orientation. Gender identity is how one views themselves such as a woman, man or transgender. Gender identity does not correspond to the sex of that person. Gender expression is how one expresses their gender identity. This could be through a masculine , feminine or androgynous expression. In Western societies, although there has been a push for change in our gender system, the gender system as been a binary system. This binary system only believes that there are

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

Throughout many studies, researchers have said that gender develops from families, which is part of the social construction in children. According to Coltrane and Adams, Gender is defined as “To what it means to be a man or a woman in a specific time and place” (Coltrane and Adams). People in this world think that gender is automatically part of biological sex, but according to Coltrane and Adams, it is not a direct result of biological sex. The term is defined as “to refer relatively distinct biological differences between male and females such as genitals, hormones, and chromosomes” (Coltrane and Adams). For gender it is also social and it refers to how a person thinks that someone should look, act and feel (Coltrane and Adams). On the daily life, people will usually assume that a person “is” the gender that corresponds to his or her sex: females are feminine and males are masculine (Coltrane and Adams). In addition, gender also describes how the typical man and woman are supposed to present themselves. A man presenting himself as masculine and a woman presenting herself as feminine in particular cultures (Coltrane and Adams). In other words how women should act and how men should act.

In today’s society people look past who someone really is. They only see what is on the exterior and not what is in the inside. What people do not know is how people who have trouble identifying their gender struggle through society. People who have this struggle in society struggle because people are not accepting of people who are different from the normal stereotypes of male and female. Therefore, society’s view on gender identity in the United States are causing people to be socially impaired, physical hardships, and poor mental health problems.

There are many things in this day and age that could be defined as cultural landmarks - pivotal views and information around which our society revolves. While each of these can provide interesting and enlightening insights into our culture and social behavior, this article will be focusing on one I personally find exceedingly upsetting: gender identity. Since birth, we have been taught a certain kind of segregation - man and woman, mother and father, boys and girls - taught it as if it were fact, as if it were as concrete as a law of physics; more so, even. We are taught that gender and sex are synonyms, interchangeable, taught even less of gender divergence than we are of sexual orientation. However, recently in the media more and more prominent figures have come out as genderqueer, pushing the topic into general debate and the eyes of the public.

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits

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.

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 is set so thoroughly in our actions, beliefs, and desires, so that to us it appears to be completely natural (Eckert and McConnell, year/pg. unknown). A major part of gender identity is understanding the difference between sex and gender. Sociology shows and explains the major differences between sex and gender (Tischler, 2011, p. 247). While sex refers to the physical and biological differences between men and women, gender refers to the attributes of masculinity and femininity that are based on biological distinctions (Tischler, 2011, p. 247).

Sociologists assert that an individual’s sex can have significant disparity to their gender. Sex is defined by biological means including an individual’s anatomy that has been assigned by natural causes. Contrastingly gender has interdependent elements that put an individual in specific socially constructed categories. (McLennan, McManus, & Spoonley , 2010). From the outset these categories are noticeable. An example can be found in the way in which the actions of newborns are analysed and how these perceptions can completely differ based on the infant’s gender assignment. For example, the crying of a biologically male child is viewed as an indicator of masculinity and power while contrastingly that of a female is perceived as weakness. These types of gender socialisations set the foundation for the discrepancies between the ideologies formed for men and woman. The consequences of gender are not only significant to human development but also abundant in society, seeing gender play a role in all aspects of life. The profusion of influence exerted by gender roles claims principal accountability for continual inequalities in our society (Massey University,

Gender is imprinted in a person’s identity. A person’s identity is closely connected to the social institutions he or she includes himself in. These social institutions have influence over the lives of individuals in various aspects. One social institution an individual imparts oneself in is religion. Religious institutions use scriptures as the primary basis for life such as the Holy Bible for the Catholics and the Quran for the Muslims. Of the data given, some Christians and Muslim non-heterosexuals experience social exclusion because of some spiritual texts (Yip, 2005). According to a survey by Pew Research Center 's Social & Demographic Trends done in 2013 on the religious affiliations, 48% of the LGBT Americans did not have one. The executive director of the Gay Christian Network, Justin Lee said, "[the study] reflects a lot of my own experience in the LGBT community. Many LGBT people have felt a lack of understanding and love from religious groups-Christians in particular-and, as a result, they often walk away from their childhood faith and may even become very hostile to religion.” That statement is just one of the many sentiments non-heterosexuals experience in today’s contemporary society. The following paragraphs will discuss how Christian and Muslims non-heterosexuals critique the traditional hermeneutics and the credibility of institutional interpretive authority of Judeo-Christian Scriptures and Islam’s Holy Book – the Quran. There are two approaches namely, the

Throughout today 's society, almost every aspect of someone’s actions is based on whether or not he or she fits into the social norms that have been created. It is now clear that males are the dominant figures in our society. Norms in society do not just come randomly to one 's life; they start since a child is born. When a child is born the first question asked by the parents, family, and friends is the gender of the child, whether it is a girl or a boy. In contrast, the terms sex and gender have always been interdependent terms but have distinct meanings. Sex is male and female while gender is masculine and feminine. In essence, sex refers to the biological differences and hormonal profiles. For example females have boobs and males do not. In the other hand, gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture present as masculine or feminine. For example, the color blue is for boys and pink is for girls which not has always been the case. The article from the publication Earnshaw 's Infants ' Department “The generally accepted rule is pink for the boys, and blue for the girls. The reason is that pink, being a more decided and stronger color, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl”. Jayme Poisson, a journalist, in her article Parents Keep Child 's Gender Secret she describes a family who has decided to raise their child named Storm without revealing their gender, in order for Storm to feel free to

There seems to be an underlying controversy over the psychological effects of raising a gender nonconforming child in today’s society. The idea, in simplistic terms, is the raising of a child with the understanding that they will discover themselves without the constraints of gender. A major constraint in the understanding of genderless is the definition of ‘gender’ and ‘sex,’ both terms of which have been merged into a similar definition throughout time; however, the term genderless however does not fall under the restrictions of gender-identifying pronouns. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of raising a genderless child in today’s society; which includes an insight into the life of a family who has decided to raise a genderless child, sex verses gender, and the discussion of Canada’s C-16 bill.

While identity and identification are just word variations of one another, they actually convey different but powerful meanings and outlooks. This theme of identity versus identification is prevalent in the South Asian community and, therefore, prominent amongst the readings throughout this course. Identity is the embodiment of one’s beliefs and values that shapes who they are and how they express themselves. In contrast, identification refers to the manner in which one identifies oneself; it is subjective, as it is not necessarily an authentic portrayal of one’s identity because white communities too often posit the model minority label upon colored, ethnic communities. The difference between these two terms are both implied or stated throughout Sayantani Das Dasgupta and Shamita Dasgupta’s unique perspective writings on South Asian feminist issues, Kumarini Silva’s research on the label of “brown”, Vijay Prashad’s chapters about solidarity and religion in The Karma of Brown Folk, and Marina Budhos’s coming-of-age novel Watched about a Bangladeshi teen whose mistakes led him to spy on his own Muslim community after the 9/11 incident.

Chapter 1: The quote I thought was important was "The symbols people use to describe the sexes (pink or blue, pretty or strong), and the way they interact with others the basis of their sex matters" (pg. 5). The reason why I thought it was important was it is so true how people tend to dress their new born babies in the color that designated to the sex of their babies. But now people are not always dressing their kids in pink or blue. Now people are you gender natural colors.