Gender Identity As An Axis Of Social Order

Gender is a sociological idea, in which it is not based on biology. While there is some biological differences between the sexes, the “meaning” of being male or female is based on social norms. Like race, these “biological” differences provided a system of enabling inequality between the sexes. History offers many examples of the gender norms over time. Women, for centuries, are few as the homemakers and often viewed as intelligent. Despite living in the twentieth century with greater equality, one does not need to go far to see how society and media influence our perception of gender. Advertisements in various media persuade its audience to buying their products. However, the means of attracting and persuading the audience can have underlying messages. Even in entertainment for young girls these underlying messages are prevalent. One example is the popular film, The Little Mermaid, in which the main protagonist is a young female. The protagonist gave up her identity to satisfy her lover. Even traditional gender roles are at work; the film showed young girls that to be happy and successful one had to find a husband and must relinquished one’s identity (Wood 1994). The generalized perception of male and female are polar opposites. Males are viewed as masculine, strong, authoritative, powerful, and devoid of emotions. Females are viewed as beauty, fragile, nurturing, emotional and sole purpose is to please men. These ideas can lead to sexism, which can have negative effects on

‘‘Sex’ is a biological term; ‘gender’ a psychological and cultural one’ (Oakley 1972, p.158). To further expound on Oakley, ‘sex’ refers to the biological framework a person is born with while ‘gender’, an identity that we acquire as a result of social and cultural influence. Sex is naturally constant throughout an individual’s life whereas gender is a variable. Via gender socialisation, men and women constantly learn to adapt to society’s expectations associated with their biological form as society changes. This very concept clearly elucidates the dichotomy between sex and gender. Therefore, coming from such a perspective, it is true to say that we are born as human beings (males, females or intersex) who formulate socially accepted gender identities as a product of social and cultural implications (Abbott, Wallace & Tyler 2005). Conventionally, societies associate the male and female sexes with their definitions of masculinity and femininity respectively.

The sociology of gender is one of the largest subfields within sociology; sociological gender studies look at the social construction of gender and how gender interacts with other social structures within society (Crossman, 2016). It Is important that one understands the difference between sex and gender to understand the sociology of gender; unlike gender, sex is biologically determined and relates to the reproductive organs a person has. In order to separate gender and sex sociologists use different pronouns; when discussing gender, sociologists use the terms man/woman and when discussing sex sociologists will use the terms male/female (Crossman, 2016). Although most people fall into wither the category of male or female, some people are born with ‘sex organs’ that do not clearly fit into either of the two specific sex categories, these people are known as intersex (Ashley Crossman, 2016). Gender is described as a social classification based on one’s identity and how one presents themselves to the world; this identity relates to the way one behaves and interacts within society. Many sociologists view gender as a learned behaviour and look at gendered identities as being culturally produced which makes gendered identities socially constructed (Crossman,

We “do gender” every day, all the time. A person’s gender identity is something we do – it is a routine and an accomplishment that people put a lot of emphasize into. In “Night to his Day”: The Social Construction of Gender, an excerpt from Paradoxes of Gender written by Judith Lorber, she discusses how society denaturalizes gender and how people do not even notice the way they act because of how socially constructed our Western society is. She shows that society is to blame from depriving people from fulling expressing themselves in the way they see themselves by enforcing the “sameness taboo”. “The process of gendering and its outcome are legitimated by religion, law, and the society’s entire set of value.” (Lorber, 1994) Society’s values have constructed a two-way pathway of masculinity (males) and femininity (females) that have denied people from freedom of expression.

Gender roles influence every characteristic and aspect of our life, from how we feel about ourselves to the degree of our contribution in social life. From a ripe young age, children become exposed to this type of gender bias right away, which can negatively affect and shape their whole outlook on life. Consequently, as these young boys and girls mature both physically and emotionally and move on into adulthood, they are, in essence, shoved into a world that impacts their attitudes and behaviors towards gender roles and stereotypes. These specific attitudes and behaviors first cultivate in the private doors of their parent’s house. Afterwards, these same biases become reinforced by the child’s peers, school experience (education), television viewing, and, of course, advertisements in the realm of print and television media. From the looks of it, it is near impossible, for children to not become subject to some degree of gender bias at an early age. As a child grows and develops, the stereotypes follow them into the next phases of their lives (i.e. adolescence) and then on into adulthood. Not only are these gender stereotypes destroying girls, they are also killing boys. The components of this essay will attempt to illustrate how advertising in print and television helps to perpetuate gender stereotypes in our world. Along with that, one must ask the question of how much harm these negative biases in gender roles truly affects the minds of men, women, and young children.

In the article, “Doing Gender,” West and Zimmerman (1987) argues the concept of gender as a social activity or interaction, as opposed to an intrinsic individual value. These activities and interactions are socially constructed norms of male and female, masculinity and femininity. To further explain gender, the authors define 3 important concepts: sex, sex category, and gender. Sex refers to biological factors (e.g., hormones, genitalia), sex category refers to visual markers (e.g., dress, hairstyle), and gender is the interactive piece. The authors state that doing gender is always certain and ongoing as it is embedded in everyday life (e.g., the way we dress, walk, sit, and communicate) and it is the individual who holds sole responsibility

Being born a man or a woman in todays society is more than a simple biological fact. It’s a biological fact that harvests social consequences. From delivery, gender is assigned to males and females in life binding forms by way of blue or pink. Gender is the social construct of what we know biologically as male or female, but masculinity and femininity is how the two roles are played out in society. Our role as feminine and masculine are institutionalized through social interaction and is perpetuated through our social institutions. Forms of social institution include hospitals, family, churches and schools. These institutions tie gender roles to individual identity from infancy to death.

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

Frequently, children are barraged with figurines portraying gender stereotypes for girls and boys. Walking in the aisle at the store I saw a Popeye the Sailorman collector’s item. I realized that just like the toys in a retail store, television shows also emphasize the male as a protagonist character. He is always the brute strong hero who has to save the frail and helpless woman. Children take these messages depicted by these creators and apply it to their reality. With these interpretation they get an idea of what the expectations and behavior of their specific gender roles should be. However, the social construction of gender does not just stop when you are a child. This shows the power that advertisement and the media have on social interaction and construction. By observing both the formal and informal messages and examples given by our everyday society, gender stereotyping it becomes a

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.

Throughout today’s society, almost every aspect of someone’s day is based whether or not he or she fits into the “norm” that has been created. Specifically, masculine and feminine norms have a great impact that force people to question “am I a true man or woman?” After doing substantial research on the basis of masculine or feminine norms, it is clear that society focuses on the males being the dominant figures. If males are not fulfilling the masculine role, and females aren’t playing their role, then their gender identity becomes foggy, according to their personal judgment, as well as society’s.

Society has a tremendous effect on the way people see themselves as well as the way they see others. When it comes to sex and gender, these two words are used interchangeably, even though they are different. Sex is what a person is biologically born with, whereas Gender is how a person is seen in society, their roles, and their accepted behavior. Gender identity is a person’s inner sense of being male or female and a display of that. Jayme Poisson writes an article, “Parents Keep Child’s Gender Secret,” on two parents that decided to raise their newborn child genderless. The couple also allows their other children to display whichever gender they choose, not conforming with “how they’re expected to look and act based on their sex,” (Poisson 366). Kwame Anthony Appiah describes the idea of being able to respect the traditions of others without having to agree with or understand them in “Making Conversation”. Women and men are, not surprisingly, treated very differently in society. In “Human Dignity” Francis Fukuyama writes about equality and the essence that humans possess. Society creates a stigma for men who act feminine and women who act masculine, creating a negative impact on ones gender identity, specifically on the description of gender roles, and how certain products are marketed.

Gender is one of the greatest factors that can determine how we define ourselves and others. Although gender is determined at birth for many, it does not influence one 's identity of self until a later age. How society views the roles of each gender influences how a person views themselves. As the view changes, so does one’s identity. In the past, the roles of men and women were defined and separated. Men were expected to provide income for the family, while women were expected to take care of the home. Doing things outside these roles caused negative reactions from the community and were frowned upon. Today, there is still a difference between men and women, but a lot of the roles have become acceptable for both.

“Gender” is a social construct that is developed solely by our society and the early developmental stages of an adolescent’s life. By introducing youths to the roles, behaviors, expectations and activities that correspond with males or females we give a clear guideline of what is accepted from a young male or female. An individual however can identify his or her gender based on their own system of beliefs without corresponding to their natural biological sex. Our lives are shaped by our true biological identities but the influence of the world and society is enough to define what a male and what a female truly is to an individual.

In the words of Butler in Gender Trouble, gender is “the repeated stylized of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly regulatory frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of substance.” In other words, gender identity is not something that is innate and internal but formed through continuous actions in accordance with social and cultural norms that reifies the ideas of “masculinity” and “femininity” as correlated with biological sex and making such binary concepts