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Gender Identity : Gender And Masculinity Essay

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Gender plays an enormous role in every society around the world. There are debates about whether gender is defined by strictly biological characteristics or social attributes. Others argue that gender is a spectrum, rather than the dichotomy of male and female. Masculinity and femininity are sets of attributes, roles and behaviors that are associated with men and boys and girls and women, respectively. Both masculinity and femininity have specific traits that are both biologically and socially defined. People are expected to conform to these traits depending on their biological sex. However, there are people who do not relate to either masculine or feminine traits, and do not feel that they are a “man” or a “woman”. This is when the topic of gender identity comes into the discussion. In the past decades, more research and on gender identity have been conducted. Gender identity is significant in how people are viewed and treated in society.
Gender identity can be defined as “a person’s acceptance of the roles and behaviors that society associates with the biological categories of male and female” (Berger 461). This process of formulating an identity usually “begins with the person’s biological sex and leads to a gender role that society considers inappropriate” (Berger 461). All societies differentiate between male and female roles. Gender roles have evolved overtime and vary across different cultures. In the United States, for example, men were supposed to be the

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