Gender Is A Fundamental Piece Of Society 's Structure

Society has drilled an image into our minds as people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of genders, a male and a female. Most people come to think that gender is just male or female. Yet it has become more complex then that. Today it is not just that if you have male parts, you are a man, the opposite goes for women. According to the authors Aaron Devor and Deborah Blum. Gender is much more complex then just male and female, it is more socially composed. We are taught to be male and female trough things like media, our parents, and role model figures. These

Devor starts by be explaining how gender identity starts between eighteen months and two years. Children then start to understand which specific group the fall into when it comes to gender. Culture also plays a large role in this because different cultures have different thoughts as to how gender is perceived. Masculine and feminine characteristics are usually believed to be opposites of each other. Masculine attributes consist of being competitive, aggressive, and territorial. On the other hand, females are maternal, caring, and sensitive. Gender identity can also be seen through the way individuals speak, their body posture, and personal goals. Society plays a big role in the definitions of masculinity and femininity since children learn values based on the settings around them.I agree with Devor when it comes to the belief that society shapes how individuals understand gender.Gender role characteristics reflect the conceptions that our society sees

Since the beginning of time, gender has always been divided into two categories, either male or female, with few instances that have stepped in between. As civilization has evolved, it has began to learn that this division is a lie, and that it is disgusting, disgraceful, hurtful and untrue at its rotten core. This is because this “division” has never counted for anything but a label and a set of roles as a stereotype, which was unjustly assigned at birth in a societal attempt to conform each and every unique soul into a shape that they cannot fully fit. There should not exist such standards and expectations that do not account for anything besides what one's body has to say, without asking the mind of the thoughtless vessel known as the body.

Maintaining the sex and gender binaries have been proven to be harmful, yet we still can’t seem to get rid of it in today’s society. The sex and gender binary is harmful because sex and gender isn’t binary, there are more than two option and forcing people to be one or the other can be harmful to their mental health. A person sex is just based on what genitalia they have, and it’s not just “male” or “female”, there are also intersex people who have a mix of both. As a society, we give the assumption that a person’s sex is related to a person’s gender when that is not always the case. Gender is just how a person identifies themselves on the masculine/feminine spectrum. We, as a society, assume that a person whose sex is male automatically has a gender of masculine. While it is common for that to happen, it isn’t always the case and it can be harmful for those who don’t fit those stereotypes. Because of society’s assumption that there is a correlation between sex and gender, it forces us to conform into gender roles. Gender roles are problematic because they force one gender to fit one stereotype, and if they didn’t fit into these stereotypes they would be deemed as outcasts. Men are supposed to be incredibly masculine, and females feminine, but in all cases, a person has a mix of both and not just

Heteronormartive notions of gender create challenges and issues that require a complex process of resolving gender inequalities. In particular, one of the challenges is resolving the inequalities that are reinforced by male and female gender norms. The notion of gender creates a dichotomy in male and female roles. Through socialization processes, we learn to identify specific behaviours as 'masculine' or 'feminine', and boys and girls are taught to perform and display these traits, which become a dominant part of their identities. Western society has constructed gender roles that promote and maintain notions of suitable behaviours and expectations. For instance, males and females are required to act a certain way according to their

Over an extensive period of time, the issue concerning gender has “consistently occupy the media and the public mind.” (Correll 20). It has established beliefs about the roles of men and women as a whole. “A man is expected always to be strong, impervious to pain, and especially to emotional stress, dominant in the role of lord and master; a woman is expected to be docile, submissive, passive, fulfilled in the role of subordinate.” (Fremon 129). It has been concluded for the longest time that women are the inferior gender, biologically, psychologically and socially. For many people, it is normal for women to be gender typed and never realize the prejudices underlying into it. They are judged with

“Gender roles are a set of societal norms dictating the types of behaviors which are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based on their actual or perceived sex or sexuality” (Oxford). Is it a boy or girl? What sport will he play? When will she take dance lessons? Women shouldn’t have jobs! Men should work while women take care of the house! Women belong in the kitchen! Men don’t do household chores! These are just some examples of stereotypes adopted by society that many believe men and women should learn from starting at an early age to help them develop into ideal individuals. When men and women lash out and go against these norms, they often receive a plethora of negative attributes that come with making their own decisions. Many times these individuals are viewed as outcasts, receive negative attention from their peers and in many cases, deal with anxiety and depression at a very young age. This issue is a continuing occurrence year after year and is something that not only occurs here in the United States but all over the world. A question we should constantly be asking ourselves is, what can we do as citizens to help eliminate this idea that gender roles must be followed in order for us to be an accepted member of the society we live in? Rather, we should ask how can one use gender roles as a tool to help guide them in the right direction rather instead of viewing these roles as commandments to follow which inevitably abolishes our

Society is quick to label, quick to decide who people are before they’ve gotten the chance to discover it for themselves. As soon as one is born, they are assigned a gender. “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!”, they don’t make any other balloons or cards. The habit humans have of dividing things into twos applies not only to the world around them, but is at work intrinsically as well. As with many of such partitions, the separation of people into males and females runs very deep. It is ingrained socially, legally, and culturally with ubiquitous reminders that this is what is normal. It is such a constancy that it almost creates the illusion that it is natural. However, this binary construction of gender is an inaccurate representation of reality, possesses restrictive qualities that poison the human experience, and is a contradiction of the quest for human freedom. The gender binary is a cultural accomplishment rather than a natural order, and requires coercion. People are taught their place in the binary as they go through life through such influences as consumer culture. Examples such as toys, magazines, and film all serve to produce gendered identity which complies with the established system, and therefore are culprits which serve to exacerbate the problem.

This article brings to question why humans place such a big emphasis on gender. I wonder if this is a learned behavior or if it is something that we are born with. I always assumed that gender was something that was always such a big deal. As young children gender is given a great deal of importance. We are told to line up according to our gender, our whole wardrobe is decided based on our gender, and our names can be very gender specific. I think that part of the

All humans are born with the idea of which gender they are, but each discovers their gender identity through the relations with who and what they grow up with and how society expects them to act. There is no way that individuals could learn what they believe in and behave as they want through natural influences. Overall, society has a much stronger impact on the way people act exclusively based on gender. Almost everyone in this world is born with some distinctive ability on how to perform about gender, but the way individuals are raised, interact with others and influenced by media is what impacts one's gender identity. This result of society’s permanently set gender roles prevents men and women from becoming the humans they want to be by

We live in a society that focuses on physical appearance and becomes upset when we are unable to place an individual into the binary gender system (“Gould”). For instance, in the reading “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story” a child with no known sex was not accepted because no one besides X’s caregivers knew whether he or she was a boy or girl. They were upset because Baby X did not “obey” the boy-girl rules. Kate Bornstein agrees that regardless of who you think you are, society places you under a two-gender category. Men and women are expected to follow gender roles based on their sex. Who a child is raised by and how they are raised affects their ideas on gender through society and his or her family. In my case, I was raised by my grandmother.

Gender is defined as the social arrangements that are built to meet personal traits of being male or female and society has created roles that reflect a gender to act in a certain way in society. Rape culture is seen as normal behavior in society where genders experience violence in social institutions. Society has arranged roles to males and females that have led females to experience violence in society and is seen as a norm rather than a problem, because males need to show their masculinity to society.

In the article the Social Construction of Gender, Judith Lorber explains that although gender is not a biological fact, it is a concept that is expected by society, and when something unexpected comes around, society tries to push the deviating party into it’s rightful place, through punishment carried out by those empowered by the standard of gender. This punishment is not necessarily literal- it sometimes is as simple as being taught that if a person is assigned female at birth, it is their job to learn tasks that correspond with household upkeep. These consequences, implemented by the beneficiaries of the gender concept, constantly validates the notion that gender is a biological fact.

Before I was born into this hectic society, I was assigned the specific gender of “female” based solely on the genitals I possessed. From then on, I was instructed and socialized by the ones I love and trust how to dress, love, carry myself, and act amongst others solely based off my gender assignment. My family was always trying to put me in cute dresses and put all sorts of bows in my hair. I remember them telling me, “You are going to make a man very happy one day,” or “Just wait till you get married to the man of your dreams.” This type of heterosexual enforcement continued to be encouraged in church and throughout the media by socializing and teaching me to believe that one day I would find one man that I would marry and continue to pass on the cycle of heterosexual socialization to my children. Due to all of this exposure, heterosexuality became natural and thus, normal to me; however, this type of heterosexual socialization and heteronormativity is often unrealistic to those who desire a different relationship or family, causing them to feel excluded by a majority of society. This kind of exclusion has made people realize that this type of socialization is dangerous because it makes those who do not fit into this idealistic society feel trapped. It is also seen as unnecessary due to the immense amount of pressure it creates on everyone to live up to society’s expectations and is simply inconsistent with today’s diverse social and familial formations that people

Society has clearly defined boundaries between what is considered to be male or female. The development of an individual’s gender role is formed by interactions with those in close proximity. Society constantly tells us how we should look, act and live based on gender. Family, friends and the media have a tremendous impact on how these roles are formed and the expected behavior of each gender role.