Gender Norm Analysis

For many years, society’s view of gender was a simple matter of assigning the appropriate roles for both men and women. In this way, they are defined in an important way based on their gender. However, many studies over the last decade have altered society’s view by showing how gender is a cultural invention. These studies have also demonstrated how men and women are shaped by the culture and environment they’re born into and that what is expected of them may differ from what we deem to be appropriate in our culture. In today’s world, we still are dealing with the same problems that we were hundreds of years ago. These problems being equal rights between men and women, along with breaking away from societal norms revolving around what is expected

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

Ingrained thoroughly into society is the notion of a binary gender system. In this system, men are supposed to inhabit the ideals of masculinity such as strength, sexual prowess, and monetary security, while women do the same for femininity, which includes being gentle, submissive, and emotional. Such a system maintains a status quo that every individual is pressured into following. As deep-rooted in all societal structures and institutions as this is, there are means of undoing gender. One such way is through embracing that gender, rather than being static, can be subject to change throughout a person’s life. Gender fluidity can be expressed in sexual, physical, and/or emotional ways, and it works to undo normative notions of gender in the binary system by allowing people the chance to truly be themselves.

One of the issues that exist in our society are gender stereotypes, which are crude and unacceptable. We should not be led by gender-based expectations that defined how a man and woman should dress, act, speak, and behave. Everyone should be entitled to who they want to become and how they want to present themselves to the world. Although times are changing in our society, there are some people who still believe in their traditional customs of what a man and woman gender roles should be. It would be frustrating that someone tells me that I can’t be a doctor or pilot because I’m a woman and that my purpose in life is to be a housewife.

The gender binary of Western culture dichotomizes disgendered females and males, categorizing women and men as opposing beings and excluding all other people. Former professor of Gender Studies Walter Lee Williams argues that gender binarism “ignores the great diversity of human

In conclusion, this essay has considered both the problematic and the necessary of experience in terms of social research by discussing women’s experience. At first, the generalized gender binary norm constructs the difference between men and women as a common sense. Consequently, women are marginalized as the ‘outsider-within’ in relation with men because of the widely accepted gender notion. Thus, the experience of being dominated provides women a privilege insight, as women are not benefit from their social situation. Also, the shared subordination experiences are a foundation of the unified community and the common identity of women, which constitutes women’s identification and gives rise to feminism standpoint. Moreover, women’s social

An individual’s biological sex or gender they may identify with should not be claims to stereotype women and/or men into traditional roles. To say a women should be more domesticated (cook, clean, care taker, sensitive and if working roles: nurses), is the same notion to stereotype but nationality or race. In the article Doing Gender West and Zimmerman brings a few points on how gender roles and the display of gender focus more on

Value 3: In my essay “Abiding by Gender Expectations” I show I can write for a specific purpose and audience. The purpose of my essay is to reflect on what gender expectation I would like to get rid of in the context of two texts: “We should all be feminists” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and “Who Is a Feminist Now?” by Marissa Meltzer. My thesis is, “If I could eliminate one gender expectation it would be that women are expected to dress lady like but, I want to be able to dress the way I want.” I support my thesis on page two the second paragraph where I write, “When women are expected to dress “lady like”, we must have a professional but approachable as well as a modest but sexy attire.

November 24, 1922 12pm.: Ever since I cut my hair I’ve never felt so free. I refuse to wear the corsets that I have been obligated to use since childhood. You cannot believe how relived I am to not have to wear those tight close fitting undergarments. So instead I have started wearing loose dresses that I feel more comfortable in. My mother always told me that men liked women with a slim waist and emphasized breast and with my new look no man will want to marry me. Of course she is livid. Not only at the fact that I cut the “beautiful long cascade of never ending long dark hair” as she says, but mostly because I’m rebelling against society’s norm. I’ve decided that it is time to take a stand for my rights and fight for my independence. I refuse to comply too these social norms. The submissive woman, restricted from freedom due to her traditional modest, accustomed, womanly gender roles. I will not be that woman. I will be the change. I’ve seen my mother, grandmother do it for years and I’ve had it. We have been repressed, and made slaves of the household generating a perspective that all we have to offer is pleasing our men and doing chores. But these social conventions will finally come to an end. Thanks too many women who have decided to be the change for today’s society. The Voting right for women has already commenced. And I can’t find the words to describe how incredibly joyful I am that now we have the right to vote. As of now we have a whole new sector of power and

Gender policing is defined as “the imposition or enforcement of normative gender expressions on an individual who is perceived as not adequately performing, through appearance or behavior, the sex that was assigned to them at birth”. Most of the time, gender policing only enforces binary gender (male or female), and thus it encourages the idea that there are only two acceptable genders as well. This all culminates to create gender norms that individuals in society feel pressured to mold themselves to fit. Although society does create gender norms, people within said society actively perpetuate the system by nudging individuals into the restricting (and limited number of) categories they seem to belong in.

The passing of gender norms has real consequences and that includes the sense of subjectivity of people but that does not make people’s subjectivity less constructed. Butler (2002) explained that, “We may believe that our subjectivity is the source of our actions but our sense of independence, self-willed subjectivity is really a retroactive construction that comes about only through the enactment of social conventions.”

Since the dominant gender in Western societies are men, femininity is often belittled due to established social conditions, and thus presents another issue for those looking to identify as a woman. Femininity, defined by cultural expectations, describes a female who is emotional, cooperative, “feminine-nurturing, supportive and passive” (Lecture, week 12). Although not all of these stereotypes are bad, they are not definitive solely for females, but most males as well. Kimmel (2000:274) explains that the, “Masculine identity is born in the renunciation of the feminine, not in the direct affirmation of the masculine...” This promotes the idea that women continue to be placed lower on the social ladder underneath men because of how they posses

You would think over the years of fighting over gender roles and gender inequality it would end and get better, but in today’s societies it seems like history is repeating itself and will always continue to be a major part in our life. Gender roles is being a social expectation that dictate how each gender is to speak, think, act and engage with each other. It also manages to control what people can and cannot do by describing things like jobs, entertainment and items as either masculine or feminine. Kevin D. Henson discusses the theory of Hegemonic masculinity which was mention in the course the text. In which it was defined as the proposed practices that promote the dominant social position of men and the subordinate social position of women

Imagine a world where a man liking the colour pink, listening to Taylor Swift's music, and showing affection towards his friends isn't considered feminine. Ingrained gender roles need to be done away with, starting with children. We can’t continue to teach children that a girl must be complacent and soft-spoken, whereas boys must be strong and dominating in order to "be a man". It is important to acknowledge that as long as women aren't free, men won't be either.

The United States is constantly facing inequality issues in gender, race, education and social class. Overall, inequality has increased substantially, with the overall level approaching the Great Depression. (Inequality). Any person with less than a college degree has a significant lower median wage than someone that has a college degree. Additionally, a female does not have as high of a wage as a male worker has. Unfortunately, in society today, these inequality problems have grown worse and worse because the use of technology. Technology is becoming more involved in a person’s life everyday. Current increased use of technology has led to more inequality among society.