Gender Reflection

In order to better comprehend the issues in which I will be examining, it is important to have an understanding of the difference between sex and gender, the role and definition of a 'patriarchal society',

Society has conditioned us to believe categorizing genders into “gender boxes” is the norm. We have all heard the classic trite sayings, “Men are the head of the house” or “Women should always cook dinner for their families.” Author, Aaron Devor tackle issues like male and female stereotypes in her article, “Gender Roles Behaviors and Attitudes”; and discusses in depth how gender roles and behaviors are not “natural” and more on the lines of “cultural constructs.” Qualities as such are also identified in Deborah Blum’s article, “The Gender Blur” which reinforces the idea that humans are not born with the stereotypical idea of masculinity and femininity but taught. By highlighting how society has a substantial impact on gender identify, Devor

The topic of gender has been of great debate for quite some time. Talks of social constructs used to segregate genders based on the concepts such as race, biology, and tradition and have people conform and believe in these ideas of gender. The very idea has shaped what society considers gender and gender roles, “the cultural expectations imposed on men and women to behave in ways deemed appropriate for their gender” (Ciccarelli, White). These beliefs control the perception of oneself and others and often these expectations are branded with stereotypes. Gender roles uphold sexist, misogynistic, and racist viewpoints that withhold individuality and so forth should be dismantled to have true gender equality and acceptance.

Sexism is a form of discrimination that harms both males and females. Sexism is not only practiced in culture but it is reinforced in schools through hidden curriculum. In order for the this issue to be eradicated you need to make people aware that gender discrimination still exist in todays society. This essay will discuss the issue of sexism. Sexism is a human rights concern as it violates rights of women by not being treated equally and violates the right to freedom of expression for men. Gender role stereotypes are socially constructed by society following the view of functionalism, conflict theory and symbolic interaction. There are two types of sexism benevolent sexism and hostile sexism that affects both genders. Sexism impacts negatively on education in regards to girls, causing girls to feel uncomfortable, unwelcomed and scared and leads to them dropping out of school. Examples provided discusses some peoples experiences of being victims of sexism. To address the issue of concern the Department of Education must provide workshops and

On the other hand, the last two years of school have changed my attitude toward gender and sexuality, gave me a profound understanding of feminism and sex, and prepared me to be a responsible woman. Since I had been going through a hard time when I was embracing ambiguous forms of deportment to be attractive but not too sexual, I decided to find answers in the books. I took many classes related to gender, such as Feminist Studies: Sex, Love, Romance. I learned how women were described as a weak group in terms of body, intelligence, and psychology, how these weaknesses became the excuses to legitimately exclude women from political life and made them be erroneously and slanderously classified as disabled people, and how gender was the excuse for

Gender identity is an extremely relevant topic today. Many people have their own ideas on what is right and what is wrong for each gender to act, and these people are very vocal and opinionated about their ideas. One recent controversial story about gender identity was when a couple refused to tell anybody whether their child named Storm was a boy or a girl. Their oldest child, Jazz, who was originally born male, “always gravitated to dresses, the colour pink and opted for long hair often fixed into braids” (Poisson, 2013). Jazz now asks to be called “she”, and her experiences with gender identity are what inspired her parents to raise Storm as a gender neutral child. People were so upset over this decision that it sparked

I will be explaining the following; Queer Theory, Radical feminism, sex=gender, biology is not destiny, youth non conformity, hegemonic masculinity, transgender and gender based harassment. I have used these six concepts because they highlight how sexuality and gender are constructed by society. This construction causes a heterosexual norm, which some people do not identify under. I have focused on Queer Theory because it depicts what is considered ‘normal’ regarding gender and sexuality. I also chose Radical theory to show how the construction of gender and sexuality can have a negative effect on women.

In my home life growing up, I didn’t learn much about sex or gender outside of the standard binary functions perpetuated by my cultural/ethnic background. It wasn’t until I took sexual education classes in school that I learned what sex was in terms of a more negative view of it (i.e. sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, etc.). And really learning about gender, as in gender as a spectrum of identity rather than predetermined by biological characteristics, was another matter entirely. I didn’t learn about gender from either my family nor my school, it was through social media that I was taught the spectrum of gender and sexual identities. About five years ago when I first moved to Washington from Denver, I was starting my senior year of high school while also attending college courses through Running Start; because of this I didn’t really have any friends for the first few years I lived in the pacific northwest.

Though all of the identities that have been discussed in this seminar are of importance, the three identities I find important to discuss are transsexual, intersex and sex. Our first few readings covered these specific identities right away. Within The Gender Book, Transsexual was described as an individual whose gender identity exists primarily in contradiction to the sex that is assigned at birth (p. 36). Though according to the American Psychological Association (2014), Transgender is described as an umbrella term, which covers a person’s gender expression, identity and behavior that may not necessarily match with the sex that individual was assigned at birth. Though both are informative readings, I believe these authors were set out to

Throughout the beginning of the course students have obtained a wide variety of new vocabulary, including many concepts and theories. Within this paper I will be discussing the following: gender, transgender, transsexual, sexism, four axioms of masculinity, and gender based harassment. I have focused on the following six terms because they all focus on sexuality and gender and how they differ throughout the expression and biology of oneself. All of these terms relate to the freedom of choice and allowing people to be their authentic self while also including some limitations that people have put on them for not conforming to heterosexual norms. I also have focused on the following two feminist theories: Queer Theory and Radical Theory. Both these theories helped to pull all six of my concepts together to be analyzed while also dividing them by allowing people to be themselves both biologically and by expression but also tying in the negativity that these people face every day for choosing to live their lives how they want.

This paper will explore gender roles and how they have been transformed and at times redefined. Many women wanted change and greater roles in society which lead to a movement that eventually questioned and blurred the lines between who the head of the household is and traditional gender roles. This paper will explore what is feminism, what exactly is gender and sex, is gender important, is the role of the male and female really important in today’s society and finally, why must man be men and women be woman?

Seeing the riots and protests on the news can help people to put life in perspective, and with there being more and more issues with genders today it makes people wonder why. With there being so many genders that people identify with in this, the 21st century, it can get to be confusing and difficult for some people to follow and understand this ‘why’ behind people’s choices. Changes have been made within communities all around the country; eventually, other groups join into the changes. Some example of these being businesses, colleges, and other organisations. Though there are many people who aren’t involved with any sort of issue having to do with a person’s gender identity, those who are impacted by these decisions go through many different situations. A parent’s decisions while raising their child(ren) have a great impact on what the child identifies themselves as later on in life and the way that they express themselves in public. There being an increased amount of tension around the matter will more than likely continue growing as the publicity on the issue continues.

The concept of gender has been something debated by many intellectuals across centuries. Gender roles in particular, are hotly debated and are ever present in today’s society, thanks to the rise of feminism and the post-modern secularised structure of the 21st century. Whilst it’s a very relevant question today, the question also carries huge importance through the years, perhaps even as far back as the 1600s with the first publication of Genesis, through to the 20th century with works such as Doctor Faustus.

Since the dawn of time, the male sex has been dominating over the female sex. As a result, society rewards them with a broader spectrum of opportunities. There are certain expectations and privileges that society holds and allots for each sex; with the males often “reaping the benefits” of these dispensations. In the book Sex and Gender by Hillary M. Lips, she addresses the constraints that society places on each sex through gender expectations and suggests that as a result of these limited cultural perceptions men are exposed to more openings: “change from male to female would involve a restriction of activities and horizons, whereas change in the opposite direction would involve a widening of possibilities” (Lips 402). After analyzing the implications of gender presumptions in class, I agree with Hillary’s statement. As a result of the guidelines that society places on gender through the feminist theory of Patriarchal dividend and stereotypical language, outlined by Laurel Richardson, there is often a divide in opportunity between genders. Lois Gould’s X: A Fabulous Child’s Story and Robert L. Allen and Paul Kivel’s Men Changing Men further supports Lips’ argument as it challenges the idea of typical gender roles by showing how these expectations impact an individual’s life. There are many attributes that contribute to an individual’s access to opportunities as Kimberelé Crenshaw highlights through her theory of Intersectionality and these attributes combined with gender

As a young girl, I was often called a tomboy for wanting to be adventurous and strong. I find myself often frustrated with the differences between male and female. I felt that sometimes I would have preferred to have been a male, though this wasn’t an issue of my gender identification being misaligned with my biological sex. I felt comfortable being female in both senses. What I wasn’t comfortable with is how gender was, and still mostly is interpreted as two sides with no in between. I wasn’t comfortable with how feminine qualities were equated to weakness and masculine qualities were strong. The expectation that gender roles have created in us as a society makes me feel estranged in my body. My issue doesn’t lie with gender’s existence itself; but rather how people interpret and apply it. The question is how does the differences in the way that people define gender lead them to misinterpret and apply gender incorrectly.