Gender Secrecy : Sex And Gender

Society’s high expectations of females guide their everyday actions and decision making whether consciously or subconsciously. In Stephen Hinshaw’s essay “Impossible Expectations” he discusses what he calls the “Triple Bind” where girls are supposed to be good at both typical girl and guy things as well as conform to a specific set of standards created by society. These contradictory expectations shape girls’ lives and drive their decision making from what type of career they will pursue to how they dress. Hinshaw also explained that girls are supposed to fit a cookie cutter image portrayed by the media yet encouraged to break the mold at the same time,

In the article “Parental Influence on Children’s Socialization to Gender Roles” by Susan D. Witt states that parents expose their children at an early age of what it means to be a boy and a girl. Witt argues that parents do play a role in gender stereotypes to their children as early on as infants. Witt explains how parents decorate a child’s room. Witt states that children grow and develop gender stereotypes at home. She explains how parents encourage their children to participate in sex-typed activities, sports, and role play. Witt reveals that both parents contribute to the gender stereotyping but fathers have been found to reinforce gender stereotypes more often that mothers. Witt’s audience is

Gender coding is not a natural or biological characteristic. People are born with different physical and biological characteristics, but make sense of their gender roles through cultural influences. “Stereotypes are amazingly powerful, and we may not realize the degree to which our thoughts, beliefs, and actions are shaped by them” (Silverman, Rader, 2010). Boys and girls are labeled as masculine or feminine, which is considered the “norm” for society. Children are not born masculine or feminine, they learn these roles from parents, peers, media, and even religion. Concepts of gender identity are sometimes placed on children even before their birth, such as with the selection of paint colors for the nursery.” Children begin to form concepts of gender beginning around the age of 2, and most children know if they are a boy or girl by age of 3” (Martin & Ruble, 2004). From an early age, children are encouraged to identify with gender coding. Gender is formed at birth, but self-identification as being male or female is imbedded into their minds by parents and society. A child learns to understand their gender role and their identity by what is taught and expressed to them by others. Yet as a child grows, gender coding can cause cultural confusion, and insecurity issues throughout the course of their life.

Parents of these children are not supporting their decisions of who they desire to be, leaning towards the sex of being more feminine (regarding female) or masculine (regarding male). As young as pre-school, children begin to show their common interests such as; playing with dolls, trucks, dressing up as princesses, building sky scrapers, playing with action figures, etc. This article mentions, depending on what they child plays with or how the child acts shows the risk of gender assessment. For example, this article is trying to say that if a young boy plays with a doll or dresses like a princess he

In many shops, there seems to be an obvious separation between boys and girls items, for example, the birthday cards, books, clothes, and toys. This is shown in a variety of ways the boy's items are mainly the color blue and the books have pictures of either action figures, superheroes or tools. Whereas the girl's items are mainly the color pink. The books show pictures of fairies, princess, and Bratz. The cards also have the theme of the color pink for girls and blue for boys. The girl's cards have a lot of sparkles and pretty pictures whereas the boy's cards are covered in camo kind of illustrations and also have action figures on the covers. The children's clothes are separated into sections where there are labels for the boy's clothes and labels for the girl's clothes. The girl's clothing is all pretty and pink, it is covered in sparkles. Whereas boys clothing has camo patterns, blue colors, and pictures of action figures.

Children learn as early as age two what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl” (Aina & Cameron). This is described as gender identity, a person’s sense of self as male or female. Gender stereotyping emerges hand in hand with the development of gender identity in Early Childhood (Halim). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males and females. When babies are born they are either put in pink or blue, as they grow up they still maintain the same “gender” colors. As young children start to socialize, they are playing with either “girl” toys or “boy” toys. When they get older they

Once a child is born, he or she learns to view the world based on the behaviors of others. The child’s primary caregivers, usually the parents, and others present in the child’s environment, such as siblings, peers, teachers, and even the media, contribute to the development of the child’s perception of himself, those around him, and society overall. This concept is called socialization. “The way we are, behave and think is the final product of socialization” and it is through socialization that we “learn what is appropriate and improper for both genders” (Crespi, 2004). This concept of gender socialization leads to the inescapable

Environmentally, a child’s experiences impact gender identity. Depending on family values or morals, a child could be confused by their gender. When a baby is born, there is much control on colors (if boy or girl) and ideas of the parents on how they would want to raise their daughter or son. For an example, a father would treat his son in a rough or unemotional way, while a girl would be protected and nurtured. Known as traditional roles, a boy doesn’t cry or play with dolls, but he can roll

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of a women begins when the doctor says, ‘It's a girl!’” Women are forced to conform to a set place in society, and the pressure they feel to conform starts when they are born.

Gender stereotypes are common in the United States today, even though many men and women have been working hard to defeat it. The task is made difficult however, when society in general implants the idea of gender roles into the mind of a child. Two authors, Judy Mann of The Difference and Bernard Lefkowitz of Our Guys face the issue of gender roles and stereotypes, and how they affect our lives today.

Sociologists reject the idea that behavioural differences between men and women are biologically determined. Outline the key grounds for this rejection and discuss what this means for a sociological understanding of gender.

Gender reveal parties have become a way to celebrate the arrival of a new child for parents. Guests adorned in pink or blue attire await as the excited parents reveal what the child is going to “be”. Depending on the color inside the cake or balloon, the child’s life is predetermined based on gender normative stereotypes. These will dictate on his or her name, the activities that he or she is allowed to partake in, and the opportunities available to the child. This socialization of gender expression has led to a dominant culture or public of cisnormativity. Warner talks about publics not in general like the concept of “the public”, but they are a multitude of publics that can only be reached through rhetorical texts (). This means that if

No one lives with a specific gender until the age of three. That’s when most children begin to explore their surroundings and learn to categorize themselves as boys or girls. Moreover, the difference in strength between male and female turns into the foundation of gender stereotype. Generation by generation, we inherit this socially constructed rules that society puts on us. With a background like our society, Lois Gould----the author of “The Story of X” examines how individuals would blindly follow the mainstream under the impact of society and how they might force people to confront due to the faith in common values.

In their article, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet describe some of the variances between a boy and a girl and how they are treated which is essentially the idea of being “gendered” is all about. Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet make some incredibly well supported arguments to illustrate that our gender is a very important trait and it’s development is a lifelong process. Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet talk about how adults act towards boys and girls in which they

Gender can sometimes be seen as biological characteristics humans have, when in fact it is the social characteristic ones society deems either masculine or feminine. Sex, on the other hand, is the biological differences in humans, for example, hormones and sex organs. People usually play gender roles in society, otherwise known as gender ideology. Gender ideology is when men and women have certain attitudes regarding their ‘fixed’ roles, responsibilities and rights. Throughout history men and women have been socialized to play these expected roles that have been placed on them due to their sex. In my own personal life I have encountered many instances where I have been socialized in relation to sex and gender.