Gender Stereotypes: Gender Roles, And Gender Identity Development

Gender can be a hot topic within cultures; a male or female does not want to be told that they can or cannot do something based on their gender. Every culture views gender roles differently, and some cultures are more serious about gender than others. Many times, male and female actions are determined by what a person has been taught is right; furthermore, gender roles are a set of societal norms that are the behaviors that a sex is generally known to do and what is considered accepted of a person based on their sex; gender roles can also known as stereotypes (“Gender”). Many times men are associated with masculine and logical ways in the United States, whereas women are associated with nurturing and passive ways.

Gender roles are defined as the “widely accepted societal expectations about how males and females should behave” (Rathus, 2010).

Whether it is on TV or movie screens, the faces of white actors and actresses have always been prevalent in the media. For generations, many teenagers have been exposed to countless movies with white people in major roles. Moreover, the few roles that are cast to minorities feature the characters in their stereotypical personas (Bonilla-Silva 179). Even in advertising, Asians are placed in business settings, upholding the hard-working Asian stereotype (Taylor and Stern 50). As Taylor and Stern mention in their paper, the “model minority” has made the issue of stereotyping seem less important for Asians. The majority of these actors that are examined, regardless of race, are typically middle-age and well established in their acting careers. However, there is a lack of research behind Asian youth acting and their perceived roles. To account for this knowledge deficit, I examine how whiteness influences the media to portray youth actors as individuals that stray from their stereotypes in an attempt to achieve whiteness. My research site centres around Fresh Off the Boat (FOB), a comedic television series featuring a Taiwanese family. The title of the show Fresh Off the Boat or “FOB” is also a term used to describe a person that is considered too ethnic and as a term of denigration. I utilize Pyke and Dang’s categorization of “FOB” and “whitewashed” to analyze the narrator, Eddie Huang. I chose to limit my research primarily to the first “pilot” episode where the audience is

While the significance of gender roles has declined in the past fifty years, they still play an integral part in our perception of others based on their gender. Gender roles create gender stereotypes that influence our view of someone and their aptitude in work and child caring. Gender stereotypes depict women as caring, compassionate, and kind; however, gender stereotypes also imply negative qualities for women such as cranky, overly emotional, and submissive. On the other hand, gender stereotypes classify men not only as dominant, assertive, and powerful, but also as aggressive, violent, and uncaring. Many people apply gender roles in how they view other’s aptitudes and responsibilities in a work or home setting, but by doing so they subconsciously discriminate against a person for his gender. Extreme Feminists focus on the discrimination and harassment women face in everyday life due to traditional gender roles and complain that “men have it so good”. However, extreme feminists fail to realize, due to their blind but justified hatred for traditional gender roles that supposedly benefit men, traditional gender roles disadvantage men as well. Similar to how many women fail to climb up the corporate ladder because their superiors view them as too caring and soft to hold a demanding leadership position, many people look down on men when they care for their own children considering them too tough and insensitive to take care of children properly and label their care as

Next, gender role theory is the biological difference between male and females-sexual difference-that account for a relatively small part of the actual differences between men and women. So, most of these differences are a matter not of sex but of gender, which, unlike sex, is the social forms and cultivated. In view of, difference of gender, however, are used to

I will investigate gender roles alongside misogyny and sexism examining how ideologies have changed overtime focusing on negative and positive representations of women compared to men through crime dramas.

Thus, concluding that the explanation of biological, psychodynamic and learning approaches does influence on gender development. Each of these approaches explains how gender is developed in their own way. From the biological approach, we found out that gender differences are seen as resulting from sex differences. In other words, women and men act, think and feel differently because of differences in how their brains work. These brain differences may result from chromosomal differences and may also be the result of hormonal differences.

This article gave me a different outlook on what males go through in our society. Lately we have been talking about what women go through and their stereotypes. The gender roles that society place on each gender takes a toll on everyone.

Gender is socially constructed, signifying processes and practices of conduct ("doing", "undoing" and "re-doing" gender) (West & Zimmerman, 1987; Deutsch, 2007; West & Zimmerman, 2007) based on an assigned sex category (Hird, 2000; Risman, 2004; Connell, 2010). Sex, in contrast, refers to the biological differences between men and women (chromosomes, hormones and genitalia) (Harding, 1996; Hird, 2000).

Throughout history, humans have always been expected to act a certain way depending on their sex. These societal expectations are called gender roles. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These roles begin to develop even before a child is even out of the womb. A mother may decorate their nursery pink if they are having a daughter because “girls like pink,” and “boys like blue.” Gender roles should not be confused with gender stereotypes. A gender stereotype is a narrow way of thinking about how men and woman are obligated to behave. For example, men have always been considered to be the breadwinners of the family. Females, on the other hand, are seen more as the gentle homemakers that stay home to clean and take care of the children. (Rathus, 2010, p.447). These types of stereotypes have caused certain out-of-the-home jobs to be mainly categorized for either women or men, causing an even more distinct line between the genders.

Evolutionary phycologists claim that males and females faced different pressures in primeval environments as the human species was developing; mainly because of their opposing roles. Males and females act differently because of sexual attitudes and sexual behaviors. Even though that is the case, the evolutionary views that are made up are through assumption and not evidence. People are not locked into the adaptive behaviors from the evolutionary past. Evolutionary vies pays slight attention to cultural and individual disparities and gender differences.

There have been many theories and studies in support of the development of gender identity and gender roles. One major theory was the one put forward by Bandura and his social learning theory.

Children learn at a very early age what it means to be a boy or a girl in our society. As children grow and develop, the gender stereotypes they are exposed to at home are reinforced by many elements in their environment and are thus perpetuated throughout childhood followed by adolescence. One major societal issue uprising with the way children are raised in today’s society is the gender specific dressing for boys and girls. The history with gender specific dressing is a one sided masculine enforced point of view for centuries. As children move through childhood and into adolescence, they are exposed to many factors which influence their behaviors and attitudes regarding gender roles. It is difficult for a child in today’s society to grow to adulthood without experiencing some form of gender bias or stereotyping. The question lies whether the view of gender specific dressing shall change or stay the same. As society continues to evolve and grow so does the tolerance of new uprising views for the general purpose of equality and freedom to do as pleased. Children regularly learn to adopt gender roles which are not always fair to both sexes. These attitudes and behaviors are generally learned first in the home but then reinforced by their environment, school experience, and media viewing. Nonetheless, the strongest influence on gender role development seems to occur within the family setting. Culture, values, and beliefs are the parents early role for passing on, both overtly

Gender and sex are not synonymous, although they are often used interchangeably. Sex is a biological term and defined as “the categories of male or female of the sum total of biological attributes on which this distinction is based within a species” (Colman, 2009). Gender, however is a social construct and consists of gender role, gender identity and sexual orientation / preference. Gender identity is “a sense of awareness, usually beginning in infancy, continuing through childhood, and reaching maturing in adolescence, of being male or female, or of the gender associated with one’s biological sex”. Gender role is defined as “a set of behaviour patterns, attitudes, and personality characteristics stereotypically perceived as masculine or feminine within a culture” (Colman, 2009). Understanding gender development is important because the perception of gender identity affects the roles individuals play in society. If the reason behind the gender differences can be understood, they can be minimised to develop a more gender equal society. Also, research into gender development has real world applications. In many aspects of psychological research, gender differences can affect results. This can be reduced through gender equality. This essay will focus on the development of gender identity and the role nature and nurture play in it; specifically the role of genetics and cognitive gender development / social learning theory.

Gender is a socially constructed differentiation and a key explanation of the different social roles of men and women; a fixed binary opposition: masculinity or femininity. Socialisation creates 'learned ' ‘Gender appropriate’, behaviour from birth e.g. the