Gender is set so thoroughly in our actions, beliefs, and desires, so that to us it appears to be

The determination of gender identity is much deeper than whether a person is born a male or a female. The exact identifier that separates gender identity is currently unknown but researchers believe that genetics, hormones, reproductive organs, biological, and environmental factors all play a role in distinguishing a person’s gender identity. A person’s physical gender and their sense of gender are formed at two different times in two different parts of the body. A person’s gender is whether they are born male or female, but the way they identify themselves may be the opposite, which is not uncommon and has occurred since the beginning of time. In culture males are known to be the stronger, more aggressive sex, while females are the

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

Doing gender is always justified by religion, science, law and society’s believes in morals and values. This proves the truth that in our society gender is very much prevalent. Both sex and gender are very much embedded in each other. But these two are very closely related that most of the time; both words are taken as synonym of each other. But in reality, sex and gender are two very different words having a different meaning and interpretation. We cannot inherit gender as it is not a natural phenomenon but it is created by our society. Gender is a created by a continuous process of teaching, learning and enforcement by generations over generations (Lorber). Some people believe that gender comes from physiological differences. Most commonly known as the differences in men and female genitalia and reproductive organ. But that is not true because both sex and gender are two different things. Sex is mostly about the physical differences in the

Many people confuse the definition of gender and sex. “Gender, on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, and characteristics that people ascribe to different sexes. Sex is a biological concept, determined on the basis of individual 's primary sex characteristics.” (Blackstone) Society gives social cues on the appropriate behavior for each sex. For example, women are to exert more feminine traits such as being dependent, emotional, passive, innocent, nurturing, and/or self-critical. On the contrary, men should be more

Gender has been traditionally defined as male or female with the allocation of stereotypes and set gender roles assigned to men and women. However, in contemporary society the definition of gender has been altered, forming a societal divide between the concepts of gender and sex with the removal of gender roles. Gender is currently defined by a person’s form of self-identification and sex is based scientifically on biological factors. Culture is an intangible collection of a wide variety of societal customs including language and traditions. An assemblage of both concepts develop an individual’s personal expression of identity.

§Men’s Magazine reflects the characteristic of a heterosexual male character that is self-controlling, aggression, financially independence and physical desirability. “Men don’t define themselves as men in what they read people who are into cars, who play golf or fish. Successfully launching a general magazine would be like finding Holy Grail”-Zed Zawada. In 1986 the men’s magazine became the fasted growing sector as titles such as Loaded, FHM, GQ, Men’s Health and DIY titles promoted masculinity using it as marketing tool. These magazine objectified the sexuality of women, producing controversial material that are reflected in society as being negative as the media puts male and female gender under pressure to look like these contrived stereotype portrayed in these magazines, portraying male readers to be masculine. There are theories on why gender classified magazines developed into stereotypical and objectifying material one of

This magazine is geared toward women; therefore the majority of the main topics and advertisements are also aimed at the women who read the magazine. Instyle highlights the aspect of gender roles, where women are expected to be held on a “pedestal.” This pedestal is holding women to the standard of wearing nice clothes, high heels, and make up all the time, while at working long hours. For example, the magazine has an advertisement for secretaries for shirts that pop while sitting at a desk. Instyle reinforces the gender role that women hold lower jobs than men, and mainly hold desk jobs such as

Including a little of everything guarantees a better selling rate, and thus more profit to fuel future spreads. Generally speaking, though, women ages 13-45 seem to be most affected by magazines, though it depends on the magazine. Obviously Playboy, Men’s Health and Popular Mechanics are geared towards the male population rather than women. Magazines such as Time and Rolling Stone are more gender-neutral magazines.

Most of these headlines are fashion centered. They use fashion to appeal to girls find the best clothes makeup and hairstyles. They make it feel personal by claiming to know what will work for you and “your body type, face shape, and skin tone.” They sell their secrets on how to “look great every day.” They dress they’re models in clothes that reflect the theme of the magazine. This appeals to the women’s desire to be in style.

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits

The final magazine I will be examining is Marie Claire. This is another publication aimed at a more mature audience, with a deeper focus on beauty through materialism. Like Complete Woman, it contains more explicit sexual detail and a more serious focus on relationships. Also, because of its abundance of advertisements of expensive cosmetics and clothing, we may assume that this magazine is class-specific to a wealthier consumer. Marie Claire’s cover stories include “What Your Style Says About You”, “How to Get Perfect Skin: 44 Products that Really Work”, “How Often Do You Have Sex?”, “Men: What They Don’t Want You To Do”, and “428 Fashion and Beauty Ideas”.

Ferguson (1983) conducted a study of young women’s magazines and found that they promote a traditional idea of femininity. They promoted the idea that girls should aspire to be beautiful in order to get a husband (Andrew Pilkington and Alan Yeo (2009)). It is true that some women might want it but in most the cases they learn it from their mothers or the media. For instance, girls should wear pink and boys should wear blue, this is another stereotype, which is in our heads since we were children.

“Gender” is a social construct that is developed solely by our society and the early developmental stages of an adolescent’s life. By introducing youths to the roles, behaviors, expectations and activities that correspond with males or females we give a clear guideline of what is accepted from a young male or female. An individual however can identify his or her gender based on their own system of beliefs without corresponding to their natural biological sex. Our lives are shaped by our true biological identities but the influence of the world and society is enough to define what a male and what a female truly is to an individual.

When considering gender and sex, a layman’s idea of these terms might be very different than a sociologist’s. There is an important distinction: sex, in terms of being “male” or “female,” is purely the physical biological characteristic differences – primarily anatomical differences. (There are also rare cases of “intersexual” individuals as outlined in the Navarro article, “When Gender Isn’t a Given”.) Gender, on the other hand, is an often misconstrued concept that is commonly mistaken as synonymous with sex. A non-sociologist might surmise the following, “men act masculine and women act feminine, therefore, it must follow that gender is inherent to sex,” however, this is not necessarily the case.

Women in magazines are usually tall, extremely thin, and their faces are covered in makeup. Women can easily develop insecurities in the way they look and feel about themselves because of magazines. Women choose to read certain magazines according to their interests. However, their interests are usually congruent with those of the majority of women or they wouldn’t be reading that particular magazine and those magazines wouldn’t stay in business. On the flip side of the sex factor, influences from magazines such as “For Him” magazine and “Maxim” weigh heavily on many men’s self security. These magazines teach men not only how they should look but also how they should view things. An example of this is a macho, semi sexist, tough guy, bull headed, over confident attitude. These magazines define for men the writer’s essence of a real man. Men as a whole atone themselves to such lifestyles probably out of fear of not living by these structures. Although magazines have a strong influence on the masses they are by no means the most influential medium there is.