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Identity And Identity Essay

Decent Essays

When an individual is born, legally on their birth certificate, they are given a sex, either male or female. On the other hand, an individual’s culture is usually learned and passed down from generation to generation. That is one example of the way people are influenced on how they should behave depending on their gender. Both gender and ethnicity are used to shape a person. Furthermore, parents teach their children from birth who they are, but as an individual gets older, they decide whether to accept the sex they are born with or not. Some people do not respect that in the same way that some people do not respect other people’s ethnicity. This can be seen in the mistreatment of people in the articles, E.J Graff’s “The M/F Boxes,” and Peggy Orenstein’s “What Makes a Woman a Woman?” However, when people begin to realize that important aspects such as gender and ethnicity should be respected, there can be positive changes in society as seen through transgender rights being supported and the Black Lives Movement. Gender and ethnicity shape a person and are aspects that should be respected, thus the acceptance of someone’s gender can positively shape conceptions of their ethnicity. Culture helps shape the differences between males and females. In some cultures both male and females have specific clothing that identifies them as either male or female, for example, in some cultures, only the males can wear pants and women wear dresses. In other cultures, males and females are

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