Identity and Gender

​Gender identity has changed its definition over time. The psychological definition as stated from the social learning theory is that gender identity is the sense of being male or female. Seems simple but we now know in todays world the definition has broadened. Gender identity is now defined as one 's personal experience of one 's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with assigned sex at birth, or can differ from it completely. All societies have a set of gender categories that can serve as the basis of the formation of a person 's social identity in relation to other members of society. From the past when we had many strong women’s rights activist who fought so what your gender was did not

​​Gender is defined as whatever behaviors and attitudes a group considers proper for its males and females. Unlike sex, gender is something that we learn from the day we are born. “Young children begin to acquire gender role stereotypes at about the same time they develop gender identity and by the age of 3 or 4 most children” (Amanda Youmans). Peers, community, media, religion and our upbringing all play a role in the understanding of our culture and what is considered acceptable for males and females. When the sex of a child is revealed, they are automatically placed into a gender specific role with certain expectations. There are things in this world such as colors, toys, media depiction and taught behaviors that play into these gender roles.

     Identity is one of the main questions throughout all of our readings, because it is hard for people to accept who they are in society. Accepting their identity as a minority with little if any freedoms

Identity’s Toxic Relationship With Society Identifying identity is a trying task in its own. Of course, it can not be narrowed down or oversimplified. Most people are not exactly the same, in fact, almost none are. Yet, we rely on our identities to find people to connect, share, and even identify with. Who we are and who we want people to see depends too much on society in this day age.

“’Identity has been increasingly used to refer to the social and historical make-up of a person, personality as a construct. Sometimes such identities are conceived narrowly psychological, individualist terms, as the cumulative result of personal experience and family history”

An identity is more than just your name and sex it is also whom you are as a person and how you act as a person. In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” – Judith Ortiz Cofer, “Gendered Interaction: Masculine and Feminine Styles...” – J.T. Wood, and “The Confidence Gap” – Katty Kay and Claire Shipman identity is a major theme that is talked about. In “The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl Named Maria” the main argument is that Hispanic women often struggle being identified. In “Gendered Interaction: Masculine and Feminine Styles...” J.T. the main argument being made is that women and men have different ways of communicating. In “The Confidence Gap” the main argument being made is the lack of confidence that a woman lacks affects their work life in a negative way. Identity is describe more in details in the three passages it states how women and men are identified in certain aspects of their life.

Throughout history, identity is often viewed as a something inherently stable. However, I argue that identity should be viewed as something far more complicated than this – particularly if one articulates the modern notion of a fluid conception of identity. Identity is something that is constantly in flux. Then, identity is constructed of the vastly diverse geographies, histories, and the spaces and places that one inhabits throughout their life. To put it simply, identity defines who we are. Therefore, it is inextricably bound to notions of difference , where representations of people can change depending on the

People should be entitled to their own identity since everybody if unique in so many ways. In the literature we have read during this course people and women specifically are defined. These can be metaphors used to describe the women or ho others view these women. Sometimes they do not define themselves and are defined by the people around them; based on their looks or stereotypes that may not represent who they are. Women are defined by others and themselves in many ways such as seen in, “Borders” by Thomas King, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Lysistrata by Aristophanes. These metaphors are not directly defining these women, but defining them by their power, identity, and intelligence.

Identity is a ambiguous word. It can be defined as a person’s name, age, status and personality. After reading the “Work, identity and health” by Tom Fryers and “In U.S., 55% of Workers Get Sense of Identity From Their Job” by Rebecca Riffkin, I have a deeper understanding of the word ‘Identity’. Identity can also refer to work. It is the common phenomenon that people connect their jobs with the identity in today’s society. Both of the two articles mentioned above talked about identity can be found in work and how people are identified by the work they do, while there existed some differences, such as their different opinions toward women’s identity, the theme, format they had and what their audience are.

Gender identity is the personal conception of being a man or a woman and the society creates standards and comes up with gender roles basing them on existing norms and traditions which will in turn influence gender identity. For instance, most societies associate strength and dominance to be masculine roles while caring and assisting or subordination known to be feminine roles. This clearly makes gender identity be bred within the society. One’s identity is important as it influences his or her life through events like life experiences, how one is being taken or treated, how to do one associate or socialize with others, the type of job one will have to do and also opportunities that may come up favoring a certain type of gender identity. One is also likely to face obstacles or discrimination due to his or her identity.

Identity in a sociological sense is more than individual genetics or individuality. Self identity is made up by many characteristics including; our personal experiences, beliefs, socio-economic status and other factors. Society plays a huge role in determining identity, although true identity generally isn’t a true reflection of an individual’s self identity. Over the generations there have been

In general we differentiate between two “kinds” of identity. On the one hand there is the so called social identity, which stresses self-interpretation as a member of a certain social group and on the other hand there is the personal identity, which puts it´s emphasis on individuality and distinctiveness. This distinction is widely known as “patchwork-identity”. Both identities are only a subgroup of many different subjectively interpreted identities that everyone of us has innate.

The construction of a self-identity can be a very complex process that every individual is identity is developed through the lenses of cultural influences and how it is expected to given at birth. Through this given identity we are expected to think, speak, and behave in a certain way that fits the mold of societal norms. This paper aims to explain how gender perform gender roles according these cultural values. I intend to analyze the process in which individuals learned and internalized their respective gender identities, through their cultural background. I will be conducting a set of interviews with the intention to compare my experience as a self-identified male of Mexican descent, to the experience of another male character of Japanese heritage in order to understand how we come to self-identify as masculine in diverged cultures. In this paper, I argue that the construction of gender identities is a direct consequence of societal influential factors such as family values; values that reflect the individual’s culture. This analysis will not only utilize evidence from these identity formations, but also in explaining why and how these self-identities were constructed using both theoretical sources and empirical studies as a framework.

Identity is what evolves us, it is what makes us think the way we do, and act the way we act, in essence, a person’s identity is their everything. Identity separates us from everyone else, and while one may be very similar to another, there is no one who is exactly like you; someone who has experienced exactly what you have, feels the way you do about subjects, and reacts the same to the events and experiences you have had. This became prevalent to me as I read through many books, that everyone goes through the process of finding who they are. A prevalent theme throughout literature is the idea that over time one develops their identity through life over time, in contrast to being born with one identity and having the same

In the LGBTQ community, there is a tendency to use labels to define oneself. Many find comfort in these titles; they know that, with the existence of a name, there is a community with likeminded people out there in the world. This can mean an unexplainable amount to someone if they feel alone in their sexual or gender identity. A label can contain a very reassuring message: "you are not alone." Because of this, many people depend on these labels to understand who they are, without considering the damage that restriction that may do. According to queer theory developed by Judith Butler, a respected expert in the field, there is fluidity to the way one identifies. In this case, fluidity refers to not having a clear definition of a person's sexual or gender orientation. The film "Soldier's Girl" is a great example of where clear sexual and gender identity only serve to confuse the main protagonists. The story revolves around the murder of Private First-Class Barry Winchell in Fort Campbell, Kentucky because he fell in love with a trans woman.