John F. Peters Perception Of Gender Stereotypes

"You're such a girl!" is something we hear quite often. But we don't exactly analyze its importance. Every man or women act and behave differently, and that is because of gender roles, "instructions for how to behave and appear as a woman or man (Wade and Ferree 2015; 61). We all "do gender", the ways in which we actively obey and break the gender rules of our society." (Wade and Ferree 2015; 61). We don't always obey these rules and regulation, we're all humans, and we all make mistakes, but it's other peoples reaction what's most interesting about breaking them. Once we break these rules, there is something known as gender policing, "responses to the violations of gender rules aimed at promoting conformity. (Wade and Ferree 2015; 71).

What does it mean to be a woman or man? Whether we a man or a woman, in today’s society it is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex mix of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a woman or man? Are you feminine or masculine, both, or neither? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity. Gender identity is how we feel about and express our gender and gender roles: clothing, behavior, and personal appearance. It is a feeling that we have as early as age two or three. In the article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,” the author, Aaron Devor, is trying to persuade his readers that gender shapes how we behave because of the expectation from us and relate to one another. He does this by using an educational approach, describing gender stereotypes, and making cultural references. He gets readers to reflect on how “Children’s developing concepts of themselves as individuals are necessarily bound up …to understand the expectations of the society which they are a part of” (389). Growing up, from being a child to an adult is where most of us try to find ourselves. We tend to struggle during this transition period, people around us tell us what to be and not to be, Jamaica Kincaidt in her short story, “Girl” tells just that, the setting is presented as a set of life instructions to a girl by her mother to live properly. The mother soberly

This continues through life, and gets more prominent as life goes on. We saw in the episode of “Freaks and Geeks” especially, boys are expected to act like boys and girls are expected to act like girls. When the nerdy boys in the show acted “not manly” or like a “sissy” they were shamed. The coach told them to stop acting like girls and put down their make-up, and when Sam’s sister saves him from the bully, he is taunted for having a girl fight his battles. This constant emasculation of this specific group of boys leads to their bonding. However, it does not lead to their assuming that they are women, since they are being told they are not women. However, since they identify as males, they

The master, ascribed status associated with being a woman has countless affects on my experiences and how it has designed my life. Everything I do is with the mindset of a woman, whether it is how I dress or how I speak. From the time when I was young, I was the first female child within my generation. Even at the age of five, I recall countless times where I had to prove I could “hang with the boys.” This sort of initiation occurred in countless ways from doing gross dares to having to show I can take a punch—literally. Enduring all this mayhem only seemed natural because I did not want to be seen or treated differently from the boys. Time passed and my woman-ness became even more prevalent as boys were able to get away with things that I could not. “Close your legs,” “girls do not play with toy guns,” “Put down the Gameboy, go play with

The book Learning to Be Gender points out a serious question of gender norms in our society in which both men and women should behave appropriately in their desire gender. For instance, we learn how to act, talk and dress up like our gender. Then when we grow up and have kids and

This broad categorization of social impressions and beliefs about different genders is termed as gender stereotyping (Santrock, 2009). Because of this gender categorizing, and the expectations of their behavior and role in society, boys in their adulthood tend to have hostile problems as they are afraid to show emotion, run into relationship problems, and find women to be inferior to them (Galligan, Barnett, Bernnan & Israel, 2010).

There are certain jobs that are not ‘acceptable’ for a woman, because she is a female. A woman should not dress and act a certain way because she is a female. These traditional codes of gender are complications for women because they are being defined as powerless, submissive, and delicate beings by the media. Although these definitions are not true, it still makes people treat women as if they were babies or flowers. This traditional code is more damaging for young women and little girls because they are seeing in the media how a woman ‘should’ act. They grow up and restrict themselves from certain lifestyles, sports, and other diverse activities because the media says they aren’t feminine enough and woman should not participate in them. It’s important for woman to break this traditional code so they can live freely without being judged and criticized. All women who break the traditional codes by participating in sports, dressing in ways that are not feminine, and other various actions are often criticized by friends, family members, peers, and strangers. These criticisms and judgments are one of the ways that cause women to limit or force themselves to make a balance between their masculinity and

Heteronormartive notions of gender create challenges and issues that require a complex process of resolving gender inequalities. In particular, one of the challenges is resolving the inequalities that are reinforced by male and female gender norms. The notion of gender creates a dichotomy in male and female roles. Through socialization processes, we learn to identify specific behaviours as 'masculine' or 'feminine', and boys and girls are taught to perform and display these traits, which become a dominant part of their identities. Western society has constructed gender roles that promote and maintain notions of suitable behaviours and expectations. For instance, males and females are required to act a certain way according to their

Gender identity is an important component of an individual’s sense of self. As a person matures they start to learn about their place in the wider world. According to sociology by John Scott and James Fulcher, gender socialisation refers to learned gender roles that we acquire from family, social media and school. It too teaches us of the social expectations linked with gender; the distinctions between sex and gender. Sex is based on the physical characteristics considered to distinguish between a male and a female, whereas, gender refers to the differences in how men and women in society are expected to behave and feel (sociology: James Fulcher and John Scott 2007). An example of gender socialisation would be that women should wear pink and men should wear

Throughout our childhood we are confined to gender roles, both intentionally and unintentionally, by those around us. “You’re such a girl”, “man up”, “you’re a pussy”, notice how the three most offensive (to men) and most vastly used insults compare a man to a woman: implying females are a weaker being. We are

Throughout today’s society, almost every aspect of someone’s day is based whether or not he or she fits into the “norm” that has been created. Specifically, masculine and feminine norms have a great impact that force people to question “am I a true man or woman?” After doing substantial research on the basis of masculine or feminine norms, it is clear that society focuses on the males being the dominant figures. If males are not fulfilling the masculine role, and females aren’t playing their role, then their gender identity becomes foggy, according to their personal judgment, as well as society’s.

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

Society has this unknown expectation for genders to have a type of distinction toward one another, attitudes and behaviors that males and females are required to have. Gender socialization is society’s way to categorize the propensity for males and females to be socialized differently. Media, violence, even politics has a large contribution to the division among genders in the 21st century creating by creating a new culture of independents. Media has been promoted very selectively and carefully, subconsciously teaching us the proper ways of conforming to the “ideal contemporary society” throughout one’s life, “gender roles” (a more simplistic term “sex roles”) including the set of socially defined roles and behaviors are assigned to the specific sex at birth. This can and in fact does vary from certain cultures. Our society has the identification skills to provide (some would say “biased”) criticisms to differ the two distinct gender roles. One includes the “masculine,” having the qualities and characteristics attributed to males, and the other, the “feminine,” having the qualities and characteristics attributed to females. Media creates subliminal meanings about gender, and plays a role in which we understand as part of ones’ identity.

These examples show us that the things we use to define masculine or feminine traits are not so traditional themselves. Although many people believe that gender roles are still pertinent, there are many contradicting facts. Little do people know simply by believing that these roles still exist is a form of stereotyping within itself. A lot of times gender roles/stereotypes are mixed in with religion. Religion is considered as a personal belief or way of life, because of that religion can’t set the bar for these norms that society associates with gender simply because religion is accustomed to one person. Gender roles have been observed to develop as a person grows. Psychologist depicts how children develop gender typing by stating “acquire the values, motives, and behaviors viewed as appropriate for males and females within a culture is called gender typing. Children develop gender-based beliefs, largely based on gender stereotypes; the latter is reflected in gender roles. Children adopt a gender identity early in life and develop gender-role preferences as well” (“Gender Roles and Gender Differences”).

We have adopted the idea that women, girls, men, & boys need to act a certain way in our society. We’ve learned these behaviors from our parents. They dress us up in certain types of clothing “made” for girls & boys. We are given toys that reflect our gender. Girls are given dolls, boys are given cars. Girls are supposed to be seen as sexy but fragile, while boys are supposed to be strong & masculine. Girls & boys can play into these roles though. Girl will dress provocatively & show off their bodies for male attention. Boys don’t show their emotions, because when they do, they are called “punks” or “wimps”.