Masculinity In Intersex

Gender roles are defined differently by people and are usually centered on opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity. They are a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex. Gender roles now compared to back in the day have very much changed, but there still remains a strong influence as to the way a woman should act and how a man should act. In places such as America, now, women and men both have jobs and can still balance spending time with their family and taking care of children whereas back then, women were housewives and were not able to hold a job because that was the man’s responsibility. The traditional roles of men and women are also looked at, as well as behaviors of men and women that are considered socially appropriate. Gender roles vary greatly from one culture to the next, from one ethnic group to the next, and from one social class to another. But every culture has them, they all have expectations for the way women and men should dress, behave, and look.

According to the Oxford Dictionary, a gender role is defined as the role or behavior learned by a person as appropriate to their gender, determined by the prevailing cultural norms. In modern day America, gender roles have been slowly dissolving, but nonetheless is still very much relevant. In our society, women have the capability of doing everything a man can do, but, in the eyes of some, women are still seen as the inferior gender. In general, women are still associated with the responsibilities of taking care of the household and the children. They are also perceived as being fragile and submissive. On the other hand, men are associated with being the primary breadwinner and were viewed as being strong and brave. In most civilizations, these associations have been and

Throughout history, gender roles have been the foundation that determines the course of a civilization. These gender roles have undergone a change over time. It is important for every society to re-evaluate its preconceived ideas of gender and determine if that is still the norm for their society. When people think of gender roles we typically have set stereotypes in our head of what that means. Much of the time, what we believe, is not what is actually true. It is often argued what is right and what is wrong.

Gender roles describe the normative expectations of a culture group regarding the position that both sexes should hold in society. It also refers to the division of labor tasks, differences in behaviors, preferences, abilities; personalities that society expects of specific genders, (Kaiser, C. R., & Miller, C. T. 2009). It concerns the processes of how gender roles socialize and interact with each other in society as a whole and as an individual, (Stockard & Johnson, 1980; Thomas, 1986). Gender role deals with identity and at times are conceptualized as the acceptance and identification with social roles and behaviors associated with

Gender roles have existed since the inchoate of time. “A gender role is a theoretical construct in the social sciences and humanities that refers to a set of social and behavioral norms that, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex” (Princeton). Gender roles, gemerally, differ from culture to culture and from time period to time period.

When thinking of gender roles in society, stereotypes generally come to mind. Throughout history these stereotypes have only proven to be true. Major historical events have had a huge impact on the way men and women are seen and treated. In this way, women have always been secondary to males and seen as the fragile counterparts whose job is to take care of the household and most importantly, be loyal to her husband no matter the circumstance. Gender roles throughout history have greatly influenced society. The slow progress of woman’s rights throughout humanities led to an explosion of woman’s rights throughout the 20th century and that trend will only continue on into the rest of the 21st century.

Gender roles affect the way we view males and females in society. According to Public and Private Families an Introduction by Andrew J Cherlin, “sex” is described as the biological characteristics the distinguish the difference between man and woman such as their reproductive organs and hormones. “Gender” is described as the social and cultural characteristics that describe the difference between men and women. Gender roles in the United States have changed more for women than for men due to the asymmetry of gender change which is the bigger change in woman’s lives than males.

A persons 'sex ' is a biological trait. A human being will contain this trait form birth. Society uses 'sex ' to categorize people. A human being will either belong in the 'female ' or the 'male ' categories; a decision that will be made based on chromosomes, genitalia or some other physical ascription.

Gender and the ways gender is portrayed in society varies from culture to culture. Gender roles have changed drastically, especially during the 20th century and continue to evolve to this day. For years now there have been preconceived notions about genders and the roles each one should play in society, home, workplace, etc. Most times gender roles are associated with stereotypes and previous gender roles. Gender role plays different parts in religion, culture, society, time periods, countries, etc. Women rights and power varies in time and location and it is very interesting to look at the events, cultures, and customs that were taking place in that particular time period to get a better idea of the gender role concept.

Division of the genders through gender roles has been the norm of society since the beginning of man. In order to evaluate the current state of sexism in America, one must first study our history. From the earliest of human evolution men were valued as the hunter, the protector, the leader. Gallantly, spears in hand, they would leave mates and children behind in search of meat for the clan. The whole of his family’s survival resided on his shoulders, and any miss step on his fault was seen as immense failure. Women were left behind to mend the camps, cook the meals, and watch the children. Viewed as the weaker sex, the were left at home with the “gentler” work, only leaving the home for simpler tasks as gathers of berries and roots. As these society grew more seditentary and complex, the introduction of organized societies only perpetuated these gender roles. Although these roles were clearly defined and strictly followed, both were seen as equal and necessary for survival. (CITE)

Through examining the ways intersex individuals are treated in a medical setting, one can see how science only allows binary bodies to be created. Crawley et al. (2007) discusses intersex individuals and the standard treatment of intersex children, being to alter their ‘abnormal’ genitalia to resemble one of the two genders. This has become the normal treatment as if this is necessary, but the only threat the child is in danger of is not fitting perfectly into the heteronormative standard of correct genitalia. Because surgical intervention proves we alter and change one’s sex, it becomes difficult to claim that sex and gender are solely biological, when clearly one’s gender and sex becomes largely altered the moment they are born into society. Anne Fausto Sterling, outlines her concept of the five sexes, explaining that intersex is a term used to describe any individual that doesn’t fit into the narrow categories of male and female. She explains that the same process that was in play in the Middle Ages is

First, it is shocking that some people will not even know if they are intersex. There have been occurrences where people have lived their entire lives without knowing they were intersex. Another interesting point on the site is that men can have “aphallia”, which means that they are born without a penis but have typical male anatomy (http://www.isna.org/faq/conditions/aphalia). Lastly, it was very surprising that in the past, doctors operated on children without consent to make them either male or female because they felt it was “necessary”

247). Thus, since females and males have different expectations of them and are treated differently from one another, females and males have different situations within their family life and their mental and physical health. Plus, a woman’s educational level will not benefit her since “men out-earn women at every level of education” (Ferris & Stein, 2014, p. 253). Similarly, certain jobs are still classified for men or women. Although, the jobs for women are underpaid compared to jobs classified for men (Ferris & Stein, 2014, p. 253). Also, the military is largely male-dominated with very few females since the military is expected for men, not women because of certain cultural beliefs (Ferris & Stein, 2014, p. 255). Furthermore, the criminal justice system targets men more than women, because men are viewed as aggressive when women are not (Ferris & Stein, 2014, p. 256). Lastly, gender is associated to certain words which influences society’s views on women and men which also affect the expectations of them and how both are treated in society (Ferris & Stein, 2014, p.

We should be aware that there are many differing roles of the male and female in different societies. The United States is for the most part has established itself as a state of gender equality; whereas, in many places overseas the genders have different roles. As an example, in Africa the role of the male is still thought to be primarily the bread-winner and the female role still primarily centered on child bearing and rearing. This used to be the way of thinking in the United States until the World War II era, when the majority of the males went off to war, and many females entered the working industry.

In the United States, our concept of gender, and the differences between men and women, have deep traditional roots. Men are supposed to be strong individuals, who support and defend their families. Women are seen as nurturing, and motherly, more gentle and tame. We believe so strongly that the two genders are entirely separate, with such completely different traits, that it almost seems that men and women are just born with different qualities.