People's Conceptions Of Masculinity And Femininity

I have not had much experience with masculinity or gender-based violence. However, I have noticed that whenever someone says the work gender some may think that they are talking about women’s issues and that is the problem with today’s society. People assume things and they end up getting the wrong impression of people because of the assumptions they have already made. We are all guilty of this and that includes me.

In The Tragedy of Macbeth, Shakespeare attempts to define manhood and explore the different perceptions held towards what it means to be a man. As William Liston notes in his essay, “Man appears more than 40 times, almost always with a conscious sense of defining the term—or rather, of defining a person by the term” (232). Lady Macbeth is used as a tool to not only convey this theme, but she instigates the plot as well. Without her consistent scorn and ridicule of Macbeth and his “femininity”, he would most likely have never killed King Duncan or performed any of the other murders that occur throughout the play. Specifically speaking, the word choice of Lady Macbeth as well as her actions are what propel her husband into acting himself. Eventually, Macbeth’s overall attitude changes as a result of his wife’s ridicule. While Lady Macbeth undoubtedly spurs her husband into action, it is important to note that by the end of the play, she has lost what influence she had over him as well as her ability to control her own emotions.

Gender is considered an axis of social order. Its categorisation into masculinity and femininity is social constructed and maintained in everyday life (Clark and Page, 2005; Mackie, 1994). Gender identity is our innermost understanding of our self as ‘male’ or ‘female’. Most people develop a gender identity that matched their biological sex (their body). Gender identity can be affected by, and is different from one society to another, depending on the way the members of society evaluate the role of females and males. Our gender identity can be influenced from the ethnicity of the group, their cultural background, and family values. Gender like social class and race can be used to socially categorize people and even lead to prejudice and discrimination. From day –to-day, continuous production of gender has been called ‘doing gender’ (West and Zimmermann, 1987), meaning that gender is “made” by us in everyday lives in our interactions with others.

The necessity to classify ourselves and others on the selected principles of our associated gender is a directing factor of interpersonal interaction throughout humankind. Particularly, the structure of gender among males has assisted in the strengthening of the destructive attributes related to hegemonic masculinity. In other words, structural ideals of gender among males solidify the position of male social dominance over women. These adverse features may directly be related to a rise in gendered violence and other aggressive acts committed by men.

Gender can sometimes be seen as biological characteristics humans have, when in fact it is the social characteristic ones society deems either masculine or feminine. Sex, on the other hand, is the biological differences in humans, for example, hormones and sex organs. People usually play gender roles in society, otherwise known as gender ideology. Gender ideology is when men and women have certain attitudes regarding their ‘fixed’ roles, responsibilities and rights. Throughout history men and women have been socialized to play these expected roles that have been placed on them due to their sex. In my own personal life I have encountered many instances where I have been socialized in relation to sex and gender.

One of the major themes in Pat barker’s ‘Regeneration’ is gender and masculinity, this is my chosen theme. The novel overall reflects the struggles of World War one soldiers and their attempts to overcome the trauma of war experience. In this essay, I will be exploring ways which Barker represents my chosen themes. By discussing in depth and focusing on homosexuality, parenthood, emasculation, and mutism as a symbol.

Firstly, one of the aspects of gender role is the distinction of roles based on masculinity and femininity or sex and gender. Before Blanche’s arrival, for Stanley being the masculine and the head of the house who is in absolute control and Stela being the woman of the house who takes care of the house: their relationship was happily as both know their part and were comfortable with it. As a motif, Stanley brings the food symbolizing that he is the man of the house and Stella cooks the food that Stanley provides and in this simplicity, their role is clear and defined. As Stanley and Stella conversing;

“Be man! Real men don’t cry! What are you, a baby?” These are all the phrases that boys hear as they grow older and continue to be harassed by them well into adulthood. As we began to focus our attention to encouraging girls to strive to be the independent, intelligent, beautiful women they are, we lost the connection with grooming boys to be young gentlemen. Instead of teaching boys that how to cope with their anger, sadness, or confusion, we spent more time on prepping girls for the “big, bad world.” Now, I’m not saying that what we did for females was a bad thing, but it is unfortunate that we neglected the emotional and mental needs of young boys and men. In today’s society, violent and aggressive outbursts are more prevalent for males

What was the most surprising thing you've learned from the readings about masculinities in the past? Do you see traces of these older models of masculinity still around today?

Womanhood is often associated with femininity while manhood with masculinity. Masculinity is the idea that men are tough both physically and mentally. Femininity, a term associated with being women is used to describe a women’s comportment and attitude. A gentle individual male or female, who wears dresses, skirts, high heels, makeup, and has long hair would be identified as feminine. Unfortunately, society judges and criticizes a women who do not depict feminine characteristics. Such women are regarded as either homosexual or queer. I chose two pictures of Grace Jones to compare in this essay since she happens to be a gender bender and victim of alike persecutions. Additionally, Grace Jones is a supermodel and singer from Jamaica, who’s renowned for cross-dressing and artistic fashion styles (Williams). The picture titled, “Grace Jones/Nightclubbing,”was derived from the National Portrait Gallery,while the other from, “Essense” website, Jones demonstrates that women can be feminine or soft in one picture and masculine or hard in the other picture through her appearance.

The quotation that I had selected resonated with me in several ways. The quote basically sums up the whole gender identity crisis people usually have when they do not who they are or are just discovering who they are. While masculinity and femininity are on two different levels, it is easily argued on belongs on one side of the spectrum of gender and the other on the opposite side. Systematically, gender is a social construct solely created to pleasure the man with power and women to be inferior to them by a large scale. Anybody can be a man, which is a pleasure and a privilege to be when one pretends, but it is by fault a disgrace to be even a little feminine. I was like this when I was a younger, and this kind of corruption that leads to

We often fail to realize how much the minute judgements we make about an individual solely on appearance, affect how we interact with them. For instance, the simple distinction of sex may influence how we regard another person, and thus directly influence our manner of speaking, our body language, even our facial expressions. These judgements are often based off of gender stereotypes, and gender ideology, two concepts so engrained is society we fail to recognize them usually (Guest 2014). To further examine the roles such judgements, play in everyday interactions, I sat in a café downtown for an hour and people-watched, noting who was interacting with whom, and how different traits such as gender, or even social class influence them.

Gender plays a key role throughout our life, it is defined as “the psychological, social and cultural aspects of masculinity and femininity” (butler-sweet,c,2017). Masculinity and femininity have been standardized into their own stereotypes. For example, masculine is known as aggression, competitive, brave, etc. While feminine is known as sensitive, weak, nurturing, etc. Because of these traits and these stereotypes masculinity holds a higher power over femininity. Therefore, when the parents have the child and they find out what gender they are they automatically uphold them and raise them according to these standards. This begins to refer to gender socialization which is “the process by which we learn the rules and conduct the behavior of masculinity and femininity” (butler-sweet,c,2017). Meaning, that from a young age, we learn the correct way to act within society, including the correct way to act according to our biological gender. Once our parents know if we are a boy or a girl they decorate our room a certain way,

Men are influenced by their upbringing, experience, and social environment which play a big role in determining one’s view of masculinity and manhood. Masculinity is different for everyone. Masculinity refers to behaviour and culture associated with men and the different ways of being a man.

As Barnard (2002) describes femininity and masculinity consists of different set appropriate characteristics which are described differently by culture and society. Fashion and clothing itself could be identified as a tool to represent those characteristics. This chapter will focus on how clothing and fashion was related to portraying those characteristics in relation to historical and social patterns that have evolved.