Psychodynamic Theory Of Gender Analysis

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

In the excerpt “Why Do We Make So Much of Gender?”, from his 1997 book The Gender Knot: Unraveling Our Patriarchal Legacy, Allan Johnson argues gender through identity and culture. Johnson starts out by expressing opposition on how women are looked at through a patriarchal society and not the biology from which they came. He mentions the feminist argument that women in a patriarchal society are “oppressed” and that this comes from social order (545). He goes on to point out, the focus should be on raising children to adulthood rather than worrying about reproduction. Although, I agree with Johnson’s arguments, there are things in this world that cannot and should not be changed.

In the Victorian era, men continued to act as the superior gender to their female counterparts. Because men were usually more educated and wrote more works of literature, women were often absent from the bookshelves of the past. In The Stranger Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the evident lack of women in the storyline elucidates the social roles they had at that time— to be maids, prostitutes, or innocent witnesses. Simultaneously, the lack of attention paid to women paradoxically bring more awareness to the topic. There are a few female characters in the novel, but they only play as observers, serving minor roles to the central plot of the story. Written at a time when gender roles were unstable and shifting,

Today in society it can be agreed that women have indeed gained many rights that were not accessible to them 100 years before. Although, despite the mentality that men and women are treated equally there are still very many discrepancies between the treatment of genders. Many of which can be attributed to the expectations placed on the genders, gender roles between both genders, and women in the workplace. These issues have caused a great rift to form between the genders, a rift that has caused one gender to claim dominance over the other and this can develop a sense of inferiority by the submissive gender.

Those who agree that gender is a social construct would also argue that gendered behaviour is not innate, and that it is learnt throughout development. Gender identity is defined as “the way in which being feminine or masculine, woman or man, becomes an internalized part of the way we think about ourselves” (Ryle, 2014). The idea of masculinity and femininity and the strong distinction between the two are taught to us throughout our lives. An individual’s earliest exposure to the concept of gender comes from parental influence. Many studies show that parents socialize their children from birth by creating distinct environments for boys and girls and treating son’s and daughter’s differently. For instance, parents are more likely to assign domestic chores such as cooking, mending clothes and doing laundry to daughters, whereas sons are more likely to be assigned maintenance chores such as mowing lawn, small household repairs and carrying out garbage (Lackey, 1989). Parents may also use more emotive language when talking to their daughter’s and might encourage certain interests such as math and science in son’s, by purchasing more math and science toys and committing to other promotive activities (Jacobs & Bleeker, 2004; Leaper, 1998; Tenenbaum &

Standpoint theory refers that any social position that an individual holds is greatly influenced by his/her experience. It means the marginalized group can give a max total picture on a particular topic as they experience the domination more acutely than the privileged group. The marginalized groups face oppression in different layers because of class, gender, race, ethnicity and other identities which they hold. As they are in the margin so their experience is more diverse than the privileged group. Even if living in the same society, two people will have different experience to share because of their social position. This experience helps one to have a view point of the surroundings. As the marginalized group experience the oppression and discrimination more than the privileged individuals, so their experience can be the total picture of the social problems.

There are countless factors throughout the book that help to create a critical gendered lens. However, I have found that the four most helpful have been the discussions of intersectionality, gender performance, gendered/sexed language, and the three prominent theories of gender/sex. Learning the term intersectionality and what it means in terms of gender and communication really helped shape the way that I looked at all of the content of this course. The idea that a person’s identity is multiplicative rather than additive gives clearly explains intersectionality. The idea that all of the components of a person’s identity work together to make up who they are and how they view the world and are viewed by others is critical to the study of gender

The novel That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis is comprised of a lot of gender issues, especially concerning the two main characters. The two main characters are Mark and Jane, a married couple who struggle with their roles as husband and wife. Chapter 1 starts with a quote from Jane that states, “Matrimony was ordained, thirdly for the mutual society, help, and comfort that the one ought to have of the other” (That Hideous Strength, 9) That quote ran through Jane’s mind throughout the day, during her daily house cleaning duties, and while she was waiting on Mark to call and say he would not be able to attend dinner due to work taking longer than expected. Based on that knowledge, it is easy to say that their marriage had trouble from the very

When it comes to gender, it is as easy to determine as quantum physics; all the pieces are there but it is impossible to put together. Without hard evidence, all people can do is to make assumptions. The two biggest arguments on how gender is determined right now is based upon social and biological construct. Arguing for the sociological aspect is Aaron Devor, writer of the article, “Gender roles behaviors and attitudes”. Dover believes that, “People use femininity and masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or chosen, sex or gender” (Devor 505). Devor considers that society has certain roles that are predetermined towards males, females and anyone in between. A man has to act a certain way to be masculine and a female a certain way to be considered feminine. On the not so opposite side of the spectrum is Deborah Blum, author of the work, “The gender blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?”. Blum doesn’t necessarily disagree with Devor, but asks the question, “Do the gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology, and, in turn, does the way we behave influence that biology” (Blum 512). Blum is arguing that maybe it was our genetic makeup that built the foundation on how a gender should act. Both authors present valid points for their arguments, but in the end, it is Blum who comes over on top with her usage of tone, evidence, and the use of a counterargument.

1.A. In the “doing gender”, author’s definition of sex is combined social condition and it is not just focus on the biological area. And also, author mentioned that different definition about sex, gender and sex category. Firstly, sex is build on traditional biological standard. It distinguished male or female by genitals. As the definition of sex, the people who was born without clearly character of male or female, those people called intersex. People’s definition of sex brings some bad influence to children’s growth. According the reading “Beyond Pink And Blue”, Intersex always received the medical treatment, and people usually can not give a right definition to the intersex people. “Recent estimates indicate that approximately one or two in every two thousand infants are born with anatomy that some people regard as sexually ambiguous.” (Preves. 2003) We can’t definite the sex just through the sexual organs but also need to combine the social implications. Secondly, sex category is a good way to definite sex, which through people’s actors, behaviors to help create definition of sex. In the article “doing gender”, author argues that people need to combine the physical characteristics and social norms to definite gender, rather than just use biological characteristics to definite the gender. It is more like the sociology of gender. For instance, in the society masculinity is more appropriate for men. otherwise, femininity is more appropriate for women. As a conclusion, the

"Gender Socialization is the process through which children learn about the social expectations, attitudes and behaviors typically associated with boys and girls (Hanish & Fabes, 2014)". Children learn from their parents about how the world works. Children first teacher are there mother and father. If they had learned children who play with the opposite sex toy grow up into a gay man or a lesbian female, then they would believe the same acts could happen to them if they were to play with the opposite sex toy. Children not only learn about gender roles from their parents but they also learn from their peer groups. According to Doctor Laura and Richard also stated: In regard to gender development children’s gendered behavior becomes more similar to those they spend time with (Hanish & Fabes, 2014). Children learn either bad habits or good habits from their peer circle, they would change their self’s in order to be well liked by the others in their groups. Our society should not care about socialization and what's an appropriate toy for children to play

Fagot and Leinbach found that children who learn gender labels the earliest are those whose parents provide the most reinforcement for gender appropriate behaviour. This contradicts Kohlberg's idea of self socialisation by suggesting that reinforcement is relevant to gender development.

Gender is the characteristics of people as females and males. During preschool years, children begin to fall into their cultures gender roles. Gender roles are the expectations that society has in regards to how females and males should think, act, and feel. Two social theories that are central to children’s gender development are psychoanalytic theory of gender and social cognitive theory of gender. Freud proposed in the psychoanalytic theory of gender that children develop a sexual attraction to their opposite-sex parent, but eventually loses this attraction causing them to identify with their same-sex parent. In the social cognitive theory of gender, children’s gender develops through the rewards and punishments from their parents for gender-appropriate behavior. Both theories rely heavily on the influence of parents. Moreover, children in both theories learn about gender roles through observation. They adopt the sources characteristics and imitate what they see. In contrast, social cognitive theory contains other sources from which children learn gender roles such as culture, school, peers, etc. Also, psychoanalytic theory believes that children are aware of their gender much earlier, while social cognitive believes that children become aware through the negative or positive experiences they encounter. Bandura believed in reinforcement, while Freud took a biological approach.

West and Zimmerman claim that gender is not something we are but something we do.

Interpersonal Theories of Gender are described as factors that influence the development of masculinity and femininity. Our text states, “Psychodynamics theory emphasizes