Social Label Of Being A Girl

My life started with my long and hard birth on July 14, 1993. I came into the world with a large scream and was immediately placed into some sort of category. The doctors and nurses took a quick look at me, and pronounced me as a girl. This social label of being a girl was now my gender, which is something I had no say in. Every since that very moment in time where my parents were told I was a girl, I have been treated according to my gender. This meant that my parents automatically dressed me in pink, bought me dollhouses and kitchen sets and threw me Barbie themed birthday parties. Since I was surrounded my whole entire life by these things, it was almost like second nature to think and act the way that I did and still do. My

The first experience that I forced me to think about my gender occurred when I was fairly young. I was playing tag with my best friend Matt and his sister Melissa. At one particular moment, it was my turn to attempt to “tag” them. When I was chasing Melissa, I pushed her slightly too hard and she tumbled to the ground. Neither of us thought anything about it, and we continued to play until dusk. After they left to return home, my mother came up to me and told me that I shouldn’t be so physical with Melissa the next time we play. I failed to understand her point. She did not seem to have a problem with the fact that I played with Matt the same way, but she began to explain to me that it is seen as inappropriate to push girls down in that manner. I apologized to my mother and told her that I would not do it again. Although she may have meant to teach me about

Growing up I was different from all the other boys; for example, during recess in elementary school most boys would elect to go play “Power Rangers”, but I would always choose to play house with the girls. If we had a free day during Physical Education the boys would generally chose to play some sport that requires a ball, and I would choose to go play double Dutch with the girls, pretty much anyone I chose to hang out was a girl. At the time I didn’t think it was weird that I generally enjoyed doing things that were traditionally considered girly, It was just an aspect of who I was, But once I went to middle school I learned that meant people would call me gay. It would later take me over eight years to have the courage the courage to come out of my closet, and admit that I was gay.

The determination of my gender identity was preset by my parents giving me the chromosomes XY, gave me an anatomic appearance of a female. Also being reared in a hetero environment had an influence in becoming a female as well. So the relation to the masculinity-femininity continuum is that I posses both traits feminine and masculine. In some situations I tend to carry myself as a caring and soft-spoken female, is typical for feminine behavior. On the other hand I express more masculine attributes like aggressiveness and self-reliance, which is typical for masculine behavior. Both add in the development in determining and sustaining my gender identity. The biological perspective by the way was inherited from my parents and aided in the development of the characteristics in becoming a woman, gender role of nurturing and caring individual, and maternal tendencies in taking care of my child. Then the psychological perspective according to my mother to which she insists that I was a normal girl with particular behaviors toward feminine toys and clothes. As a final point, the social environment offers an insight into the typical social role of an American woman, which was predetermined at birth by my social surroundings (Rathus, Nevid &

As humans we nurture newborns and associate them with their gender immediately. Whether this be the colors concerning their gender before they are even born, their clothing as a baby, even the toys we supply them with as children, humans gravitate naturally to associate certain characteristics with gender. Unknowingly, parents find themselves setting their

Growing up as a first-generation Mexican American woman with parents who came with old ways from their country shaped a lot of my gender behavior. I grew up wearing dresses and having long hair because that is what a girl should be wearing and having. We were not allowed to play with boys because us girls are not as tough as boys and we cannot handle how they play. A lot of it had to do with how my parents were brought up and they instilled all that in us. I remember asking my parents to let me cut my long hair because I wanted short hair and was never allowed to. According to my parents a girl needed her long hair because that’s what made her feminine. So, when I was a junior in high school, I went behind my parents back and cut my hair super

The definition of gender in the sociology textbook, The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology, is “the physical, behavioral, and personality traits that a group considers normal for its male and female members” (Ferris and Stein 243). The textbook defines socialization as “the process of learning and internalizing the values, beliefs, and norms of our social group, by which we become functioning members of society” (Ferris and Stein 101). Put two terms together and gender socialization is defined as being the process of learning to act masculine or feminine. The Sociology textbook, Boundless, says “gender socialization is the process of educating and instructing males and females to the norms, behaviors, values, and beliefs of group membership” (“Gender Socialization”). For example, if one is to be considered male at birth he is raised to fit in to the male gender role. From the beginning of one’s life, male or female, each is to be

What does it mean to be socialized in terms of one’s gender? During the process of socialization, one learns to behave accordingly within one’s society. So, gender socialization would be the process in which a person learns to behave a certain way based on their biological sex in their cultural context. Each culture has a different process of gender socialization, and each culture has different attitudes and norms associated with each gender. Some societies, and cultures, have more than two genders, like the Asian Indians and the Native Americas (Lindsey, 2011). Then there are other societies, like most of the modern world, have only two socially recognized genders. The United Sates

My very traditional parents developed a very gender-biased way of thinking as they were growing up, so they incorporated those ideas while raising my brother and I. They believed only certain genders should be doing certain things. Because of their views, my brother was treated differently than I was. My brother was always pushed to be the man of the house and to be served, while I was put to work and studying. By the time I was in second grade, I was doing household chores, translating for my parents, and doing homework from both chinese school and american school as for my brother, he was able to hang with girls and play sports. My parents never allowed me to complain

I grew up surrounded by strong women who fulfilled both male and female gender roles. I attended an all-female high school where girls took on the positions traditionally reserved for boys. All my friends were girls and I did not have male friends until I reached college. For most of my childhood I took on neither masculine or feminine gender norms. I was not a traditional tomboy or girly girl, over all I identified as a nerd more than anything else. I looked up to both men and women, but not because of their gender performances. I never questioned my gender or even thought much about it and so; I fell within a strange limbo of identifying as a female but not participating in female gender roles. It was not until later in life where I encountered terms such as non-binary, androgynous, and gender non-conforming. After talking to people who identified with these terms, and learning more about what they mean; it made me question where I fall on the gender spectrum. Many of my mannerisms are traditionally masculine yet I fulfill mostly female gender roles. Today I still identify as female and occasionally chose to actively participate in my gender

Prior to a couple of years ago, no one ever questioned my gender. After reading about cisgender privilege, I realized I had it in spades compared to now. I was easily able to put on a feminine appearance during job interviews and at weddings. It felt fake and I hated feeling

A single mom and a widowed grandma raised me. It could be assumed that I would fall in line with stereotypical feminine roles based on what Henslin has to say about gender messages in the family, but nothing could be farther from the truth. He states, “Our parents are the first to introduce us to the gender map. Sometimes they do this consciously, perhaps by bringing into play pink and blue, colors that have no meaning in themselves but that are now associated with gender”, but I started life in a red and blue room and overalls. In a house with three women, there were no gender roles, only jobs to be done. When I gave birth to a baby boy, I set out to raise him gender neutral as I had been. Though there are many social hurdles, over all, I have managed to continue the tradition of trying to remove gender

"I was 16 and a junior in high school. I had been appointed co-captain of my school's robotics team. Two boys who applied weren't selected. One was a friend. He didn't talk to me for a week. My victory felt like a loss. A few months later, we were having a conversation and he said, “Well, you're only a captain because you're a girl.” I felt utterly invalidated, and crushed that a peer saw me that way. He didn't think I earned my title. I cried in the bathroom. I shared this story during an English class discussion on gender. Many classmates sat in disbelief, and one simply said: “I can't believe someone would say that to you. Especially you.” I thanked that boy for his kind words. I thought about that discussion later, and was saddened because I knew how little the boys in my school knew about the way girls are treated every day, and how it deeply affected us. I really think if we had more

Socialization is the process which people learn the attitudes, values, and behaviors that are appropriate for members of a culture. My family experiences relate to me by learning the proper way to behave, morals to believe, and knowing what to value in life. Between the views and attitudes of my parents, they both believed that women deserve equal rights with men and stood up for equality. There wasn’t any conflicting ideas within my family about the nature and “proper” role of women. There are generational attitudes in the way my parents grew up verses myself. For an example, my parents grew up in a society of where girls are expected to learn how to clean and cook in the country, while boys were expected to run the farm and do agriculture.

When I was younger, I honestly have no memories of being told, “only boys play with that,” or “girls wear dresses.” I come from a very open minded family who accepts me for who I am. According to the traditional ways in society, girls like pink and purple, and boys like blue and green. I do remember playing with a lot of Barbie dolls and wearing my pink skirt, but my favorite color was orange and I played football out in the yard with the rest of the neighborhood kids. When I was in the fourth grade I only wore jeans and long sleeved shirts, I would not even wear capris all the way up until I graduated high school. That was the year I first became self conscious about myself and learned what