Society : A Horror Story Essay

As defined by Dalton Conley, sex, sexuality, and gender are three different things. Gender is constructed around femininity and masculinity, therefore society dictates the social norms for gender (Conley 283). Society has created the notion of femininity and masculinity. Society tells us how to be feminine or masculine and how to display these characteristics to the world, thus, making it a social construct. These notions are social constructs because they are human inventions that are widely agreed upon and differ throughout cultures, they also change over time within the context of society.

While raising a child, the male of the child is needed to act as the father figure to teach his child to survive and be there for it until it is able to survive on its own. The female, mother, is to nurture and show love towards her child in order for it to grow up living a happy childhood. Without the two role models, a child will grow up not knowing how to live a normal and happy

In this session, I will discuss the gender roles in my family. The definition of gender role is the degree to which a person adopts the gender-specific behaviors ascribed by his or her culture (Matsumoto, D. R., & Juang 2013, 156). For example, traditional gender roles recommend that males are aggressive, angry, and unemotional. It goes further and explains that the male should leave the home every day to make a living and be the main wage earner. The traditional gender role for the female purpose is to stay at home and care for the children. It explains that the female is to be nurturing, caring, and emotional (Matsumoto, D. R., & Juang 2013, 156). These traditional roles for female and male are the opposite of one another. It is believed that the culture is likely to influence our perception about gender role in a family. In my family, my parents utilize the traditional gender role. Growing up, my father went to work every day and my mother stayed home with me and my sister. I believe my parents were influence by their parents and their culture to be traditional gender role parents. My father explained to me that they chose traditional parenting role because both sides of the family utilized traditional parenting gender roles. I believe my parents felt pressure to obtain the gender roles of the mother staying home with the children while the father worked. However, when my younger sister was old enough to go to school, my mother started to work. It was believed that when

In “A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality”, Lynn Weber claims that categories such as race and gender are socially constructed. In this paper, I will defend Weber’s claim with a particular focus on gender and gender identity, with gender being defined as a state of masculinity or femininity which is either based on the sex of a person or on their personal identification (Oxford Dictionaries). I will first explore the for and against arguments to Weber’s position, then in my own response, I will argue that gender is a social construct as gendered behaviour is learned over time, and that gender is contextual in nature. Additionally, I will explore the implications of the social construction of gender in

In society, women are expected to be submissive, quiet, well mannered, and poised. The term “lady like” embodies these characteristics and is only applied to women. Men are expected to be dominant, strong, tall, and athletic. If a man does not have these qualities, he does not qualify as “masculine.” According to Carol Vance, author of Social Construction Theory and Sexuality, explains that femininity was achieved through socialization. This supports the claim that social construction demands women to act submissive and feminine. The expectations posed by social construction have a negative impact as they marginalize the LGBT community or any person who does fit these standards. This has caused issues such as bullying in schools which can lead to suicide. In this way, social construction forms a mold that men and women must feel the need to fit into out of the fear of being abnormal. From the evidence shown here, one can see how social construction does not positively impact sexuality and

Furthermore, our gender expectations are exemplified by our physiological attributes that are ascribed. For example, women possess ovaries, a vagina, and breasts each function to procreate and nurture a child. Males have testes, sperm, and greater muscle mass, each of these attributes serve as an aid to provide the female with a child and furthermore fulfill an occupation where he can utilize his strength in providing for the family. This perspective on gender has furthered my understanding of how society’s social construction of gender goes far beyond our social entities it bleeds through to the foundation of our disciplines. For instance, as a psychology major, I have acquired that men and women deal with psychological and emotional distress differently based on their gender norms.

In the reading by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet “Learning to be Gendered” it states “Women are not born, they are made. The same is true of men”. Everybody has their own gender, it’s either a male or female. We think that we were born this way, but in reality we are forced to become something we are not. We are the way we are because of society its self. It affects our daily lives to a point where people have lost the will of choosing who they are or what they want. In some parts around the world it is forbidden to date or marry the same sex. Now days everything is branded for either a male, female, or both.

The gender based expectations are taught and the sometimes subtle, often overt lessons begin at a very young age. It starts with the color of the blanket a baby is wrapped up in, the toys bought for them to play with, and extends to the pretend play they engage in. So from the earliest ages of social awareness, society reinforces the ideals of masculine and feminine throughout life. Consequently, it is perfectly acceptable for a girl to put on a purple tutu and twirl about granting wishes to her stuffed animals, while it would be discouraged for a boy. He should be outside in the sandbox setting up his toy soldiers in a mock battle. In spite of the entrenched idea of gender, some mothers and fathers aspire to a more gender-neutral parenting style, that doesn’t restrict their child to specific societal ideals. However, the pressure to conform to the gender binary is ever-present and difficult to deconstruct. The boy that cries when he gets hit by a baseball is called a “sissy” and told to “man up” by his coach. The girl who tells her high school counselor, she wants to take auto

As women continue to struggle for equality in today's society, there is an ever growing notion born out of patriarchal ideology, that a mother has the sole responsibility of caring for and nurturing her children. In the somewhat jocular but pragmatic story “Bad Mother” by Ayelet Waldman (2010) she points to the imbalance between societal expectations of mothers and fathers when she comments:

xxv). This social concept observes the development of the world that shapes individual’s assumptions of reality. When a topic like sexuality is socially constructed it is categorized and assigned by society through cultural and social practice means. In addition, social construction of reality highlights how people produce models of the social world in order to adapt into society. Thus, this explains the link on how homosexuals are made.

Gender as a Social Construction This annotated bibliography is focused on research that supports the idea that gender has been socially constructed. Haslanger’s chapter offers an understanding of what is meant by the term ‘socially constructed’ and how gender can be defined from this viewpoint. Zimman complements Haslanger’s argument by explaining that it is our discourse that influences our perceptions of gender. Eckert and McConnell-Ginet’s chapter is helpful when explaining how gender is socially constructed by exploring how from birth we are treated and labeled according to whether we’ are male or female.

Societal gender binary requires individuals to identify by either masculine or feminine traits (Kachel, Steffens & Niedlich, 2016). Once gender socialisation has occurred, assumptions and stereotypes follow (Holmes, Hughes & Julian, 2012, p.109). If one refutes their gender norm, sexism and discrimination typically manifests. Similarly, stereotypes affect the way people treat others. Using stereotypes to define a person is prejudice and often leads to incorrect assumptions based on the way they act, look or conduct themselves in society. Social reproduction can impact one’s life experiences through limitation and inhabitation of involvement. Allowing for the transmission of inequity from one generation to the next, social reproduction restricts personal beliefs and

In the following article these authors discusses there are many differences between mother’s and father’s verbal communication strategies. A child's behavior may also be determined by which parent played and took care of the child the most. It showed that children in the same family have different experiences in their play interactions with their mothers and fathers. However these differences teach children indirect lessons about gender roles and reinforced gender typed patterns of

“The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that everything people "know" or see as "reality" is partially, if not entirely, socially situated. To say that something is socially constructed does not mitigate the power of the concept. These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender. This is

Society today places many ideals when it comes to proper behaviours regarding gender roles. These are considered societal norms that are widely debated and controversial. Society has created a norm, which encompasses specific expectations and rules that change the daily lives of men and women, giving them specific tasks and behaviours to abide by. These standards are known as gender roles, which are defined as distinguishing actions, thoughts, and feelings of males and females. Gender roles are said to be a result of nature, which is a natural process, every male or female is to follow. On the other hand it can be a result of nurture, which changes ones way of thinking and adapting their lifestyle to fit their environment. Either way gender roles are a part of someone’s life from the moment of their birth, as they develop, and long after that, this proves that gender roles are influential to a person’s life and development. This essay examines how media such as music, family life, and different parenting styles encompass gender roles and teaches behaviours regarding them. Therefore, gender roles define males and females are a result of nurture and not nature.