Stereotypes And Exploitation Of Gender Profiling

Gender is one of the most prominent features of a human being and not enough people pay attention to the development of such delicate trait. Our gender contributes a lot to our daily lives. Whether we are shopping or talking to somebody, people act differently based on your gender. Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet wrote just about this peculiarity in their article “Learning to be Gendered”. Penelope Eckert’s and Sally McConnell-Ginet’s article exposes some things that define a boy as a boy and a girl as a girl.

Gender is a sociological idea, in which it is not based on biology. While there is some biological differences between the sexes, the “meaning” of being male or female is based on social norms. Like race, these “biological” differences provided a system of enabling inequality between the sexes. History offers many examples of the gender norms over time. Women, for centuries, are few as the homemakers and often viewed as intelligent. Despite living in the twentieth century with greater equality, one does not need to go far to see how society and media influence our perception of gender. Advertisements in various media persuade its audience to buying their products. However, the means of attracting and persuading the audience can have underlying messages. Even in entertainment for young girls these underlying messages are prevalent. One example is the popular film, The Little Mermaid, in which the main protagonist is a young female. The protagonist gave up her identity to satisfy her lover. Even traditional gender roles are at work; the film showed young girls that to be happy and successful one had to find a husband and must relinquished one’s identity (Wood 1994). The generalized perception of male and female are polar opposites. Males are viewed as masculine, strong, authoritative, powerful, and devoid of emotions. Females are viewed as beauty, fragile, nurturing, emotional and sole purpose is to please men. These ideas can lead to sexism, which can have negative effects on

‘Gender should not be regarded merely as a matter of chromosomes. It is partly a psychological question, one of self-perception, and partly a social question, how society perceives the individual.’

At our inception we are simply biotic matter without any sense of gender. However as we age, our sense of gender beyond the objective view of our biology reminds us that men are different from women. Are we truly different entirely from one another, or are the differences in gender brought about by our social interactions? Drawing on the works of authors of Anna Quindlen, Virginia Woolf, and Cathy Song, it is apparent that these divides are not rooted in our genetics. Although, on the surface, they agree that socialization is a cause of gender difference, they convey different meanings for our expectations concerning gender. Woolf’s claim is without an outlet by which women can escape the gender expectations society expects of them, which reinforces

Gender defines people in society. People may utilize their gender as an advantage or disadvantage, depending upon the situation. Whether it be a female or male, people can and will exploit themselves in order to achieve ‘happiness’ and goals. There is also many societal gender based stereotypes, for example if you are a man you behave a certain way and if you are a woman you behave a certain way although, there will always be stragglers who deviate the norm. Nevertheless they are judged for it.

Gender is complex; it changes over time. Figure 1.1 fleshes out this assertion by tracing several tracks of gender development, which proceed in tandem over an individual's life. These tracks include cascades of biological influences, family influences, peer influences, cultural and social influences, and influences originating from the individual's own ongoing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Gender is an age-graded event that affected my childhood. Being able to identify as a woman and learning society’s expectations for women was critical for my development. At the age three, I discovered that society does not have the same expectations for males and females. Therefore, I had to learn how to act like a “lady”.

Gender is the personal traits and social positions that members of a society attach to being female of male. “Are Gendered Toys Bad for Boys and Girls?” is the question asked with in the podcast. So in this essay it will discuss the opinion in the podcast vs. the fact of the sociological perspective in the book.

(Eisenchlas, 2013) Humans, being labelled by social creatures, are greatly influenced and shaped by society as well as social interactions, because of this gender roles are socially constructed rather than biologically

Now we come to our third approach of gender development which is Culture. “The cultural theorists do not dismiss biological and interpersonal factors, but they do assume that these are qualified by the influence of culture” (Wood, 47). What these culture theorists are suggesting is culture shapes, affects, and determines your gender. For example, the environment in which a child grows up in has a strong deciding factor of what their gender will be. Nonetheless, as the culture theorist point out the biological and interpersonal weigh in on a child’s gender and what they identify as or

The concept of gender has a strong social impact on me. When I was born, I was immediately assigned to a biological sex as a female with two X chromosomes. I was then socially classified as a girl in the society with feminine gender roles. Gender is defined as a social principle which attribute to the roles and expectations of males and females through the years of different societies (Phillips, 2005). Gender can be considered as behavioural, cultural and psychological traits

Stroll through the toy aisle in any store. Adjust your eyes to the colors, patterns, and themes associated with the products available in the “girl” and “boy” departments. These stereotypical standards of pink and blue are as strictly contrasting as black and white. The problems presented in the restrictions and societal ideals of modern day womanhood are not limited to those born female. The channels of femininity are structured to both provide identity for those with breasts, wearing bows, and Barbie dolls, but also as a contrast to the qualities associated with the opposite gender. Clothes, hair lengths, toys and games are superficial signs of gender identity, but are often readily accepted by children absorbing the lay of the land as it presented to them. If a young boy identifies himself as being a girl, playing with Barbie’s instead of trucks and trains is complex and not accepted. The young boy feels a sense of excitement a thrill that he can

I cannot argue the fact that men and women are physically different. The physical differences are rather obvious and most of these can be seen and easily measure. I believe nature has created differences between the genders and some of these are hard wired and instinctive; however there comes a time when it gets “tricky to untangle biological from cultural factors.” (Bennhold, 1), and more often than not our society, our culture, as well as our own family are the ones pushing us into accepting today’s gender role

Thus there is a complex relationship between sex and gender. Some people do not fully meet the biological characteristics of their sex, but they have lived their entire life as the ‘’expected’’ gender. Consequently gender is not only determined by the XX and XY genes. There is a complex relationship between biological characteristics and how society interprets them. Gender is determined by anatomy, biology, social and cultural forces, it is a legal and social identity.

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry