The Biggest Act Essay

In Simone De Beauvoir’ Second Sex, the author aims to define what it is be a woman. It is difficult to pin down the definition of something that has a multitude of meanings to different people. The author makes the claim that although someone is female they may not identify as a woman. In an effort to define women, men have made the comparison against themselves. The essence of woman through the eyes of men is purely a sexual being. The Man views himself as the superior being while only viewing women in terms of personal benefit. De Beauvoir goes on to state a man can imagine himself without a woman yet, a woman cannot imagine herself without man. Not much has changed when it comes to the core argument that on a subconscious level men view

In the chapter titled “History” within the book called The Second Sex, Beauvoir talks about various of events and changes along with encounters that provided opportunities to seize greater freedom for women as a collectivity. For instance, when women were able to leave their homes and actually take an outside job, it allowed women a bit confused as to what roles she needed to partake in. Given that men were always gender-policing women to fit the ideal role, the women found it difficult to transitions and thus loose a sense of self along the way. De Beauvoir also states that gainful employment can stop the cycle of dependency on man and thus allow the two genders men and women to see each other’s as equals. It is within the book The Second Sex that De Beauvoir tries to understand the imbalance of gender roles to help her understand this she turns to the biology, psychoanalyst and the historical materialism. In her findings, she reveals that although there are some physical differences between women and men there is no proven facts that women cant do the same task as men in a workforce.

Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990) argues that rather than sex determining gender-gender determines sex. Sex is shaped by gender discourses which give us scripts to perform according to whether we are biologically classed as male or female. The continual performance of these scripts on a daily basis is what makes us male or female. The classic example of this is the third sex, yes, the third sex and that is the transgender( born male in a female’s body or

Identity of a person are based off the biological and social definition. If I were to asked you what does it mean to be a “man”, what characteristics did you think of?Did you think strong? Did you think of certain occupations? Physical appearance? Behavior? You're not alone, society has shaped the definition of a man to fit certain traits. So if you don't fit the typical social stereotype, does that mean you will never be one? The answer is no, because there can not be one definition to define a broad group of people. each individual is different, mentally and biologically.So just as the identity of a “man” alters between people, the identity of a person will not always be the same.This subject is similar to what does to mean to be black. The broad definition of being black is defined by what society says and is often derived from history.

Butler’s overarching idea throughout her essay is that becoming a gender is not done through linguistics but rather action – specific focus to the body. From the beginning of the essay, Butler makes the distinction between gender and sex very clear. Gender is plainly a social construct and the gender you choose to associate with is developed through repeated actions. Sex rather, is anatomic; your internal bodily organs and reproductive systems define it.

Sex is the biological difference in the reproductive anatomy and genetic composition (Chapter 2 slides). Gender are the traits and characteristics that determine masculinity and femininity in people (Chapter 2 slides). Alex Hai who is a gondolier in Venice, Italy is a women who perceives herself as a male. Alex knew she was a girl when she was small, but she knew as a child that she did not identify herself as a female. When Alex was with a group of females, she felt she did not belong with the females, especially when Alex knew that the female group identified Alex as one of their own. When Alex was with a group of males, she talked like them and joked around with them, so she felt she belonged with males. Alex’s sex is female because she was born as a female, but the gender she identifies herself is male due to all of her actions and what she prefers to wear.

The sex of a person refers to the physical body that they possess. A person is born with their sex, and of course going back in time there was exclusively the distinction between male and female. Defining gender is a more deeply evaluated investigation that Judith Butler engages in. Gender is created by society, it is the socially constructed manual that men and women are indicated to represent. Certain characteristics are specified for people of each sex.

For most of the people, sex and gender are the same things, they are in the same category, and both words are talking about our race differences. In another hand, Lorber discussed another opposite theory of gender in his article: “Night to His Day”. He stated: “gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly ‘doing gender’” (Lorber 1). Simply said, sex and gender are different, but they are related to each other and affect each other as well.

“Who are you?” “What is your identity?” These questions often seem daunting. I always have trouble providing answers to such questions on even the most basic level. This is one of the many reasons I, as a cis-female, can’t even imaging how difficult it often is for someone whose gender assignment and gender identity do not align. Since first learning about gender identity and the gender spectrum, I’ve thought that people should explore all of the “terms” out there until they find one that they are truly comfortable with identifying. However, after reading Kai Minosh’s "Why Non-Natives Appropriating 'Two Spirit' Hurts", I have realized that it is important to consider the history of these terms in one’s decision about how to identify.

Judith Butler questions the belief that behaviors of either sex are natural. She proposes a rather radical theory that gender is performative and that sex is constructed. When gender is being performed, it means that someone would take on a role, acting in such a way that gives society the idea of their gender and constructs part of their identity. To be performative means that we produce a series of effects.Gender is constructed and is not in any way connected ‘naturally’ to sex.

Much like Kimmel explained the differences between sex and gender, West and Zimmerman in their article “Doing Gender” offer similar explanations. Sex is described as the biological criteria such as genitalia, which classifies a person as male or female. While sex category is a placement in either the female or male category. An individual’s placement in a sex category is then “established and sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim

In this essay I discuss that "doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men...." (West & Zimmerman 2002:13) I am concentrating on the female perspective, how societyputs forth expectations of what is 'natural' or biological even though, in some cases, it can be quite demeaning and degrading. I am using some examples from the local media and also a few childhoodexperiences that have helped me to now strongly suspect that the quote from Simone Beauvoir (1972) "One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one" most likely has quite a bit of truth to it.

Judith Butler’s approach in “From Undoing Gender” lets the audience see a different side of opinions regarding gender. Judith’s presence and way of speaking lets us look at things in a way we never had before. She demonstrates her way of thinking, acknowledges other peoples ways of thinking and also goes outside the box in creating her own definition of undergoing gender.

What does it take to be a man or a woman? Our sense organs alone do not determine whether we are men or women. Our gender includes a multifaceted combination of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do we act, behave, and talk like a man or a woman? Each one of us has a sex, a gender, and a gender identity that are all aspects of our sexuality. These aspects describe who we are, in different personalities and attributes but related. Society’s categories for what is masculine and feminine may not capture how we truly feel, how we behave, or how we define ourselves.

The term ‘gender’ was coined by John Money in 1955: “Gender is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself/herself as having the status of a boy or man, girl or woman, respectively” (Coleman and Money, 1991, 13). In