In my opinion, Wasserstrom makes multiple valid points. To me, his most compelling claim was about how sex roles only exist because people impose them on specific sexes. However, it is evident to note that the word “sex” is a slightly outdated and broad term for modern ideas surrounding sexism. The modern terminology for Wasserstrom’s ideas against sexism are “gender roles” instead of “sex roles.” Sex is now considered, although constantly misused, to solely depend on biological properties such as genitalia. The new, revised (unofficial) gender, which depends on personal opinion based on emotions, is equivalent in principal to Wasserstrom’s point of sex roles being subjective. Nevertheless, it is important to maintain awareness of sex, but “gender” is the modern, more applicable term. …show more content…
With the debate over gender roles comes an ideal, in respects to how gender should be view, gender fluidity. Rather than limiting people to decide between two “radically” different genders, man or woman, gender fluidity intends to give people the chance to meet in the whatever percentage of man or woman they desire to be identified as. In essence, gender can be viewed as a spectrum, which a person can fluctuate within. Gender can be influenced by external factors Gender fluidity supporters also call into question the reasoning behind society’s coercion of specific gender roles. Taking into account all these traits, I believe that I am not wrong in claiming the gender fluidity supporters as people that strive for the assimilationist ideal type of society. Perhaps this “ideal” society, filled with assimilationists, could occur thanks to the gender fluidity community. However the idea gender fluidity is highly fallible and supports my belief that the assimilationists ideal is
Culture often thrives off of polar opposites—hot and cold, bitter and sweet, male and female. By setting up these opposing constructs, one can easily find a set definition for each. A hot surface could scorch someone or a cold temperature could cause them to shiver. In the same way, a bitter substance would be less enjoyable to eat than a sweet one. These terms are often defined by mentioning their antitheses. Because it’s comfortable to embrace specificity and certainty, topics such as gender and gender expression often get simplified into binary existences—however, they don’t quite operate under the same parameters. In an essay entitled “Bad Feminist”, Dr. Roxane Gay explores and warns against the dangers of binary thinking. Throughout
Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.
One who claims any gender other than male or female would be considered taboo or highly unusual by our society. Biological sex is often thought to determine one’s gender identity. Though sex and gender align for the mass of our population, there is a minority group that does not feel that they belong to either male or female genders. To understand gender fluidity, one must recognize that sometimes a person’s gender and sex do not align. A person may not feel that their biological sex reflects who they are, they may feel uncomfortable with the expectations and roles placed on them due to their sex. These gender roles are created by social expectations of our western society. Gender roles are merely social constructs, and if one does not want to conform to societies conjectures placed on them due to their biological sex, they should have the freedom to non-conform.
The stereotypical labeling of genders can determine one person’s outlook on life. The judgment can make one feel like there is a set rubric to follow in order to remain in the lines regarding which gender they belong to. Such influences from peers or partners can alter
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
Whether we consciously notice or not, doing gender is occurring everyday within our society. Every interaction we have with another individual is doing gender. Doing gender has become a part of our every day lives the same way without realizing it the same way we breathe air without really paying attention that we are breathing. The meaning behind this is that it is occurring unconsciously. Candace West and Don Zimmerman coined the term doing gender in an article they composed. West and Zimmerman argued that gender is something that humans created. As humans, we have the urge to categorize and define everything. If someone was not in favor of their gender role or did something that was not deemed correct for that gender, this person would be committing an act of social deviance. This paper will discuss what doing gender means along with other attributes of doing gender. These attributes includes what pushes us to do gender, why we do gender, the results of doing gender along with discussing what the boys in C.J. Pascoe’s article of Dude you’re a fag accomplished. This essay will discuss what doing gender is along with what causes us to do it and finally what doing it accomplishes.
In the fifth and sixth chapters of Sandra Bem’s book The Lenses of Gender (1993), Bem discusses how androcentrism, and gender polarization contribute to one’s gender identity.
There are several sources that tell a person how to be a man or woman. Science tells us by recognizing the X or Y chromosomes. The media shows us through the physically ideal celebrities that grace the covers of magazines and flaunt their bodies in commercials. Sports, wrestling, cars, and blue for the boys. Dresses, make-up, painted nails, and pink for the girls. All of these sources, as well as others, have evolved into an expectation that has become institutionalized within society. This expectation, is placement and belonging into the binary system of person: the man or the woman. In Anne Fausot-Sterling's acrticles “The Five Sexes” and the “The Five Sexes, Revisited”, the
Any living human being has had experience with the concepts of a “gender defender” and “gender outlawer”. Regardless of what gender we identify ourselves as, living in a society that is set up to only label us and categories us- we are constantly battling between a defender and outlawer.
When describing something that influences your gender, most people would assume that your “sex” or our biological identification given to us at birth would be the most definite source; however there are multiple factors and processes that contribute to one’s gender identity. The multitudes of institutions that assist in the socialization of an individual vary from person to person, but are all beneficial in creating a sense of gender. According to Michael Messner, there are two types of institutions, the gendered and the gendering. The gendered institution is described by Messner as “an institution constructed by gender relations. As such, its structures and values (rules, formal organizations, sex composition, etc.) reflect dominant
Throughout today’s society, almost every aspect of someone’s day is based whether or not he or she fits into the “norm” that has been created. Specifically, masculine and feminine norms have a great impact that force people to question “am I a true man or woman?” After doing substantial research on the basis of masculine or feminine norms, it is clear that society focuses on the males being the dominant figures. If males are not fulfilling the masculine role, and females aren’t playing their role, then their gender identity becomes foggy, according to their personal judgment, as well as society’s.
116) society imposes restrictions and controls one’s freedom to transfer from one sex status to others. One who believes they are normally sexed, may believe that their society has a normal sex construction. Gender is dichotomised to give two and only two categories. This means they represent gender as divided. Garfinkel (1967, p. 118-40) created a case study of Agnes, a transsexual who was brought up as a male but attained her status as a female and adopted a female identity at the age of 17. A couple of years later she experienced a sex reallocation operation. This is an example of evidence for how gender is constructed through interaction. Agnes had the male genitalia, therefore she was required to represent herself as a female and be knowledgable about what it’s like to be a female. It was necessary for her to recognise how to behave in social situations. Agnes’ case proves that culture has made the achievement of gender indistinguishable (West and Zimmerman,
An individual can either identify themselves with a subculture or social group which results in them having diverse gender roles.
When considering gender and sex, a layman’s idea of these terms might be very different than a sociologist’s. There is an important distinction: sex, in terms of being “male” or “female,” is purely the physical biological characteristic differences – primarily anatomical differences. (There are also rare cases of “intersexual” individuals as outlined in the Navarro article, “When Gender Isn’t a Given”.) Gender, on the other hand, is an often misconstrued concept that is commonly mistaken as synonymous with sex. A non-sociologist might surmise the following, “men act masculine and women act feminine, therefore, it must follow that gender is inherent to sex,” however, this is not necessarily the case.