What Is Required To Be Considered Masculine Or Feminine?

It is no secret that women often change their bodies in order to meet the societal expectations that are portrayed in the media. The patriarchy and the male gaze dictate the ideal female which is depicted on television, in movies, and in magazines. Woman most often alter their weight in order to match the small slim physique of models. Weight is one of the main aspects of the female body that the patriarchy controls. Woman are taught by society that their natural body is not beautiful and that they must conform to the societal standard of a thin, size 0 woman in order to accommodate the male gaze. The patriarchy dictates this of a woman in order to maintain male dominance in society. However, these expectations have a negative effect on

Many people confuse the definition of gender and sex. “Gender, on the other hand, refers to the meanings, values, and characteristics that people ascribe to different sexes. Sex is a biological concept, determined on the basis of individual 's primary sex characteristics.” (Blackstone) Society gives social cues on the appropriate behavior for each sex. For example, women are to exert more feminine traits such as being dependent, emotional, passive, innocent, nurturing, and/or self-critical. On the contrary, men should be more

If a person displays masculine, feminine or androgynous behavior, then what determines this? The two main arguments are either gender is innate or it has been learnt. These two different perspectives represent a famous debate that occurs throughout psychology: the nature-nurture debate.

All men have some so-called feminine traits. Masculinity has certain characteristics assigned to it by our culture. Men are primarily socialized into believing certain characteristics are definitive in determining their manliness and masculinity. These characteristics range from not crying when they get hurt to playing violently. Stereotypes about gender can cause unequal and unfair treatment because of a person’s gender.

Therefore, feminine and masculine characteristics and behavior that are not tied to biology but instead originate from the culture-specific perception, treatment of what sex you are and should be. If children would see women lifting and pushing weights, they would not think that only men should be strong. If they would see their father taking care of them like their mothers do, they would not think that only women are tender

While there are many inherent qualities that separate men from women, a few of these qualities are often constructed through the social infrastructures of society. Some manifest through the use of gender roles, which often differ from culture to culture. Some are universal, and manifest in almost every society around the world. For thousands of years, masculinity has been attributed as a male characteristic and femininity has been attributed as a female characteristic. A few basic components of femininity usually include tenderness, understanding, gentleness, sensitive to the needs of others, and compassionate.

This study aimed to test the idea that there are gender differences in psychological androgyny masculinity and femininity scores. Two hundred and twenty nine first year undergraduates (175 females and 54 males), completed one questionnaire measuring masculinity and femininity - Bems sex role inventory (BSRI). Results were analysed using independent t-tests, which revealed that males scored higher than females on the masculinity scores, whereas females scored higher compared with males on the femininity scores. Results lend support for the idea that gender differences do exist in psychological androgyny. Knowing that males and females may differ on these constructs will hopefully lead to a greater appreciation and understanding within society.

Gender in a society is thought of to be biological but how much that society commits to this is questionable. When a person thinks about gender we often tend to think about the biological differences that make us different but as we are seeing through the media or in society the social construct of hyper masculinity can have devastating and detrimental effects to society. The Planned Parenthood site has listed some of the most used words to describe masculinity: independent, non-emotional, aggressive, tough-skinned, competitive, clumsy, experienced, strong, active, self-confident, hard, sexually aggressive, and rebellious. But, this is impossible to be all the time especially when certain emotions may be how we may genuinely feel, how we react, or how we define ourselves. Some men may have so-called female traits and vice versa in contrast to

     Very few people emit all masculine or all feminine behavior. Most people of our society integrate both feminine and masculine characteristics within their beings. The integration of both masculinity and femininity is known as androgyny. Is has become more and more accepted to be androgynous, yet few people obtain a perfect balance between masculinity and femininity. The unspoken societal rule about gender is, if one is male, one must show more masculine traits than feminine traits, or else risk the

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.

What truly makes a state masculine or feminine? In Hofstede’s study of the masculinity of countries, one of the areas that are explored is the leadership of women in political offices. When one looks at a female running for political office in the United States, many factors play a role, the political culture of the individual state, the masculinity or femininity of the state, female candidates, political parties and their willingness to embrace a female candidate, female candidates verses male candidates, and the stereotypes of female political leaders.

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

Gender, as defined by the United Nations, includes the psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics associated with being female or male. It further defines acceptable and allowable behavior in for both men and women in a broad cultural sense (United Nations, 2016). Gender identity impacts our development and how we interact with society. Our daily life decisions are impacted by our gender role beliefs.

In society, the biological difference between men and women is used as a justification for aligning them with different social roles which restrict and mold their attitudes and behavior. Merriam-Webster defines gender as the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex. Narrow minded society of today is not satisfied with the natural difference of sex, but each insist on adding a cultural difference of gender to it. The unsophisticated, ideal physical facts always become associated with the complex psychological qualities (Holter). It is not enough for a male to be a man; he must also be masculine. A woman, in addition to being a female, must be feminine (Magner). In a more evolved and accepting society,

Gender is not based on physical attributes. Sex is the word that should be used when speaking about biological characteristics. So, based on the definition of gender by LeVay, gender identity is one’s personal attitude towards being more male or female.