In “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?” Deborah Blum states that “gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology” (Blum 679). Maasik and Solomon argue that gender codes and behavior “are not the result of some sort of natural or biological destiny, but are instead politically motivated cultural constructions,” (620) raising the question whether gender behavior begins in culture or genetics. Although one may argue that gender roles begin in either nature or nurture, many believe that both culture and biology have an influence on the behavior. The world today revolves around a patriarchal society where it is a man’s world. Men are stereotyped to take jobs such as manual labor, construction, and armed forces while women are stereotyped to become nurses, caregivers, and cooks; but what makes it say that a woman can’t do manual labor or be a construction worker? Marc Breedlove, a behavioral endocrinologist at the University of California at Berkley, explains that gender roles “are too massive to be explained simply by society” (679). These gender behavior differences go far beyond our culture and into our genetics through Darwin’s theories of natural selection, survival of the fittest, and evolution. When talking about evolution, it is not stating that man comes from monkey but rather that man evolves and adapts to his surroundings and environment due to natural selection. In the days of the cavemen, men were hunting while women were caretakers and cooks. Because men were hunters, they became bigger, faster, and stronger in order to have better skills for hunting which was essential for survival. These men passed down these “dominated traits – some flexibility, an instinctive ability to respo... ... middle of paper ... ... drives. There are boys in the mountain villages of the Dominican Republic that lack testosterone and “are usually raised as ‘conditional’ girls” (681). Once these boys reach puberty, “the family shifts the child over from daughter to son. The dresses are thrown out. He begins to wear male clothes and starts dating girls” (681). These boys, also known as “guevedoces,” show biological features that produce in later stages of life rather than birth which determines gender role. My female cousin, who was raised by a single father, grew up acting and playing like a boy. She was very aggressive when she was younger but as she grew older, society and human nature has changed her. She is not only influenced by our culture to act in a feminine, lady-like way, but she is now an adult that wants to have a family and become a mother in order to produce off-springs and survive.
Throughout my reading of Deborah Blum’s, “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?” I have to admit that I had some mixed feelings. My initial reaction upon first glance, was that the essay was very intriguing. The title was inviting, the topic was argumentative, and the opening was captivating. However, after reading further and analyzing it from a rhetorical perspective, I admit that I was disappointed. Although Blum did indeed demonstrate examples of each ethos, pathos, and logos appeals, filling her writing with facts after facts, the overall writing was not well put together.
Throughout history, certain problems or societal aspects are often associated with one gender or the other. Manual labor was, and still is, often performed by men, while more skillful tasks, such as cooking and sewing, were done by women. By using the ideas put forth by Judith Lorber in Believing is Seeing: Biology as Ideology, we can analyze the findings of Matthew Petrocelli, Trish Oberwies, and Joseph Petrocelli’s “Getting Huge, Getting Ripped.” Lorber’s ideas of people having unique experiences, gender being one of society’s inventions, and a power differential between men and women can help us understand why men feel the need to use steroids to become the ideal male.
This is clearly not the case.”. She continues with, “Gender, like kinship, does have a biological referent, but beyond a universal recognition of male and female "packages," different cultures have chosen to associate very different behaviors, interactions, and statuses with men and women. Gender categories are arbitrary constructions of culture, and consequently, gender-appropriate behaviors vary widely from culture to culture.” (23). Gender roles are completely defined by the culture each person lives in.
When we discuss gender, the first thing that pops into our minds is the physical dissimilarities between men and women. For the longest time, I never realized that there are a diverse variety of issues involving gender, which are examined in the essay “Gender Blur” written by Deborah Blum. I now understand some of the factors involved, such as biological development, gender identification and behaviors, influences on aggression, and how testosterone affects behaviors and career choice.
By highlighting in depth, the idea of femininity and masculinity, both Devor and Blum asserts how gender discrimination affects children thus clashing with preexisting societal gender roles. Devor argues in her article how early ideas of femininity are stereotypical. She states, in “Gender Roles Behaviors and Attitudes” the preexisting idea of femininity is “according to this traditional formulation, a ‘result in warm and continued relationships with men, as sense of maternity, interest in caring for children. And the capacity to work productively and
In Mariah Burton Nelson article “I Won. I’m Sorry” she discusses how ingrained the concept of gender roles are within American society. She states how women are expected to be feminine while men are anticipated to be masculine. Nelson’s article highlights how these assumptions cause society to delegate standards of beauty and submission for women to fulfill while assigning standards of dominance and aggression for men to fulfill. In Aaron Devor’s, a professor of sociology, essay “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” he debates that the existence of gender assumptions are not biological but rather a cultural construct. He refers to people who follow this cultural construct of gender as actors;
Everybody does gender, even without the intention to do it, and we might completely fail to notice it, unless it goes against the binary pattern somehow. Gender roles are designed based on what the genitalia looks like at birth, but they are not genetic. Adults and children are influenced by the implicit rules of gender roles, which define most daily interactions, and influence friendship, study and career choices. Lorber refers to this difference as unequal counterparts in a patriarchal society, especially in the Western society, where women are considered as passive, or “Not-A”; men as dominant, or “A”
...socially directed hormonal instructions which specify that females will want to have children and will therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection. The schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive and therefore will dominate over females. The social hegemony of this ideology ensures that we are all raised to practice gender roles which will confirm this vision of the nature of the sexes. Fortunately, our training to gender roles is neither complete nor uniform. As a result, it is possible to point to multitudinous exceptions to, and variations on, these themes. Biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles; psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept. It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination.9
The gender binary of Western culture dichotomizes disgendered females and males, categorizing women and men as opposing beings and excluding all other people. Former professor of Gender Studies Walter Lee Williams argues that gender binarism “ignores the great diversity of human existence,” (191) and is “an artifact of our society’s rigid sex-roles” (197). This social structure has proved detrimental to a plethora of people who fall outside the Western gender dichotomy. And while this gender-exclusive system is an unyielding element of present day North American culture, it only came to be upon European arrival to the Americas. As explained by Judith Lorber in her essay “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender”, “gender is so pervasive in our society we assume it is bred into our genes” (356). Lorber goes on to explain that gender, like culture, is a human production that requires constant participation (358).
In today’s society and even in the past, gender has played a role in how humans act. In the past, women were portrayed to be a stay at home mom and take care of the family and house. The women stayed home to care for the children because of their nurturing capabilities. Men were expected to be involved in the community, to grow food or to go work long and hard hours for most of the day to make the money for the household. These natural-seeming roles were passed on for through generations. Today, the roles have become blurred. Both genders typically contribute to child care and working to provide the income.
In this piece the author, Deborah Blum, explores the relationship that gender plays both in our biological make up and in society. Blum is a Pulitzer Prize recipient who is well known for her scientific journalism. Working for the Sacramento Bee Blum she has published a wide verity of pieces but is most known for her book The Poisoner’s Handbook. In this piece titled “Gender Blur” she asks the astonishing question of: do the gender roles of our culture reflect an underlying biology, and, in turn, does the way we behave influence that biology? This is her central topic and does a good job at identifying different aspects that can be examined within the issue, giving specific examples and a wide variety of them.
Biological tendencies informed and built the basis of social and cultural norms. Thus biology must be the more important influence on gender roles in society. Using the lense of the short story “A Jury of Her Peers” we can show how the biological tendencies of strength,instinct to nurture, and cumulatively dominance form the basis of gender roles.
There are many different facets to the nature versus nurture argument that has been going on for decades. One of these, the influence of nature and nurture on gender roles and behaviors, is argued well by both Deborah Blum and Aaron Devor, both of whom believe that society plays a large role in determining gender. I, however, have a tendency to agree with Blum that biology and society both share responsibility for these behaviors. The real question is not whether gender expression is a result of nature or nurture, but how much of a role each of these plays.
Having the opportunity to read many essays such as "The Man We Carry in Our Minds" by Scott Russell Sanders, "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, "Why Boys Don 't Play with Dolls" by Katha Pollitt, and "Our Barbies, Ourselves" by Emily Prager, it has been amazing for me. Now, I could better understand about how life would be much easier or much harder for many people through generations. In this paper, I want to argue and discuss about if biological, social, and cultural factor are important in shaping gender role. Also, I want to explore how females or males are more restricted by conventional gender role.
The differences between women and men are not solely biological. Our society’s culture has established a set of unwritten cultural laws of how each gender should act, or in other words society has ascribed a stereotype. Men’s gender identity has been one of masculinity, and masculinity is defined as referring to a man or things described as manly. What does manly mean though? Is a male manly if he is “Mr. Fix-it”, or the jock, or if he sits on the couch on Sunday watching football? This latter statement is a stereotype of men, that has been around for decades, and is current as well, but starting with the 1960’s a man’s role started to change, despite the stereotype not changing to accommodate it. For the past 40 years one can see how men have taken on roles stereotypically ascribed to women, such roles including being the “stay-at-home mom”, which we can find an excellent example of in the 1980’s film “Mr.