The Cultural Construct of Gender Appropriation
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;
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In his article Devor states, “People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or choose, sex or gender. Others recognize [individuals] more on the basis of these characteristics than on the basis of sex characteristics,” (505). This quote insinuates that in order for society to recognized one as male or female one must meet the requirements of what it means to be feminine or masculine because the structure of one 's anatomy alone is not significant enough to matter. People fear that by failing to exhibit these set gender traits they will fail to fit into a category of male or female. In Nelson’s article she announces how, “Tall women tell [her] they won’t wear heels because they don’t want to appear taller than their husbands or boyfriends, even by an inch,” (525). Seeing as a person’s gender is more effectively communicated to society through a person 's appearance and actions rather than by technicality tall women fear that their failure to be petite will be a threat to their status a women. Women believe that society will label them as unfeminine due to their height; considering that the words unfeminine and unattractive have been culturally constructed to mean the same thing women are in constant fear that if they don 't meet these gender norms they will struggle to attract a significant …show more content…
Devor and Nelson both acknowledge that gender roles are determined not by biological makeup but by societal manipulation. Devor conveys how society has developed of system of communicating gender identity that relies more so on the characteristics of a person rather than the anatomy of a person. So when individuals fail to religiously adhere to these gender codes they are at risk of failing to adequately communicate their gender, which can lead to being ostracized in the dating world or by pairs. Nelson highlights how the culture uses television to promotes and enforces gender roles; which assist society in identify what is gender appropriate. Society puts so much emphasis on gender appropriation that people fear the outcome of not fitting into a category of male or female because there is no inbetween. Men are supposed to dominate with aggression while women enable them by remaining vulnerable and submissive. Both authors believe that there are no natural character traits in men and women and that the creation of these differences were culturally created in an effort to keep women oppressed by male
Rhode, D. (2000). Culture Establishes Gender Roles.Male/female roles: opposing viewpoints (pp. 22-24). San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press
Throughout the early history of our nation, it was apparent that females were expected to abide by certain cultural and societal norms. Females were often tied to a male member, whether it was their father, husband, or male relative, the mere identity of a female has always been attached to a male figure (Connell, 2003). Due to these gender roles, women have consistently battled with gender inequality. Often times, women were subjected to stay at home, bear children, raise them, and take care of their husband. Assumed gender roles have led society to assume and expect that women were not allowed to do the same things as men. These patriarchal ideas have constrained and restricted women heavily in society (Glick, 2001). Mass media, television, and many other aspects of society have consistently reinforced patriarchal notions and the idea of different roles for men and women (McCarthy,
Prentice, D. A. and Carranza, E. (2002), What Women and Men Should Be, Shouldn’t Be, Are Allowed to Be, and Don’t Have to Be: The Contents of Prescriptive Gender Stereotypes. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 26: 269–281.
Everyone follows certain rules and acts a certain way. Simon says your Princess Peach or Mario and you can only have the green property if you’re Mario. The question though is where do we learn these rules? Who tells us how to perform these gender roles? We learn about gender through many different sources, but most prominently is media. In American culture, media constructs gender roles through the submissive and objectifying portrayal of women in television, the rendering of masculinity as violent, and the gendered consumer image created by magazines. These aspects show us how to play the game; they set the board for us to traverse.
Gender Roles. A hot button topic that has become a topic of conversation for years now. When we think of Gender roles what things come to mind? With Men we often think of qualities such as strength, toughness, bravery, and masculinity and being a Husband. With Women we often think of characteristics such as: care taker, Wife, nurturing, cooking/ cleaning, and often very supportive. But another big question that we should be asking ourselves is where and how these gender roles and stereotypes have come from? And for the answer to that question we should look to our media consumption. For years now TV shows and Movies have truly shaped what gender roles should be in our society. These ideas are planted in our minds even at a young age, whether
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.
His work also sheds light on why different gender roles are hard for people to accept, due to the way they were brought up, and the culture they are surrounded by (Devor 8). With the belief that gender role behaviors are concrete, teenage boys believe that they must act according to their gender.
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
Aaron Devor’s essay “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” describes how despite popular belief, gender and sex are not directly related and how social norms affect individual’s choice of gender. Devor‘s main argument is that gender is not determined by genitalia, but instead by the individual's own choices. Michael Kimmel’s essay “Masculinity as Homophobia” claims that gender equality is a positive thing for males and that social norms force men to act a certain way. Kimmel’s main argument is that men are always having to protect their masculinity in order to prevent themselves from appearing weak. Both authors present compelling arguments for both gender equality and for how social norms influence individuals’ gender choice. However, the two authors approach the same topic in different ways. Kimmel takes a more laid-back approach to the topic by using simple words and a conversational tone that relates to the casual gender sociologist. Devor writes a more sophisticated essay using complex terms and a more formal tone that relates to the serious sociologist that research gender studies.
On a daily basis people are exposed to some sort of misrepresentation of gender; in the things individuals watch, and often the things that are purchased. Women are often the main target of this misrepresentation. “Women still experience actual prejudice and discrimination in terms of unequal treatment, unequal pay, and unequal value in real life, then so too do these themes continue to occur in media portraits.”(Byerly, Carolyn, Ross 35) The media has become so perverted, in especially the way it represents women, that a females can be handled and controlled by men, the individual man may not personally feel this way, but that is how men are characterized in American media. Some may say it doesn’t matter because media isn’t real life, but people are influenced by everything around them, surroundings that are part of daily routine start to change an individual’s perspective.
Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need to do severe critical thinking about this delusion of gender, how has limited us in the home, media, and education, how it currently limits us, and what the results of the current and future changes in gender roles will be.
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.
Women – beautiful, strong matriarchal forces that drive and define a portion of the society in which we live – are poised and confident individuals who embody the essence of determination, ambition, beauty, and character. Incomprehensible and extraordinary, women are persons who possess an immense amount of depth, culture, and sophistication. Society’s incapability of understanding the frame of mind and diversity that exists within the female population has created a need to condemn the method in which women think and feel, therefore causing the rise of “male-over-female” domination – sexism. Sexism is society’s most common form of discrimination; the need to have gender based separation reveals our culture’s reluctance to embrace new ideas, people, and concepts. This is common in various aspects of human life – jobs, households, sports, and the most widespread – the media. In the media, sexism is revealed through the various submissive, sometimes foolish, and powerless roles played by female models; because of these roles women have become overlooked, ignored, disregarded – easy to look at, but so hard to see.
Gender is the psychological characteristics and social categories that are created by human culture. Doing gender is the concept that humans express their gender when they interact with one another. Messages about how a male or female is supposed to act come from many different places. Schools, parents, and friends can influence a person. Another major factor that influences millions of impressionable females and males is television. Not only does the television teach each sex how to act, it also shows how one sex should expect the other sex to act. In the current television broadcasting, stereotypical behavior goes from programming for the very small to adult audiences. In this broadcasting range, females are portrayed as motherly, passive and innocent, sex objects, or they are overlooked completely or seen as unimportant entities.
Society has stamped an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of gender, a man and a woman, however there are many types of gender roles a man or a woman may assume or be placed into by society. The ideas of how one should act and behave are often times ascribed by their gender by society, but these ascribed statuses and roles are sometimes un-welcomed, and people will assume who they want to be as individuals by going against the stereotypes set forth by society. This paper will examine these roles in terms of how society sees men and women stereotypically, and how men and women view themselves and each other in terms of stereotypes that are typically ascribed, as well as their own opinions with a survey administered to ten individuals. What I hope to prove is that despite stereotypes playing a predominant role within our society, and thus influencing what people believe about each other in terms of their same and opposite genders, people within our society are able to go against these ascribed stereotypes and be who they want and it be okay. Through use of the survey and my own personal history dealing with gender stereotyping I think I can give a clear idea as to how stereotypes envelope our society, and how people and breaking free from those stereotypes to be more individualistic.