Essay On Gender And Gender

1051 Words3 Pages

Gender refers to the cultural differences of men and women (i.e. by society/culture) according to their sex. Therefore, a person’s sex does not change, however, their gender on the other hand, can change. Chromosomes (female xx, male xy) the reproductive organs (ovaries, testes) hormones (estrogen, testosterone) make up the biological difference between male and female. According to McLead (2014) he seems to believe that there is no distinction between sex and gender, because biological sex creates gender behavior, and gender is determined by hormones and chromosomes. For example, hormones are chemical substance carried though the blood stream that occur in both men and women but, the amount differ in the effect that they have upon different …show more content…

This brings me to choose the side that gender differences are socially determined in my opinion. The perception of men and women and what they are supposed to be is basically produced by the society in which they live. Therefore, people say that gender is a socially constructed. West/Zimmer (1987), went so far as to renaming gender calling it Doing Gender, which mean that gender is made by us in everyday life with our interaction with other people. Whereas, from birth, children are assigned a gender and are socialized to confirm to certain gender roles based on their biological sex. For example, society can create gender roles based on norms, or standards. Needless to say, masculine roles according to society are based on charcterictics like strength, aggression, and dominance, whereas, feminie roles are associated with being passivity, nurturing, and …show more content…

And, social learning theorists believes that our gendered is a learned behavior as well. For example, as a child develops and grow they gain their understanding of general behaviors through their social environment, and they develop an understanding of gender identity. (Stainton, 2001) According to, (Marica, 1980) he believes that a person choices of his/her identity is determined based on certain personal and social traits. Also, Marcia, states that a well-developed identity has a great sense of strengths, weakness, and has a uniqueness about one’s self. Whereas, on the other hand, if the well-developed identity lacks strengths, weakness, they do not a well-developed articulated sense of one’s self. The usefulness and the validity of explaining gender roles starts with physiological traits in genders can involve mood triggers, or actions but how they react to those triggers is usually shaped by the gender’s environment, culture, and family up-bringing. By exploring other cultures outside of your own, a person can begin to find that people can be physiologically similar, but social impositions surrounding people alters their decision to behave a certain way. Therefore, gender roles in my opinion are learned, and socially inhered. Gender is seen as

Gender: A Socially Constructed Ideal
2500 Words | 5 Pages
In order to explore the origins of how gender roles are learned, a solid definition of gender versus sex must be developed. Sex is completely biological, and the physical sex organs one is born with are determined by nature. Gender, on the other hand, is not biological in any sense—it is in fact something that is decided and dictated by societal and parental influence. What it means to be male or female is something that we are taught. Contrary to popular belief, it is clearly not something that comes preprogrammed into our brains. The American Psychological Association defines gender as “…the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for boys and men or girls and women. These influence the ways that people act, interact, and feel about themselves.” This definition confirms that gender is learned, rather than inherited. As psych...
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Gender Stereotypes In Pleasantville Betty Parker
1001 Words | 3 Pages
The human species is qualified as a man and women. Categorically, gender roles relative to the identifying role are characterized as being either masculine or feminine. In the article “Becoming Members Of Society: Learning The Social Meanings Of Gender by Aaron H. Devor, says that “children begin to settle into a gender identity between the age of eighteen months and two years (Devor 387). The intricate workings of the masculine and feminine gender roles are very multifaceted and at the same time, very delicate. They are intertwined into our personalities and give us our gender identities (Devor 390). Our society is maintained by social norms that as individuals, we are consciously unaware of but knowingly understand they are necessary to get along out in the public eye which is our “generalized other” and in our inner circle of family and friends which is our “significant others” (Devor 390). Our learned behaviors signify whether our gender
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Gender Blur Summary
1103 Words | 3 Pages
Both Deborah Blum’s The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over? and Aaron Devor’s “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” challenges the concept of how gender behavior is socially constructed. Blum resides on the idea that gender behavior is developed mainly through adolescence and societal expectations of a gender. Based on reference from personal experiences to back her argument up, Blum explains that each individual develops their expected traits as they grow up, while she also claims that genes and testosterones also play a role into establishing the differentiation of gender behavior. Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and femininity, the expectation that society has put upon male and female disregarding any biological traits. Furthermore, both could agree with the idea that society has an effect on how an individual should act based on their gender. Yet, additionally Devor would most likely disagree with Blum regarding the assumption that a biological factor is involved in this following case, but I reside on Blum’s case. Although society is indeed one of the major contributions as to how one should act, as Devor states, biology is somewhat like a foundation that leads to how one should behave as they grow and acknowledge their gender difference as well, residing on Blum’s argument.
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1148 Words | 3 Pages
Gender roles are not the product of innate biology; They are formed based on the cultural and societal beliefs that surround an individual during their development. These factors play a very important role in gender identity, and often lead individuals to believe in stereotypical representations of gender identity such as gender roles. The way in which these cultures interpret the expression of gender identity heavily impacts the way an individual chooses to express themselves.
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1263 Words | 3 Pages
When separating men and women according to gender, most people would do it based on physical appearance. Would you have ever thought that you can tell whether someone is man or woman according to psyche? Psychological gender differences have had a long history dating back for more than a century. The use psychological research on women began in 1879 which also marks the beginning of formal psychology. Any research done during these years was mostly used to the notion that the white male was supreme over everyone else. This belief is a gender stereotype and children develop their gender based beliefs on such things. I believe children should develop their gender based beliefs from studies that are unbiased and doesn’t favor one gender over another.
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944 Words | 2 Pages
Gender is not about the biological differences between men and women but rather the behavioral, cultural and psychological traits typically associated with one sex. Gender is socially constructed meaning it 's culturally specific, it 's learned and shared through gender socialization. What it means to be a woman or man is going to differ based on the culture, geographical location, and time. What it meant to be a woman in the US in the 19th century is different than what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. As cultures evolve over time so are the ideals of what it means to be man or woman.
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1115 Words | 3 Pages
The word gender refers to a general classification of human beings into male and female with socially and culturally constructed characteristics, behaviors, attributes and roles preconceived and labelled as appropriate for each class. The society and culture today have placed human beings in a box which to a large extent dictates how we act in the world.
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Gender Roles Essay
1109 Words | 3 Pages
According to Hochschild, “attitudes toward men’s and women’s roles have been referred to as gender ideologies” (as cited in Helgeson, 2012, p. 68). There are currently three different gender role ideologies that can be measured through the Attitudes Toward Women Scale (ATWS). The three ideologies include egalitarian, the belief that men and women should equally share in both household and workforce duties, traditional, the belief that women only do housework and men only are in the workforce, and transitional, the belief that it is okay for women to enter the workforce, however, they still do proportionally more household duties. Cultural differences also affect individuals’ gender role attitudes, depending on how “expectations for men and
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Sex, Sex Category And Gender
1357 Words | 3 Pages
In western society males are taught what it means to be masculine and females are taught what it means to be feminine. Lorber (1994:57) states “Individuals are born sexed but not gendered, and they have to be taught to be masculine or feminine.” As we grow older we are taught what is expected of us on the basis of what gender were identify as and/or what gender other people perceive us as. For instance, a woman is expected to cook, clean, and have occupations such as a nurse, or secretary. A man is expected to have be either have top jobs such as a surgeon or have a tough labor jobs, and be the bread winners. Western society expects each gender to stay within their gender role. Lorber (1994:61) argues “As, a structure, gender divides work in the home and in economic production…” Once an individual goes outside these expectations breaking they are out casted. Gender is a process that creates what is man and what woman based off of what other perceive what is expected of and should be expressed by each gender, making gender socially constructed. Lorber (1994:60) argues “As a process, gender creates the social differences that define ‘women’ and ‘man.’ In social interaction throughout their lives, individuals learn what is expected, and see what is expected act and
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Essay On Gender Binary
1088 Words | 3 Pages
Currently the citizens living in the United States are imprisoned within the binary of two genders. It is only acceptable for a person to identify as a male or a female. Depending on the gender the person identifies, as there is an expectation of how that person should look and act. The person identifying as the specific gender, must maintain the gender norms that are in place. These gender binaries are so prevalent in our lives; it is to the point where a large group of Americans are being overlooked. This group of Americans identifies as transgender, which means they do not fit society’s expectations of how a specific gender should look and behave. (gaycenter.org, 2012). The trans population does not fit the expected gender molds that are
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Social Construction Of Gender Essay
1599 Words | 4 Pages
Social Construction of Gender is a process, stratification system and structure. The day to day interactions emphasize gender as opposites. Take for instance, conversations, formalities of daily life, sayings, and so on. The social construction of gender is created through social interaction – through the things we do and say with other people. This means that gender it is not a fixed or inherent fact, but instead it varies across time and place.
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Sex And Gender Essay
2354 Words | 5 Pages
The main argument to think about when looking at the relationship between sex and gender is whether it is purely biological or is more than definitely socially constructed. The distinction between sex and gender could be described as simply, sex: the biological makeup of an individual’s reproductive anatomy and gender: an individual’s lifestyle or their personal identification of their gender. Firstly looking at the argument that gender identity arises from biological processes. For some, it may be an obvious answer of women and men being chromosomally different. Women having two X chromosomes and men having an X and Y chromosome. The Y chromosome produces testosterone and other androgens. These androgens allow the male to develop testes and a penis rather than the female genitalia of ovaries and a uterus. It is argued that they all cause male and females brains to develop differently. For example...
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1769 Words | 4 Pages
Sex and gender are terms that are mixed up from day to day and seen as similarities rather than differences. Sex is what distinguishes people from being either male or female. It is the natural or biological variation between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genital, body hair, and internal and external organs. It is the make-up of chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome and women have two X chromosomes, which are responsible for primary characteristics (Fulcher and Scott, 2003).
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1011 Words | 3 Pages
The gender issues in today’s society are issues to discuss because they are tainting the lives of people from an early age. This is important because girls and boys are showing increasing levels of insecurities that are arising due to fundamental gender issues in society. The masculine stereotype is one the most prevailing causes of gender issues in society, especially the issue of sexism. Our society must address this issue because the cycle of sexism only feeds into peoples’ insecurities. Men should not feel obligated to objectify women to feel masculine and women should not feel like they must be sensual and beautiful to have value. The stereotypes that are being placed on men and young boys effect the attitudes of the women around them and creates a cycle of hypersexualization and sexism, leaving the relationships between genders tainted and women feeling less confident in themselves. By changing the way people think men and women are supposed to be, we can change the way our society values one another and in turn, become a more equal and respectful society.
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1078 Words | 3 Pages
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