Societal Influence on Gender-Based Morality

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In a study conducted by Andrew Dugan, it was discovered that there is a difference between what each gender sees as good and bad. Men were found to be more accepting of pornography and having affairs while married, while, in comparison, women were more accepting of having a child outside of marriage and homosexual relations (Dugan 1). There is an apparent division among the genders which is not innate. The primary aspect of people’s lives that assists in personal development is society. It is society that shapes morality among the genders, causing a blatant dissent between what each gender perceives as right and wrong. Society influences individuals with three main techniques: observation, interaction, and justification.
The first aspect of society that influences morality is observation—primarily, what children observe among their families. There are natural gender roles that are stereotypically embodied in a family. For …show more content…

When people observe gender roles in a television show it is seen as an ideal—what they should aspire to be. Both men and women look for something to reaffirm what they believe is true, and in our current society, the main medium of providing information to a large public is the media. Should there be any kind of cognitive dissonance, studies have shown that people are more likely to passively agree to something even if they think it is wrong to avoid conflict (Annatucci and Gilligan 225). For example, a young boy is watching a movie with his friends in which a man has an affair. All his friends think the man in the film had every right to cheat on his significant other. Even if the boy does not agree with his friends, he will stay passive and agree with them, which in turn reaffirms and justifies the thoughts his friends are having. In cases such as these, it is not what is taught from families as much as the social interactions that further shape the morality and can change it among an

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