Butler

And as a man or female it is believed that one must act and behave completely heterosexual and stay in line with these socialized gender stereotypes. Heterosexuality and homosexuality depend on sex and gender as concepts. Gender typing and social stigmas around sexuality are two things that are very prevalent in society today. Sociologists have argued that people learn gender roles and gender stereotypes through socialization. Gender role socialization often reinforces gender inequality because men and women are expected to fulfill their specific “gender roles”.

As society adjusts, so do its definitions of gender. Politics is the other key word in Scott’s statement that must be defined. Politics, according to Scott in “Women’s History”, is not just formal government but all relationships involving unequal distributions of power. Scott uses this broad definition of politics in order to explain the “cultural determination of the terms of sexual difference”. In other words this definition allows for a more complete explanation of what has shaped society’s e... ... middle of paper ... ...he role of historians should be to record history and its significance.

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).

When we say that we “do gender”, we are referring to accepted role taken by both females and males in a society that comes to play in their everyday lives. West and Zimmerman stated that doing gender involves, “complex socially guided perceptual, interactional, and micro political activities that cast particular pursuits as expressions of masculine and feminine natures,” (West & Zimmerman, 2014, pg. 121). That had lead to individuals conforming to what society deemed as appropriate for their gender and the implications that follow. By characterizing sex, we are doing gender, which creates societal norms that influence both female and male behaviors.

The author speaks about our societies new obsession with the self and how selfies allow us to share every detail of our lives and express the worth we find in ourselves and others. There were two perspectives in this article, one being that selfies are a new way to conform to our narcissistic society and two, that Instagram offers resistance to the pressures to be perfect from traditional media. Related to the present article our class discussed the topic of sexism and the impact gender microagressions has on both genders. Looking at this article and the course material there is much overlap between the restrictive gender roles, denial of sexism, sexual objectification, and benevolent sexism when looking at the use of selfies and what they mean for men and women. The present article relates to the discussion of the objectification of both genders, but mainly on men and women’s self expression and females attempt to escape from the pressures of gender microaggressions.

The creation of meanings centers on the expectations of the roles each sex should fill; society creates cultural norms that perpetuate these creations. Gender blurs the lines between the differences created by nature and those created by society (Gottlieb, 168); gender is the cultural expectations of sexes, with meaning assigned to the diff... ... middle of paper ... ...le or female actually identifies with their prescribed role depends on the socialization process and the way they identify with society’s expectations of them. The social construction of gender and sexuality all rely on the measure that people believe there is a difference between the two sexes, once this emphasis is taken away, is when gender roles will no longer play an integral role in the structure of society. Works Cited Gottlieb, Alma. "Interpreting Gender and Sexuality: Approaches from Cultural Anthropology."

When attempting to understand the people in our environment, the sociological approach towards gender and sexuality is more informative when describing individuals compared to the traditional view of sex as being linked to gender and sexuality. As stated by McLennan, McManus & Spoonley (2009) the difference between sex and gender are not completely apparent to society, as ‘sex’ states the physical characteristics of men and women and ‘gender’ is the social attributes of women as feminine and men as masculine. In the individual, the term of ‘sexuality’ is described to be the sexual practices, identities and desires. The physical characteristic that showcase the differences between men and women is the reproductive system defining their ‘sex’, while an attribute of being maternal would be assigned to femininity which defines an individual’s ‘gender’. An example of one’s... ... middle of paper ... ...egarded to be biologically attached to forming an individual’s gender and sexuality in the western world, if multiple sociologists, cultures and individuals prove this to be false?

There are certain concepts besides the performance of gender that both Authors touch on including “the body”, heterosexual norms as inhibitions to attaining liberation, the relationship between sexuality and gender, and the problematic nature of social constructs. By comparing and contrasting the works of Cahill and Butler, this paper will explore the importance and complexities of “the body”, the pivotal role it plays in Cahill’s critique of the phenomenon of rape, and how Butler’s critique of “coming out of the closet” values the notion of gender “performativity” more than the notion of“the body” itself. Before de... ... middle of paper ... ... feminine body so we internalize that ideal and subject ourselves to the “intrusive, expensive, and high maintenance practices in order to be rendered beautiful” (Cahill 155). There are a number of factors that play into the perpetuation of rape culture, the hierarchy of gender, and gender performativity. The one thing they all have in common that is essential to understanding how men have been able to oppress us for so long and continue to oppress us.

At a young age certain preconceive notions about a gender are created—gender schemas—which then shapes the way we view the world. The inequality comes forth when the schema limits themselves to the particular subset of behaviors and attitudes appropriate to their own gender. These limitations can be seen throughout our society. For instance, Researcher, Woodington (2010) explores the stereotypes on sex discrimination towards women in the legal profession and seeks to dismantle this discrimination by assimilating the cognitive principles of the gender schema theory. The journal articles claim that schemas create “gender role stereotypes which are also a primary mechanism for reinforcing sex discrimination towards women in the legal profession due to their basis in the social roles traditionally occupied by women and men” (135).

Connell’s research on transgender individuals in workplaces also explores the agency of individuals who attempt doing, undoing and redoing gender. She finds that only undoing gender is the agency of the individual and that many transgender people challenge sex but reinforce gender norms in their interactions. Social groups and institutions have the power and agency over individuals doing gender. The power to inform cultural norms and expectations still belongs to the groups and institutions when individuals undo gender but the individuals express agency in their attempts to undo gender and challenge the binary