Femininity And Identity Paper

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The purpose of this final paper is to spell out the reasons why different issues studied in the subject Introduction to Socio Cultural Studies, have had an impact on who I am today. The broad issues selected are "Issues of subjectivity and identity" (Barker, 2003, pp. 219-246), "What is gender?" (Benshoff & Griffin, 2004, pp. 203-206) and "Theories of Representation" (Hall, 1998, pp. 24-26).
I will start by explaining a concept from the text "Issues of subjectivity and identity” by Barker. As the author says, the term self-identity referred to the verbal conceptions we hold about ourselves and our emotional identification with those self-descriptions. Barker also explains that what we think we are changes from circumstances to circumstances, …show more content…

The author explains that the terms femininity and masculinity are two gender identities that allude to the idea of how the male and female sexes are characterized culturally. This theory was useful to analyze an important and interesting video called "The Smurfette Principle" in a mid-term exam that made me reflect a lot. From the analysis, I realized how sexist the world is and it makes me think about how people are educated and form their gender identity, consciously or unconsciously, in the contemporary society through media, that is very influential in shaping how we think about gender. I also learned that we are educated in ideological institutions (the media, the family, the schools, other people) following the myths that men are active, strong, non-emotional and smart, and women are passive, weak, emotional and dependent. I disagree on these cultural assumptions because men are not capable or better human beings than women. All people, regardless of gender, should be treated as equals. I strongly believe that men and women should receive equal treatment, and though society is on the way of making changes, I hope the social drama of gender inequality could be stop someday. Nowadays, I pay more attention to cases of sexism when I’m listening to music, watching television or even in a conversation, as I said in the previous paragraph, I’m more confident to express my opinion in favour of women because I have comprehended more about sexism during the

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