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Short notes on gender bias
The effect of gender on identity
Gender identity in modern society
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A PERSONS GENDER DOES NOT DEFINE THEIR IDENTITY:
When a person is seen they are first identified by their gender. We are born either male or female. Gender is given not chosen. It is supposedly meant to define our identity. In the World today, humans have decided and found ways to change their gender because they felt they did not connect with the one they were given. In the novel Some Assembly Required by Arin Andrews, Arin decides to become a transgender because he felt he would connect better with a different gender. His hatred for female fashion which led to his undeniable love for males’ fashion, his dislike for female puberty changes that made him like male puberty changes, and his non confronting of his given sexuality, shows that Arin’s gender does not in any way define his identity.
Arin born Emerald always felt like he didn’t belong, he felt he was different from every other girl. At a very young age Arin began hating things that identified him with his gender, he hated wearing dresses and applying makeup. “Mom would drag me through the girls’ department loading her arms up with dresses, while I’d stare longingly across the aisle of boys’ stuff” (Andrews 27). This shows that Arin’s gender and his identity were different. His love for boys’ stuff as a girl
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But through the use of testosterones and surgery, Arin was able to walk away from his nightmare of being a girl. “I was finally looking at my self- the person I always saw when I closed my eye” (Andrews 209) Arin was finally able to confront his sexuality because he now had the one he had always dreamt of. Arin’s strong desire to change his gender was built up by the inability of his given gender to define his
He says, “I took jazz, ballet, Irish step, hip-hop, and tap. But my favorite was clogging—we wore tap shoes with double clickers on the heels and toes, so the sound was extra loud” (18). Even though there were some activities that he liked that weren’t exactly geared towards boys, he still felt more boyish inside. The next important event in Arin’s life happened when he was seven: he got his first crush on a girl. This may not seem surprising at first, but it is important to remember that Arin had not yet realized that he was transgender (this wouldn’t happen until almost eight years later), and was still seen as a girl. So he asks himself, “Can I marry a girl?” (24). It wasn’t that his family was incredibly homophobic, it was just that things like that just weren’t done. He compares the reaction people would have if he asked them that to their reaction if he’d asked if he could marry a dog; it just wasn’t done. The biggest turning point in his life, however, happened when he was about 15. Arin was browsing YouTube, looking for stories from LGBT people, when a video from someone called Skylarkeleven popped up on his recommended
Smith makes the reader question whether gender is merely biological or, like Butler argues, if it is a performance put on day to day because it is how society has constructed us to act. Robin is in the novel the manifestation of everything society would label a boy, yet her biological sex is a girl. Smith writes that Robin makes love like both a girl and a boy, and by doing this emphasises that love is not gendered.
In today’s society, it can be argued that the choice of being male or female is up to others more than you. A child’s appearance, beliefs and emotions are controlled until they have completely understood what they were “born to be.” In the article Learning to Be Gendered, Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell- Ginet speaks out on how we are influenced to differentiate ourselves through gender. It starts with our parents, creating our appearances, names and behaviors and distinguishing them into a male or female thing. Eventually, we grow to continue this action on our own by watching our peers. From personal experience, a child cannot freely choose the gender that suits them best unless our society approves.
In this article, Eckert and Ginet use pathos in the last two pages of the articles. The tow writers express their feelings when they mention “ In words, they do not have the option of growing into just people, but into boys or girls”( Eckert and Ginet,742). These sentences show to the readers, they emotion about how children become adults and know what your gender is.The tone for these sentences is cruel with the reality because children have to mature at an early age to know what their gender
The transformation that takes place in the way in which the girl thinks about gender roles is not described directly as an issue of what is appropriate for men and women. Instead, the description is much more subtle, and almost a natural change that occurs in every person (Rasporich 130). It is this subtleness in the language causes the readers to not only feel sorry for the young girl, but to also think about their own views of gender
However, her father believes that she cannot be a female, and actually he already knows that what Alex really wants to be. At this moment, I could figure out that gender is just boundary that distinguishes between male and female. Her mother thinks that if Alex is a real female, Alex can be happy, and her parents don’t have to think about what other people thinks about Alex. On the other hand, sexuality is quite different from gender. For example, when Alex has a sexual relationship with Alvaro, she puts her penis into Alvaro’s rectum. In this scene, I could recognize that Alex doesn’t want to be a female, and real sexuality is not related to gender according to what people really want to be. What Alex choose to be is real her sexuality not relating to her
The focus of this week assignment is to discuss the interactions of gender, ethnicity, and identity development. In addition I will discuss the role of stereotyping and how it influence male and female gender identity. In conclusion I will discuss the impact that ethnicity and gender have on children when it comes to choosing between the ethnic identity of their family of origin and their culture.
Therefore, the constrictive American ideals of male and female gender identities inhibits growth and acceptance of gender expression. Each gender is separated by rules and guidelines that they must abide by. This, in turn, creates inner tensions that inhibit personal growth. For males, this may be, or is, an extraordinarily arduous task. More often than not, it is other male figures, such as the father, that administer and enforce these certain rules.
Imagining if I transformed into the opposite sex for a week, my experiences of truth and reality would be quite different, yet strikingly similar to my life as a woman. Although my peers would accept me the same and know nothing altered, my mindset would have done a complete 180 degree flip. Although it is the expectation that humans identify with a single gender, multitudes of modern Americans refuse to succumb to this idea and prefer to identify with a sense gender fluidity. “The term "gender identity” . . . refers to a person's innate, deeply felt psychological identification as a man, woman or some other gender, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned to them at birth” (par. 2). Some refuse to accept that gender is as one may say black or white, male or female. However, if I transfigured into a man, I would need to adjust my sense of reality in regards to the new expectations that come with the given gender.
Basically, what one needs to know before proceeding to read through this analysis of gender development is that gender identity refers to “one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or transgender” (American Psychological Association, 2006). When one’s gender identity and biological sex are not congruent, the individual may identify as transsexual or as another transgender category (cf. Gainor, 2000). Example, Jennifer in the book, She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders, who brought us through the struggle of living a transgendered life from start to finish. Also, the formation of gender identity is influenced by social factors, such as family, friends, the environment, etc. For example, fathers tend to be more involved when their sons engage in gender-appropriate activities such as playing baseball or soccer rather than wanting to become a dancer or a cheerleader.
In the story, “Boys and Girls”, the narrator is not the only one coming to terms with their identity.
The sex and gender binary is a socially-constructed classification of sex and gender into two distinct and biological forms of masculine and feminine. The binary is a restricting concept that enforces the ideology that solely two genders exist—it is a social boundary that limits people from exploring gender identity or mixing it up (Larkin, 2016). As Mann depicts it, the binary constrains us to take on one gender identity, and to follow through with the expected roles assigned to that gender. The implications are that it compels people to fit into the binary and follow the patriarchal, heteronormative traditions of society (Mann, 2012). However, the binary was not always so clear-cut, but certain concepts from scientific research such as the
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
As a child grows and conforms to the world around them, they go through various stages, one of the most important and detrimental stages in childhood development is gender identity. The development of the meaning of a child’s gender and gender can form the whole future of that child’s identity as a person. This decision, whether accidental or genetic, can affect that child’s lifestyle views and social interactions for the rest of their lives. Ranging from making friends in school all the way to intimate relationships later on in life, gender identity can become an important aspect to ones future endeavors. It is always said that boys and girls are complete opposites as they grow.
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.