Gender Studies

1302 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of media in influencing gender

Gender is socially constructed and emphasized on different factors such as media, family, peers, schools, religions and the list keeps going. There is race, class and sexuality that interact with gender. People always emphasize two types of gender, which is masculinity and femininity. Usually is based on the person sex. Society will not accept anyone whose sex is male and gender is feminine. Sex is what is in between the legs and gender is between the ears. Femininity or masculinity, manhood or womanhood, when gender is given, the social construct order and holds that the individual must go the gendered norms and expectations. It is a binary, which we either male or female, but not both; Hegemonic masculinity is what the West based their masculine on. The ideal masculinity is that men need to strive to achieve. In North America, hegemonic masculinity is traits of aggressiveness, control, strength, drive, ambition and fear and not valuing women. It is the opposite of feminine. Usually, hegemonic masculinity is associated with a white male, heterosexuality and middle class. There is a notion that masculinity or manhood requires men to be capable, reliable, and successful and this helps men maintain their power over women and other men. Men have power over other men who are not the typical hegemonic masculinity.
Masculinities are not identities that given, but men try for size. Different masculinities can be hierarchal and related with another such as hegemonic masculinity supports gender inequality, complicit masculinity is men who benefit from hegemonic masculinity, subordinated masculinity is oppressed by definition of hegemonic masculinity and marginalized masculinity is gender power but not terns of race/class. Kane (2013) explains that boys in particular balance an effort with producing masculinity and hegemonic ideals. This act is evident to parents regardless

Show More
Related

  • Shotgun Lovesongs Analysis

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    The concept of masculinity is considered as the qualities and characteristics of a man, typical what is appropriate to a man. In this article, A Community Psychology of Men and Masculinity: Historical and Conceptual Review, The author Eric S. Mankowski and Kenneth I. Maton, analyze four main themes: "Men as gendered beings, the privilege and damage of being a masculine man, men as a privileged group, and men’s power and subjective powerlessness. The second and fourth themes are described as

    Read More

  • Masculinity in Fraternities

    1192 Words  | 3 Pages

    All over the world Masculinity has many different cultural definitions. Depending where someone is from, and what they were brought up to believe, defines what the term “masculinity” entails. Different Social institutions all over the United States, such as the military, sports, clubs, and fraternities, have been constructing their interpretation of masculinity. One major social institution that is active in thousands of Universities across the United States is campus fraternities. Campus fraternities create their own sense of masculinity by generating certain requirements and characteristics a man must hold in order to represent them as a part of their fraternity.

    Read More

  • Symbolic Displays Of Aggression And Male Masculinity In Rural American Literature Analysis

    2458 Words  | 5 Pages

    She taught at universities both in Australia and the United States. Connell highly disagreed that the ideas about what established masculinity are ethically definite. In other words, masculinity is important to whom is referred to. For example, “if women are seen as weak, passive and emotional, then men are supposed to be strong, aggressive, and rational” (Seidman, 221). Additionally, masculinity is based on how people interact with each other in which correlates with their race, class, and sexuality. With this said, Connell said, “to recognize diversity in masculinity: relations of alliance, dominance and subordination… This is a gender politics within masculinity” (Seidman, 223). To point out Connell’s theorizing masculinity, she believes that diversity defines masculinity has its own relationships with authorities. In our text, Seidman gave a brief example of how the roles carry out to the social authority such as President, Senator, CEO, General, media executive, or surgeon. It is stated that while there are many senators, executives, or CEOs who are women, it is definite identify as masculinity because people think those high authorities is only for a male role. In our text, Connell has mentioned that “every society has a dominant or a “hegemonic” type of masculinity” (223). This means that she believes men has the power or control type of their masculinity in the

    Read More

  • Jean Kilbourne Sexism Essay

    1024 Words  | 3 Pages

    While sex refers the biological characteristics that make up a person, their gender is determined by the behaviors and attitudes considered “proper” by society according to their sex.

    Read More

  • What Is Hegemonic Masculinity And Femininity?

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    In one of our class discussions on hegemonic masculinity, we attempted to define a general list of characteristics or behaviors that one should have in order to attain this ideal. However, there was no consensus on these qualities. Frequently, the qualities that we would suggest would be those that were the opposite of qualities associated with women. For example, if we would categorize being emotional as a trait assigned to women, we would assign the trait of being impassive to men. This would also occur when we considered which behaviors would be considered masculine. While we assumed women would perform work inside of the house, we assigned men to work outside of the house, doing activities such as maintaining the yard or fixing the car. Most of, if not all of, the qualities and behaviors we assigned as being a part of hegemonic masculinity perpetuated the idea of gender inequality. When we assumed that those characteristics would be considered aspects of hegemonic masculinity, we restricted them to only being assigned to men because if a woman could possess those characteristics, it wouldn’t be considered a masculine aspect. This also explains how hegemonic masculinity can perpetuate

    Read More

  • Hegemonic Masculinity in American Society

    1499 Words  | 3 Pages

    Masculinity is described as possession of attributes considered typical of a man. Hegemonic masculinity is a form of masculine character with cultural idealism and emphasis that connects masculinity to competitiveness, toughness, and women subordination. Masculinity hegemonic is the enforcement of male dominion over a society. Masculine ideology dates back to the time of agrarian and the industrial revolution in Europe when survival compelled men to leave their homesteads to work in industries to earn a living for their families while women remained at home to take care of family affairs (Good and Sherrod 210). Women did not work in industries then because industrial labor was considered too physical beyond their capacity. This led to definition of roles which placated the position of men in a society while condemning women as mere subordinates who cannot do without men. The critics of gender stereotypes in America describe the following five hegemonic features of masculinity: frontiersman ship, heterosexuality, occupational achievement, familial patriarchy, and physical force and control (Trujillo 4). The advent of the 20th century led to sweeping changes in American masculinity.

    Read More

  • The High Cost Of Manliness Analysis

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jensen provides evidence throughout the text for three assumptions on why masculinity must be terminated from pertaining to just males. It is proposed that masculinity is harmful for both men and women, that men are surrendering their humanity by conforming with masculinity, and

    Read More

  • Building Men For Others By Joe Ehrmann Summary

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    The topics that Joe Ehrmann uses as framework for his Building Men for Others program are quite intriguing and make you really question masculinity. The first topic, rejecting false masculinity, can be interpreted a few different ways. In the book, it states: “As young boys, we’re told to be men, or to act like men” soon followed with “we’ve got all these parents say ‘be a man’ to boys that have no concept of what that means. I completely agree with the statement of Joe Ehrmann and often question the definition of ‘being a man’. Many boys and men will reject the idea of a man being anything other than being big and strong or having power.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of What It Means To Be Gendered Me

    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.

    Read More

  • Hegemonic Masculinity By Micheal Kimmel

    806 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the views of Micheal Kimmel “hegemonic masculinity” is a socially constructed process where men are pressured by social norms of masculine ideals to perform behaviors of a “true man” and its influence on young male’s growth. It is the ideology that being a man with power and expressing control over women is a dominant factor of being a biological male. The structure of masculinity was developed within the 18th to 19th century, as men who owned property and provided for his family with strength related work environments was the perfect example of being a generic “American man.” Kimmel introduces Marketplace Manhood and its relation to American men. He states, “Marketplace Masculinity describes the normative definition of American masculinity.

    Read More

  • Women and Gender Studies

    640 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women and gender studies contribute greatly to our understanding of the social and cultural world we inhabit. Studying the complex issues of this field has instituted many key insights. Two major insights that positively affected our society are the awareness through learning and through this awareness activism that can ensue.

    Read More

  • Hegemonic Masculinity Essay

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Notwithstanding its contribution to gender studies, hegemonic masculinity has also brought serious criticism (Connell and Messerchmidt, 2005). In the main occurrence, Connell encircled the idea of masculinity inside a hetero-regularizing origination of sex. Thusly, hegemonic masculinity highlights contrasts amongst men and women yet neglects to recognize avoidance and distinction inside the sex classifications (Coles, 2009). Besides, hegemonic masculinity is an envisioned instead of a useful one in light of the fact that an inconsequential number of men have every one of its attributes. The utilization of this idea is especially risky in the contemporary society where sexual orientation is no longer dichotomous and men are testing conventional patriarchal connections (Adams, Anderson, and McCormack, 2010).

    Read More

  • Social Construction of Gender

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social Construction of Gender Today’s society plays a very important role in the construction of gender. Gender is a type of issue that has raised many questions over the years in defining and debating if both male and female are equal. Today, gender is constructed in four different ways. The The first way gender is defined is by the family in which a child is raised.

    Read More

  • misconceptions of gender and masculinity

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    There have been many scholars who have pondered the question of what masculinity really is and how do we define it as a society. Often the question is gender something we really do, do we each shape the course for ourselves or are we molded into a predominate shape? To even begin the long debate to answer questions such as these, one needs to look at the individual role and at the role that institutions have on us.

    Read More

  • Sex and Gender

    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 variations between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genitals, 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, these are responsible for primary characteristics (Fulcher and Scott, 2003). Gender on the other hand refers to the sociological differences between male and female. This is teaching males and females to behave in various ways due to socialisation (Browne, 1998). Example: masculinity and femininity. Girls are supposed to show their femininity by being non-competitive, sensitive, dependent, attractive and placid. If and when some girls don’t succeed in keeping this image they will be referred to as a tomboy. On the other hand, boys show their masculinity through aggression, physical strength...

    Read More

More about Gender Studies

Open Document