Self Discovery and Noel Perrin's The Androgynous Man
Reading The Androgynous Man by Noel Perrin1 sparked a number of thoughts. Our father's sperm and our mother's ovum are both necessary for fertilization and conception. For every human being seen walking the face of this planet, this formula has taken place of necessity. Without both genders, there would be no single gender; everyone is part mom and part dad. Therefore, the hormones that dominate in each gender are present in both genders in varying amounts. And since every individual derives being from both mom and dad, there is a wide range of possibilities in the niche that each person in each gender will be naturally inclined to, regardless of the stereotypical roles. Everyone is distinctive and unique.
When I was in high school, for the first time in my life I developed a group of exceptionally close friends. We referred to ourselves as The Family. We were looking for meaning in life, meaning . . . and acceptance. We were a coed group consisting of about ten people-five girls and five guys-and we learned a lot about ourselves and life. One thing that we learned was the freedom to be who we were. We did all kinds of things together-we laughed, we cried, we talked, we fought, we loved, and we hated; we unselfishly supported one another through the storms of adolescence. In the process, we learned how to become truly whole persons. We were not afraid of our masculine or feminine sides, and self-discovery blossomed with the water of mutual acceptance.
In some ways, I feel as though I have lost a part of what I had then. I have become so logical and analytical in my thinking that at times it seems as though I have no remaining emotional side left. And after all, what is it that matters most in life? Science will never be able to empirically demonstrate the love that bonds people together-logic will never be able to demonstrate the warm feeling you have from sharing yourself with someone else-analysis in itself will never offer up happiness, contentment, worth, and value. Above all, science, logic, and analysis will never be able to grasp the spiritual because they "insist on what is packaged and precise" as Christian singer/songwriter Nichole Nordeman so poignantly sings in "Who You Are." Can one ever package the mysteries of the universe and the awesome Creative force that spawned them?
...ation and well being of a country, people, and republic. “‘This was the noblest Roman of them all. All the conspirators save only he did that they did in envy of great Caesar; he, only in a general honest thought and common good to all, made one of them’”(998). Although a seemingly menacing traitor to his country at first, Brutus makes the journey to a sympathetic and noble tragic hero in the end.
Transitions in life come in many forms. Some people may graduate from high school and move out for college. Other people get married and buy their first house. Although all of these examples seem fairly ordinary, some transitions that people may go through are not as common. In the book Just One of the Guys? by Kristen Schilt, Schilt depicts the truth behind gender inequality in the workplace from the perspective of transgender men who were once biological women. Through their transition, these people experienced natural difference schemas, inequality depending on race and class, and differences between stealth and open transitions.
To begin, I think it is important to analyze the difference between “sex” and “gender”. Up until researching for this paper, I though that the two terms were interchangeable in meaning, rather, they are separate ideas that are connected. According to Mary K. Whelan, a Doctor of Anthropology focusing on gender studies, sex and gender are different. She states, “Western conflation of sex and gender can lead to the impression that biology, and not culture, is responsible for defining gender roles. This is clearly not the case.”. She continues with, “Gender, like kinship, does have a biological referent, but beyond a universal recognition of male and female "packages," different cultures have chosen to associate very different behaviors, interactions, and statuses with men and women. Gender categories are arbitrary constructions of culture, and consequently, gender-appropriate behaviors vary widely from culture to culture.” (23). Gender roles are completely defined by the culture each person lives in. While some may think that another culture is sexist, or dem...
world. It is evident through her descriptions that she is more in favor of the androgynous
...socially directed hormonal instructions which specify that females will want to have children and will therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection. The schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive and therefore will dominate over females. The social hegemony of this ideology ensures that we are all raised to practice gender roles which will confirm this vision of the nature of the sexes. Fortunately, our training to gender roles is neither complete nor uniform. As a result, it is possible to point to multitudinous exceptions to, and variations on, these themes. Biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles; psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept. It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination.9
The concept that gender is limited strictly to two categories, male and female, has been around since the beginning of mankind. The notion, also known as gender binarism, states that “human beings are by nature either male or female” (Shalko). In past societies, people have followed this idea of only two genders; however, in more recent years, people have uncovered a whole new variety of gender identities. This concept is called gender fluidity; it is the idea that gender has no boundaries that prevent people from expressing who they really are. In today’s world, gender is a touchy subject to speak or write about. Many people are unaccepting of the idea that there are more than two genders. It goes against everything they have ever learned.
Riviere, A. Assistive Technology: Meeting the Needs of Adults with Learning Disabilities. Washington, DC: NALLD, 1996. (ED 401 686)
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
When considering gender and sex, a layman’s idea of these terms might be very different than a sociologist’s. There is an important distinction: sex, in terms of being “male” or “female,” is purely the physical biological characteristic differences – primarily anatomical differences. (There are also rare cases of “intersexual” individuals as outlined in the Navarro article, “When Gender Isn’t a Given”.) Gender, on the other hand, is an often misconstrued concept that is commonly mistaken as synonymous with sex. A non-sociologist might surmise the following, “men act masculine and women act feminine, therefore, it must follow that gender is inherent to sex,” however, this is not necessarily the case.
In “ The Appeal of an Androgynous Man” an article written by Amy Gross, she compares the characteristics of the masculine brute, to the humble androgynous man. An androgynous man is a man who possesses qualities of both genders. For example, an androgynous man would still have manly traits, but would also be more feminine than other males. In her essay, Gross claims that the androgynous man possesses closely similar traits, in comparison to herself. Gross finds it more difficult to communicate with masculine men than androgynous men, simply for the reason that androgynous men are more sensitive and compassionate.
In Noel Perrin’s “Androgynous Man”, the sentences were a good mix of short and long sentences. I feel he was able to convey his thoughts clearly and effectively. The topic of his story was also very interesting; it is about a magazine quiz that determines if you are more masculine or feminine based on how you describe inkblots. Although the story was written in the 1980s it makes you think about our current society and how gender is major topic in the news, television, and politics. The writer made me think of how the media tries to dictate the way you should see and perceive things. What does a real man look like? Like Perrin, I also believe there is no single right answer to this question. There are many factors that influence one’s personality,
Abstract: Assistive technology is one way that individuals with learning disabilities have been able to overcome the difficulties with comprehension that they possess. This form of technology comes in many forms, ranging from low to high technology devices.
All throughout our lives society makes us think about our gender roles. It is the first classification we are put in as a human being, even before birth. Pregnant mothers visit their doctors to find out the sex of the baby. Once known, it is common for parents to paint and buy clothes of pink or blue according to the sex of the baby. We as humans, are born into our gender.
Since the beginning of time, dreams have been a source of mysterious wonder amongst people. Everyone dreams, and those who claim they do not, do dream, however, they are unable to recall their dreams. Prior to psychological research, dreams were interpreted and explained as an unconscious desire, predictions, or subliminal messages. These outdated beliefs existed throughout time until new psychological research came into being. The new psychological research by Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung gave rise to new dream theories that helped gain a greater understanding on dream interpretations.
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...