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critique of the social construcion of gender
critique of the social construcion of gender
gender inequality and sexism
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Throughout Gendered World sociologist argue that gender and sex are socially constructed instead of being innate. The authors present evidence in regards to history, biology, and contemporary viewpoints using day-to-day examples. Although alternative viewpoints may argue that through a biological perspectives gender and sex is an innate characteristic through deeper examination it can be determined that gender and sex are truly socially constructed.
First of all, what are sex and gender? Sex is described as the interaction between genes, hormones, behavior, and the environment. The adjectives female, male, or intersex are used when referring to sex. Gender is the social status, legal designation, and personal identity. The divisions in gender are due mainly to the expectations of social institutions. The adjectives women and men, boys and girls, are used when addressing gender. Alternative perspective may argue that there is a definite difference between males and females, which may prove that these categories are not socially constructed, but rather innate. However, all around the world, the definition of sex and gender is different. The binary system and the standard story ignore the numerous people who do not fit perfectly into this flawed system.
The standard story shapes the way that some societies choose to view sex and gender and the way
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25). These individuals cannot be categorized in neither category of female nor male. These numbers are possibly understimates of the tre data since being born with ambigious genetilia is something that is frowned upon and is usually changed through operations. These operations are usually cosmeticic opertaions which are not truly neeeded for the well being of the ndividuals but are performed b3ecuase pf the views that society imposes of only two sexes with no room for
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...
Sex and gender have commonly been thought to be interchangeable words that mean the same thing, but this could not be further from the truth. The reason that they are different words is that they do not define nor represent the same thing. Where sex deals with the biological aspect of individuals, like chromosomes, hormones, and sex organs, gender deals with the behavioral characteristics of a person and how they are perceived culturally. (Giraudo 2017) Sex is inherent while gender is learned from society, culture, and social interactions. Gender identity is how a person thinks of themselves, and gender expression is how they choose to represent themselves through clothes, behavior, and interactions. The commonly held belief that society would
The word gender refers to a general classification of human beings into male and female with socially and culturally constructed characteristics, behaviors, attributes and roles preconceived and labelled as appropriate for each class. The society and culture today have placed human beings in a box which to a large extent dictates how we act in the world.
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 ...
Anthropologists have examined our assumptions about the ‘natural’ roles of men and women in society through investigating the past and present. This is important as the core of anthropology is the ability to understand and use our knowledge of not only the past, but also the present to question societal norms (Blasco, 2010). Gender roles, society’s image of expected roles and attitudes a particular gender should possess, continue to be of great interest to anthropological studies. These expectations result in many gender stereotypes and create a stigmatized definition of what it means to be a man or a women (Blasco, 2010). The purpose of this paper is to conduct a gender analysis of
When separating men and women according to gender, most people would do it based on physical appearance. Would you have ever thought that you can tell whether someone is man or woman according to psyche? Psychological gender differences have had a long history dating back for more than a century. The use psychological research on women began in 1879 which also marks the beginning of formal psychology. Any research done during these years was mostly used to the notion that the white male was supreme over everyone else. This belief is a gender stereotype and children develop their gender based beliefs on such things. I believe children should develop their gender based beliefs from studies that are unbiased and doesn’t favor one gender over another.
The main argument to think about when looking at the relationship between sex and gender is whether it is purely biological or is more than definitely socially constructed. The distinction between sex and gender could be described as simply, sex: the biological makeup of an individual’s reproductive anatomy and gender: an individual’s lifestyle or their personal identification of their gender. Firstly looking at the argument that gender identity arises from biological processes. For some, it may be an obvious answer of women and men being chromosomally different. Women having two X chromosomes and men having an X and Y chromosome. The Y chromosome produces testosterone and other androgens. These androgens allow the male to develop testes and a penis rather than the female genitalia of ovaries and a uterus. It is argued that they all cause male and females brains to develop differently. For example...
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.
Human beings have been, and always will be, dichotomized into either male or female. When determining a person’s sex we often look for differences in facial features, body shape or mannerism’s, but another promising way to determine a persons sex and one that is most often used today, is through gender roles. Gender roles are behaviors that portray masculinity or femininity. The theory behind gender roles through multidisciplinary viewpoints is the focus of this paper. Throughout history and in every culture these roles have shifted and transformed into what society says is expectable. In this analysis, gender roles will be examined through a sociological, biological and evolutionary scope.
The terms sex, gender and sexuality relate with one another, however, sociologists had to distinguish these terms because it has it’s own individual meaning. Sex is the biological identity of a person when they are first born, like being a male or female. Gender is the socially learned behaviors and expectations associated with men and women like being masculine or feminine. Gender can differentiate like being a man, woman, transgender, intersex, etcetera. Sexuality refers to desire, sexual preference, and sexual identity and behavior (1). Sexuality can differentiate as well like being homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, etcetera. Like all social identities, gender is socially constructed. In the Social Construction of Gender, this theory shows
Society has planted a representation into people’s minds on how each gender is supposed to be constructed. When one thinks of the word gender, the initial responses are male and female but gender may be represented in many additional terms. As defined, “Gender refers to the social expectations that surround these biological categories.” (Steckley, 2017, pg.256) Gender is something that is ascribed,
A common misconception many people believe is that sex and gender are the same or go hand in hand with one another. These are two completely separate ideas that need to be defined. Ann-Maree Nobelius, a
Gender is such a ubiquitous notion that humans assume gender is biological. However, gender is a notion that is made up in order to organize human life. It is created and recreated giving power to the dominant gender, creating an inferior gender and producing gender roles. There are many questionable perspectives such as how two genders are learned, how humans learn their own gender and others genders, how they learn to appropriately perform their gender and how gender roles are produced. In order to understand these perspectives, we must view gender as a social institution. Society bases gender on sex and applies a sex category to people in daily life by recognizing gender markers. Sex is the foundation to which gender is created. We must understand the difference between anatomical sex and gender in order to grasp the development of gender. First, I will be assessing existing perspectives on the social construction of gender. Next, I will analyze three case studies and explain how gender construction is applied in order to provide a clearer understanding of gender construction. Lastly, I will develop my own case study by analyzing the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and apply gender construction.
Sex denotes to the bodily and birth features of men and women. Sex is the categorization of people into male and female groups based in biological characteristics. While gender is the cultural or social interpretation of sex; putting people into male behavioral and female expectations groups based on association with biological being a socially characteristics appropriate man or woman. In “The Social Construction of Gender”, “When sociologist refer to the social construction of gender, they are referring to the many different process by which the expectations associated with being a boy or girl are passed through society”. (p.22)
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...