as male or female; in conjunction with what criteria they fulfil. This creates an interesting thought process, by which we identify both ourselves and others with to discern their sex, through the means of their presented gender, which align with the socially agreed upon norms of masculinity and femininity. Therefore, affirming that gender is socially constructed. This is explored well by Lorber (1990) who uses an anecdotal example of being on the subway and seeing a baby in a pram wearing a blue top and dark trousers, leading her to assume it was a boy, but then noticing it had earrings and flowery trainers, which suggest girl. Further indicating the meaning behind what we socially consider gender to be.
Additionally, Holmes (2009) looks at the ways in which we learn these social constructions of gender, for instance through socialisation, media, television, movies and
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These societal ideas tend to have derived from the biological differences between the male and female sexes, although, gender is separate from ones’ sex. Gender is therefore an amalgamation of personal identity and peer and societal influences. Furthermore, gender is a continuous performance, which is created through the use of clothing, makeup, style, interaction and many other facets of everyday life. In addition to this gender is constantly evolving, which can be seen by the changing attitudes to what is appropriate for men and women to behave and appear like. Overall, gender will continue to be shaped by society and will remain an area for contentious debate over whether there are any biological foundations to which these traits can scientifically be linked to, or if they are solely the product of societal preconceptions of what it is to be a man or a
Risman (1988:14) notes that “early childhood socialization is an influential determinant of later behavior, and research has focused on how societies create feminine women and masculine men.” Rather than focusing on gender as natural and fixed, Risman (1998) suggests instead that gender can be viewed at three levels: individual, interactional, and institutional. Instead of viewing the differences between men and women outlined in “If I Were A Boy” as natural and fixed, sociologists would instead look to socialization and societal norms to explain why men and women appear dissimilar. Additionally, many sociologists view gender as being continuously created; Risman (1988:10) notes “the pervasive differences between male[s] and female[s]…are continuously created by the gendered structures in which we all live.” Sociologists, who would instead view these perceived differences as a product of our society, would heavily dispute the gender essentialist perspective taken in “If I Were A Boy”.
The clusters of social definitions used to identify persons by gender are collectively known as “femininity” and “masculinity.” Masculine characteristics are used to identify persons as males, while feminine ones are used as signifiers for femaleness. People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in their assigned, or chosen, sex or gender. Others recognize our sex or gender more on the basis of these characteristics than on the basis of sex characteristics, which are usually largely covered by clothing in daily life.
Both Deborah Blum’s The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over? and Aaron Devor’s “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” challenges the concept of how gender behavior is socially constructed. Blum resides on the idea that gender behavior is developed mainly through adolescence and societal expectations of a gender. Based on reference from personal experiences to back her argument up, Blum explains that each individual develops their expected traits as they grow up, while she also claims that genes and testosterones also play a role into establishing the differentiation of gender behavior. Whereas, Devor focuses mainly on the idea that gender behavior is portrayed mainly among two different categories: masculinity and femininity,
As meaning making creatures, humans attempt to categorize and definitively understand anything they observe. Although this crusade for understanding is not inherently bad, it often produces unintended negative consequences. As humans sort, classify, and define everything, they simultaneously place everything into a box that constricts creativity and fluidity. Concerning gender, these boxes create harmful conceptions of each person on the planet. Although these conceptions of gender are constructed and not “real” by any means, they have real implications in the process of socialization that influence how each person lives his/her life. In the United States, the commonly socialized “boxes” of gender have done a great
As part of human survival instinct, we tend to judge and label other individuals based on their physical appearance and gestures. But to understand one’s identity and interior self, we need to look beyond these physical factors. One of the first things that we assume upon meeting someone for the first time is usually whether they are male or female. However, what we sometimes do not take into consideration is that sex and gender are not the same. Sex is determined by an individual’s biological characteristics. Gender, on the other hand, is acquired and constructed. Sex and gender cannot be separated because both the biological and social factors contribute to making a person who they are. But sex and gender can be distinguished
Gender differences are best understood as a process of socialization, to organize the roles each individual have to fulfil in society. From parents to teachers, religions, media, and peers; we observe and make sense of the behaviors exhibited by the people around us since young. We imitate and construct our own understanding of how to be of a particular gender, and of how to position ourselves. Parents socialize their children based on their biological sex, and this process starts as soon as the sex of the baby is known. Gender is hence socially constructed.
In “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, the author Barbara Risman explains her theory to readers about how gender should be thought of as a social structure. Thinking of it as such would allow people to examine how gender is ingrained in almost every part of society, thus putting gender on an equal level of importance with economics and politics. In society, gender dictates many of the opportunities and limitations that an individual may face in his or her lifetime. Barbara Risman points out the three aspects of the gender structure that happen at an individual, interactional, and institutional level (Risman, pg. 446). First, gender contributes to how a person will develop themselves in life. This is the “individual level”. At an interactional level, men and women face different expectations that are set by society. The individual and interactional level are linked because sometimes, changes to one level can affect the other. The third level, the institutional level, notes that gender is affected by laws, rules, and organizational practices that dictate what
Aaron H. Devor, professor of sociology and formerly Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, portrays in his article, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” from the book Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality, how society affects the stereotypes we have when it comes to the gender. In this article, Devor describes how gender identity begins at a very young age; “Children begin to settle into a gender identity between the age of eighteen months and two years.” Children subsequently grow to understand which specific gender grouping they belong to. Moreover, this also depends on the child’s cultural idea of how each gender is perceived. Gender is lightly shielded in some societies while there are very strict behaviors between men and women in other cultures. Society plays an enormous role in defining
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.
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.
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.
Society has formed several stereotypes throughout the past decades, mainly about gender. Gender stereotypes start at infancy and develop drastically through a person’s life seemingly until death (Watzlawik, 2009). Gender stereotypes are classified as a widely held belief about characteristics thought appropriate for males and females (Weisgram, Dinella & Fulcher, 2011). For example, when you walk into the toy section of a store, you don’t need a sign to indicate which section is for the girls and which section is for the boys. These are stereotype for children, usually boy’s toys are dark colors such as blue or green and girl’s toys are colorful such as pink or purple. Society has placed labels on genders which have ultimately led to stereotypes. These gender stereotypes state that men must act “masculine” and women must act “feminine”. Masculine is characterized
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...
Masculinity and femininity are two terms, which have been interpreted differently throughout history. Both the males and the females have responsibilities and duties but these duties differ based on one’s gender. Gender has played a prodigious role in the economy, politics, and the society. Everyone starts making interpretations of the strengths and weaknesses based on one’s gender. These interpretations are not always based on his or her ability but is usually based on his or her gender. Males tend to be judged as extremely strong and unfashionable in terms of appearance. Whereas, females are judged as expensive and very fashionable. Males and females both differ in their abilities and their enjoyments. Fashion, entertainment, and strength are three topics, which are used to define masculinity and femininity in the 21st century.
Society has stamped an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of gender, a man and a woman, however there are many types of gender roles a man or a woman may assume or be placed into by society. The ideas of how one should act and behave are often times ascribed by their gender by society, but these ascribed statuses and roles are sometimes un-welcomed, and people will assume who they want to be as individuals by going against the stereotypes set forth by society. This paper will examine these roles in terms of how society sees men and women stereotypically, and how men and women view themselves and each other in terms of stereotypes that are typically ascribed, as well as their own opinions with a survey administered to ten individuals. What I hope to prove is that despite stereotypes playing a predominant role within our society, and thus influencing what people believe about each other in terms of their same and opposite genders, people within our society are able to go against these ascribed stereotypes and be who they want and it be okay. Through use of the survey and my own personal history dealing with gender stereotyping I think I can give a clear idea as to how stereotypes envelope our society, and how people and breaking free from those stereotypes to be more individualistic.