Construction Of Gender

In “Guys Suffer from Oppressive Gender Roles Too,” author Julie Zeilinger makes it clear that men’s actions, personalities, and identities are contrived based on society’s expectations. These expectations shove boys and men into a character-like attitude, preventing them from truly discovering themselves. With a society that decides to adhere to these gender roles, any sign of being different from the rest of the world tends to generate a negative reaction. Accepting and learning about gender roles is established at a young age, for anyone of that matter. Whether it be during school, through any form of media, or even from our own friends and family, gender roles are expectations that many boys and men tend to feel threatened by. Zeilinger

Gender is defined as “the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers

Burak defines gender socialization as “the process of interaction through which we learn the gender norms of our culture and acquire a sense of ourselves as feminine, masculine, or even androgynous” (Burack, 1). According to Burack, people of different genders behave differently not due to biological factors, but due to socialization that teaches individuals to behave in a particular way in order to belong to a certain gender. For example, women may tend to be nurturing, not because they are biologically programed to be caretakers, but as a result of society teaching them through toys and media to act as mothers. In this way, gender becomes a performance based on expectations rather than natural behaviors or biology, a phenomenon called “doing

The moment has finally come where Jane had undergone twenty-seven hours of labor and had given birth to a beautiful baby boy. An awe-struck Jack was trying to keep his Bambi-like legs from giving out on him as he was still digesting the events that had transpired in front of him. After several minutes, Dr. Mike walked in to check on the new parents. “Are you guys going to have him circumcised?”. Circumcision is one of the most common procedures in any hospital and one of the most controversial decisions parents make. The decision maker to have infant males circumcised is arguable. Should the child be forced to wait until he is of age to consent the procedure? Should the parents or the legal guardians of the baby continue to have the right and responsibility to make that decision for him? Male circumcision that is performed for any reason other than physical clinical need is termed non-therapeutic (or sometimes “ritual”) circumcision. Some people ask for non-therapeutic circumcision for

In the Dominican Republic, there is a phenomenon that occurs in children going through adolescents. They are known as geuvedoces, which translates into “testicles at twelve”. These rare and amazing kids are born male, with XY chromosome, but do not physically appear that way until puberty. Up to that point in their life, geuvedoces are mistaken for females because their bodies do not make the hormone that normally achieves the male features. The penis is so small in size that it is confused with a female’s clitoris and the testicles are held inside their body, much like ovaries. At the average age of puberty, geuvedoces’ bodies begin to pump out testosterone and they go through a normal male adolescence. From this point on, they seem to have

A topic that we discussed in class that really interested me was the notion of the controversial ‘labiaplasty’ surgery. This topic has caused me to reflect on my thoughts and feelings on genital surgery. Upon first discussing the issue, I was unsure of the reasoning to participate in such a controversial surgery. I thought that ‘abnormalities’ could not possibly be as severe as people seem to think. After discussing this issue in class however, I realized how ignorant my previous opinion was, considering I do not know what other people are going through. Nobody is perfect, and every person on the planet has insecurities. There are a number of physical things I wish I could change about myself, I am sure many women experience this feeling on a daily basis as well.

Children and young adults are identifying with gender roles at a young age due to mass media. Children develop within a society that is gender-specific when it comes to social and behavioral norms. These come from the family’s structure, how they play with others and by themselves, and school.

The biggest takeaway from John’s sexual reassignment is that the care-provider should try to nurture what comes naturally. Of course, there are going to be instances in life that cause you to think differently about your child, and the primary reason for thinking that there was something wrong with John was simply because he was no longer going to be a seen as a fully-functional male, at least from the opinions of specialists who came to see John after the botched circumcision. The belief was that he would think differently of himself because of the fact that he was ever so slightly different from other males, but this change was only physical and could have potentially had minimal, negative, long-term side effects in terms of emotional capacity. It is difficult to place blame on the parents, as they seemed to have great intentions behind their misconstrued agenda to re-gender their other son.

Female circumcision, or female genital mutilation (FGM), is a form of modification to the female sexual anatomy. There are many forms, some much more extensive in nature than others. Nearly all include an excision of the clitoris. The clitoris is one of the primary erogenous zones associated with a women 's enjoyment of oral and penetrative intercourse. More extreme examples may additionally include the removal of all external genitalia, as well as infibulation, or the act of stitching the vaginal opening shut aside from a tiny hole for urine and menstrual blood to pass. The practice of female circumcision 's exact origins are often disputed among historians and scholars, but the practice occurs among practitioners of Christian as well as

Gender is it a concept or is it made apparent by our DNA when you are born or does it change as you grow older? Often gender is something that society defines at birth. According to society certain gender roles are pre established when we are born. The majority of society believes that if you are born to a specific gender you should adhere to the gender roles while other people believe that instead we may be born to a gender but it does not always decide if you are that gender. Science has proven that just because you are born a male or female does not mean that you mentally see yourself as that gender.

. Parsons (1959) and Tiger and Fox (1972) believes that women are bioprogrammed for the rearing and socializing

Unlike ‘sex’, which typically refers to the biological and physiological differences, gender is a sociological concept that describes the social and cultural constructions that is associated with one’s sex (Giddens & Sutton, 2013, p. 623-667). The constructed (or invented) characteristics that defines gender is an ongoing process that varies between societies and culture and it can change over time. For example, features that are overly masculine in one culture can be seen as feminine in another; however, the relation between the two should not be seen as static. Gender socialization is thought to be a major explanation for gender differences, where children adhere to traditional gender roles from different agencies of socialization. Gender

In “Gender Socialization and Identity Theory” by Michael J. Carter, he asserts gender identity originates with the family. The writer maintains that families are the agents of identity socialization. Carter argues that beginning with infancy children are taught how they are expected to socialize primarily by their families, simply due to the continuous contact with one another, boys are dressed in blue while girls are dressed in pink. The author plainly elucidates children gain knowledge of homophily through playmates by self-segregation into homogeneous groups. Through his psychoanalytic theory the writer respectfully expounds males identify with masculinity by not behaving as their female caretakers act. Mr. Carter based

When parents first find out the gender of their baby, they automatically start to characterize the objects they buy based on that gender. They start to decorate the nursery in certain colors and a common theme they believe matches the sex of the baby. The most common representation for girls is pink and for boys is blue. Even a non-blue and a non-pink theme, such as a jungle, can still reflect the gender identity of the child based on the undertones of femininity or masculinity. This common theme of adults assuming what they believe is appropriate for a girl or boy will continue throughout the child’s life and will affect his or her views on acceptable gender roles and gender behavior.

This article, “Gender Development Research in Sex Roles: Historical Trends and Future Directions” was written in a 2011 on NCBI, which points towards how the gender roles are different and how the society views them. This text includes the study of gender development, sex roles and trends over the past 35 years. Today gender roles, especially in the United States, are different from what they were in the past. But there are still many differences in roles of sex in many places around the world where women are considered less than men. They are not allowed to go out without a man going along. They are not allowed to continue their education because many still feel that women are meant to do the housework and take care of their children while