Strict Gender Roles

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“Gender is fundamental to the human experience, and society has created such a distinction between the two that the lack of neurological information regarding the differences between the developing sexes creates a remarkable paradox” (Glaeser, 2011, p. 2). Males and females are thought of to be vastly different in terms of “their personality, abilities, interests, attitudes, and behavioural tendencies” (Zell, n.d., p. 3), as well as their “interruption, risk taking, helping behaviour, leadership styles, body image, intelligence, occupational stress, jealousy, and morality, among other topics” (Zell, n.d., p. 9). However, it is society’s strict gender roles that seem to keep males and females from having close to anything in common with each other. “Gender roles involve the degree to which people adopt stereotypical masculine versus feminine traits, behaviours, and interests, rather than their gender identity (i.e., whether they identify as male or female …show more content…

1). Due to our society considering gender to be predominantly binary “nothing apart from this dichotomy is typically tolerated, as society does not leave room for ambiguous gender expression or genderless people” (Glaeser, 2011, p. 1). Society’s strict molds on gender do not welcome people who exist outside the binary or those who fluctuate between within the binary and outside. Non-binary identities are often not taken seriously due to how easily some can change by experience or through time. Meaning that gender isn’t as concrete as once believed instead “we [should] view gender as sometimes fluid over time, recognizing that identity (internal sense of self) and gender expression (outward expression of gender) may modify over time” (Tishelman, 2015, p.

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