Throughout history, we have seen the same stereotypes placed on gender, men should be strong and brave. They are the ones that support their families while women are the caregivers and the nurturers and handling the household. According to Emily Kane in “Glamour Babies” and “Little Toughies”, “gender is not a straightforward amplification of underling biological differences between male and females; rather, gender is constructed through social processes and enforced through social mechanisms.” With that being said Kane feels that we should not limit ourselves to those preconceived notions of what men and women can do. According to Kane, we should not believe that men and women could not develop certain mental or psychological attributes merely because of their sex. This mean that we do not have to fall into the trap of preconceived notions, such as; if we are born a girl we will love the color pink and do poorly in mathematics.
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.
Gender identity has been defined in several ways, including comfort with one’s gender, self-perception of adherence to gender stereotypes, and internalized social pressure for conforming to gender stereotypes. According to the Journal and Reseach on Gender and Adolescent Development, there are several problems with this practice. First, it involves inferring gender identity from self-perceived gender typing, and one cannot test such theories without distinguishing the two constructs conceptually and empirically. Second, because the degree to which a person is male typical (or female typical) in one domain is not highly correlated with how male typical the person in other domain. (Egan and Perry,
How can the word ‘gender’ be defined? The American Psychological Association refers to gender as, “The attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex.” Gender is not to be confused with an individual’s sex, which is predicated solely on biological factors, such as genitalia and sex chromosomes. Gender has become a social construct, and society has absolute control in defining gender roles; stifling creativity and innovation. Gender construction is the distinction between the two sexes and attribution of traits and characteristics through gender roles. The culture within a society defines what is considered masculine or feminine.
Sex is a physical classification of men and women by their different natural and biological attributes (chromosomes, sex organs, chromosomes. etc. )(Arber, S and Thomas, 2001:18).In contrast to sex, gender refers to the experience of masculinity and femininity, which relates to the societal norms and roles put in place for men and women. Gender entails the social roles learned by males and females through socialization, linked with culture to understand the different behaviors and social roles expected of men and women, despite biological differences (Vcampus.uom.ac.mu, 2015)(Nobelius, 2004). Owing to the fact that gender is a social construction, ideas of gender change across time and differ within cultures, for example: the ideas of being a man in all cultures and not the same.
Gender roles are taught initially in the family, re- enforced by schools and reflected by the media. These messages can have a real effect on an individual’s self-image and how they function in society. Whether it is the tales of the Disney versions, fairy tales have permeated society for ages. They are just stories told to children for entertainment. Families construct gender messages by teaching their children that boys and girls should learn the appropriate behavior and attitudes from the family and overall culture in which they grow up.
PROBLEM STATEMENT AND OBJECTIVES Why do men strive hard to accomplish this physically strong aggressive masculine persona? Is it a feeling of dissatisfaction and insecurity that makes men so compelled to grasp onto the masculine ideals. To understand therefore, why the idea of masculinity is pressurizing to some men. OBJECTIVES: 1. To define and study the concept of
Masculinity is what men do rather than what or how they are. To be considered male, men must enact culturally accepted male roles or rather perform masculinity scripts. By doing so, they become agents that actively construct gender. Gender is constructed through complex interactions between men and women. Men and women contribute to the maintenance of the status quo by reenacting gender roles that they acquired through socialization.
(Reading, 2014) Defines gender identity as “a personal conception of oneself as male or female (or rarely, both or neither)”. Gender expression, which is defined as the ways in which we each manifest masculinity or feminity or the outward manifestations of personality that reflect the gender identity. Sex is either of the two categories (male and female) into which humans and most other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions. In this essay, gender identity, gender expression and biological sex will be critically evaluated and examples will be given in order to distinguish between gender identity and gender expression. Gender is a socially constructed way of seeing a person as either male or female.
Gender socialization and gender roles have always existed in society. When analyzing gender roles and their coming of age in the stories “Boys and Girls” by Alice Munro and “A&P” by John Updike, they are not always equal or consistent when comparing cultures; however, the expectations for males and females are often times defined by the community they reside in. Another way gender stereotypes are produced is through media such as television shows and movies. Media tends to have two kinds of gender tropes that show the ideal types of characteristics each gender is supposed to have. Masculinity tropes consist of having expectations of what a man should be, such as brave and diligent, and that men who have these features are considered real men.