Gender Stereotypes: A Gender Study

Standards for girls in today's society The American society set standards for girls and young women to follow. Companies are selling products and sexualizing girls at a young age. It's bringing in the culture norms of today’s society. To solve the problem, they should utilize diverse models to advertise many of the products. In her essay she uses ethos, pathos, and logos when she is expressing her own view on women’s body image.She also takes advantage strong Diction and tone to consistently show her side throughout the whole paper.

I also looked into how advertising supports hegemonic masculinity, which is the idea of masculinity being dominant. (Ravelli and Webber 2016: 203). Throughout this paper I will be talking about how advertising makes gender codes and if they affect how I view individuals, and if they affect the way people view me. I will also be addressing if there are different codes, like class codes that may affect the way others and/or I view individuals. Lastly, I will be explaining how using a sociological perspective can help to think outside of gender codes and realize that it is not something that should be seen as normal.

According to sexologists John Money and Anke Ehrhardt, sex and gender are separate categories. “Sex, they argued, refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined. Gender they saw as a psychological transformation - the internal conviction that one is either male or female (gender identity) and the behavioral expressions of that conviction” (Sterling 4). Although there are biological differences between the two sexes, but gender roles are socially constructed. They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, behave and interact with society.​​​ Richard Dawkins states in his book, The Selfish Gene that we are merely a product of our genes and our main purpose in life is to serve the genes, become distribution agents and ensure their continuance (Nye, Savage and Watts 273) .

What he means is that one’s sex derives from one’s reproductive organs and genital configurations , whereas gender refers to the amount of stereotypical femininity and masculinity a person exhibits. Gayle Rubin, for instance, uses the term ‘sex/gender system’ in order to describe “a set of arrangements by which the biological raw material of human sex and procreation is shaped by human, social intervention” (1975, 165). To inhibit one’s gender means having to learn behaviour, manners, gestures and attitudes that our culture deems appropriate to each sex. It is through learning these patterns that we become socialized and gendered, moving from our individual anatomical sex (being male or female) to a processed social product (behaving as a man or woman). From the social and cultural expectations for a man and the manner and degree to which he acknowledges and lives up to them we derive the concept of masculinity; those applicable to a woman, together with her compliance with them, we think of as femininity.

The thing that makes people think that way is gender identities, which are defined as some morals and behaviors that men and women should follow to fit into the society. Some of these roles are that women have to emotional, and moody while men have to be strict and independent. Junot Diaz, the author of the short story “How to Date a Browngirl, Blackgirl, Whitegirl, or Halfie”, gives insight into society's ideology concerning attraction and the social standard of physical beauty. Supporting a similar concept of gender identity,

Iris Marion Young believes that after examining the various ways that both men and women embody their bodies, we will be able to gain insight into the way gendered differences unfold within our society, essentially damaging women. There are specific rules and regulations that women are to abide by to be considered appropriate. There becomes this self-imposed expectation that women find themselves abiding by. Young argues that women typically underuse and undermine the actual potential of their bodies. We do not use them to their full capabilities and all they have to offer.

Does it take maternal instincts to lay that sound foundation for the youth? Since the social construction of gender is mainly formed by the gender role and stereotype in our society, gender identity is constructed by the representation of gender norms in mass media productions, parental expectations about gender identity, and the beliefs of different religious traditions about gender. In today 's society, mass media production such as movies, video games, and magazines influenced so many young males and females and also some older people. For instance, men usually dominate the action genre in films. Whenever a woman is cast as the lead role in an action movie, she has to be oozing sex appeal.

Gender inequality is a social justice issue that is prominent in several societies as it is a direct reflection of the systematic power distribution amongst the two binary genders. This form of inequality is reflected through a set of adverse behaviours projected from one individual to another, known as domestic violence. Individuals perform the identities that is associated with their gender role because it is what is culturally acceptable within their given society. Judith Butler’s theory of ‘Gender as a Performance’ depicts that the practices that individuals repeat and perform assure the elements that an identity is composed of. This theory is an embodiment of domestic violence as it establishes the inequality amongst the different genders, by allowing the male to perform his dominance, causing the female to feel inferior to this.

Gender roles— or social roles encompassing behaviors and attitudes that a society considers acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based upon their actual or perceived sex or sexuality— are undeniably prevalent across cultures (being defined as a sum of attitudes, customs, and beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another). The process of socialization is the process by which people gain knowledge of group characteristics as well as the knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and actions thought appropriate for each member; involvement in gender socialization particularly deems it requisite for people to acquire a concept of the “gender map,” which stands as the cumulation of paths societies have deemed fitting

A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered acceptable, appropriate or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex. These are usually centered around opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity, although there are myriad exceptions and variations. The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may vary substantially among cultures, while other characteristics may be common throughout a range of cultures. There is ongoing debate as to what extent gender roles and their variations are biologically determined, and to what extent they are socially constructed. Various groups have led efforts to change aspects of prevailing gender roles that they believe are oppressive