My gender before I was born, as with most babies, was predetermined through pink balloons at my baby shower and the pink blanket I was wrapped in when I was born. Today gender has become one of the most important labels of your identity that you must accept. Although I don’t reject my given gender, I wonder how my identity would have been affected if I wasn’t forced to learn society's definition of female. As I grew up I was told that I needed to act “ladylike” when my brothers could dress and date around however they wanted. These double standards only became more apparent and strict as I grew up and matured. Gender roles are learnt through gender based parenting styles and can be ingrained by the time the child becomes an adult. Parenting …show more content…
However, when I was around 6 years old my parents divorced and I lived with my three brothers and my mom up until today. Although I grew up with my brothers in the house I was the youngest by about 10 years. So, as my mother raised brothers and me, being the only girl I noticed that my mother seemed to hold a double standard in the house between the boys and myself. One of the most memorable lessens I learned centered around my gender was that I must always look and act as a “Lady” would. This was taught through my trips with my mother to the nail salon from before I can remember, getting my ears pierced at 1 year old, always being encouraged to wear feminine colors such as pink or purple, among many other things. The point being that before the time I could walk my gender has been ingrained into my mind along with what it meant to be a woman. When I was young my mother fully encouraged me to delve into the “princess” fantasy and always discouraged things she didn’t deem acceptable for a growing little girl. So naturally I grew up dressed head to toe in pink with perfectly polished nails and a polite attitude. Then as I went through puberty and started to mature I began noticing the differences between the rules my mother followed for my brothers and me. I started to resist some of the “rules” my mother taught me to uphold and as I tried to justify why it was different from my
Casey DeVaughn Ms. Wrenn English 2 Persuasive Essay Rough draft Imagine a world where females and males do not have conform to society 's expectations. Children learn to categorize themselves by gender usually by the age of 3. From birth, children learn gender stereotypes and roles from their parents and environment. In a traditional view, males learn to manipulate their physical and social environment through physical strength or dexterity, while girls learn to present themselves as objects to be viewed. Social constructionists claim for example that gender-segregated children 's activities create the appearance that gender differences in behavior reflect an essential nature of male and female behavior.
The fight for women’s or people of colors rights is not new. Women and people of color have been fighting since the beginning of time for their systematic rights. Sojourner Truth said in her speech “to the Women’s Rights Convention,” “I have heard much about the sexes being equal. I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am strong as any man that is now” (890).
From the moment of my birth, I was declared a girl and my parents immediately attempted to raise me to be every aspect of my gender, from behavior to beliefs. In sociology, this is known as gender role socialization, which is the process of socializing boys and girls to conform to their assigned genders’ attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, values, and norms. My parents taught me how think and behave like a girl through the way the way they dressed me, how they did my hair, and the toys they allowed me to play with. However, having been raised with a brother, I also picked up on some of his supposed gender roles. I am exactly who I am due to the way I was socialized by my parents and others around me.
Although some people believe that nature affects the gender identity, others argue that, based on the education an individual receives, it is actually nurture. For example, John Moore, a teacher at a female-only school, says, “My findings suggest that, in some senses, the single-sex school is strongly feminist” (Moore, 2005). On the other hand, many societies teach the children gender stereotypes to try and limit them from becoming against what the society feels is appropriate. Gender roles or stereotypes are “a set of qualities, behaviors, and attitudes that are considered appropriate for males and females based on their biological sex” (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). Most of the time, these stereotypes are taught and explained to the children in the early stages of learning, since as mentioned above, gender identity is most likely detected after the child is two years old.
Butler states that gender identity, the inner sense and personal experience of one’s own gender, is not an innate component of humans. Gender is not an internal identity that a person is, but rather something that one does or performs. She declares that “there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted by the very ‘expressions’ that are said to be its results”. This demonstrates her argument that gender identity is produced by gender performance or expression, one’s gendered appearances and behaviors in society. Lastly, she explains that gender performance and the consequential gender identity is not decided by the individual (Butler).
After my gender reveal, my mother started getting the baby room ready, decorating the walls pink with a lacy border. My clothes were dresses with little bows. As I grew, my gender became one of my core identities. I have memories of being told by my father that it was okay I struggled in mathematics, because “most girls aren’t good at math.”
Gender is something that is brought to the attention of people well before people are even brought into the world. Take for instance, when a woman finds out that she is pregnant and is about to have a child. The first question that that women is asked is “What are you having?” In doing this we are automatically emphasizing the importance of being able to identify whether or not to buy “boy” things or “girl” things. As a society we deem it important for each sex to practice a set of “norms” of how to behave via that sex.
Introduction Parents play an important role in guiding the development of their child in the early years, before the influence of teachers and peers comes into play (Diem-Wille, 2014). This influence that parents have on their children would naturally affect the child’s perception of gender roles and stereotypes. Following the approach of the Gender-Schema Theory, the child learns about gender in his or her society by observing behaviours of the people around him or her and then classifying the information as characteristic of different genders (Bem, 1983). The family environment and experience would therefore be central to helping the child construct schemas about gender roles since parents’ actions and attitudes are part of the information that the child receives from the environment that is integrated into the schema (McHale, Crouter, & Whiteman, 2003).
The first time this process occurs is when a child is being taught what is right and wrong. The gender ideas than many parents have are strongly influenced by what they see in the media. In some aspects, we should let children be who they really are. We deny this from ever occurring by placing a tremendous amount of pressure on them. Children are now learning about themselves as a result of society’s depiction of a male or female.
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. Girls were expected to be more passive while boys were to be more aggressive and expressive with masculine behaviors. “Before the age of three, children can differentiate toys typically used by boys or girls and begin to play with children of their own gender in activities identified with that gender.
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
Your choice of being masculine or feminine or what you want to identify as is already chosen after you are
Gender is the state of being male or female. Revolution is a forcible overthrow of a government or social order, in favour of a new system. Therefore, Gender Revolution is the overthrow of gender discrimination, in favour of both men and women. Women, as well as men, have made great strides to equality, but inequality persists. Women have fought for many years for their place in the workplace, but that fight isn’t over.
Though the term chastity is used in relation to the sexual behavior of men and women, somehow it limited its meaning in due course to the sexual manners of women or rather became a term to chastise women. Yes, it is a jewel to be protected at any cost and the preservation of which becomes the obligation of a female, even if it is at the cost of her life. The male egotism, curious to establish their authority over women made literature and media their weapons and often they created myths on chastity to threaten women of constant vigil over the same. These myths are patriarchal in nature, designed to satisfy the male imagination and cravings. They reflect men’s subliminal desires to subdue women and fear about an intruder into his realm.
As a child, I did not fully understand my gender identity or