Our Ideals of Femininity and Masculinity: Learned or Natural?
Shimeng Zhao
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14-12-4
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Do you feel that our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned or natural? Why?
Give specific examples
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Femininity and masculinity or one's gender identity refers to the degree to which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be a man or woman in society. Femininity and masculinity are rooted in the social rather than the biological.
Societal members decide what being male or female means, and males will generally respond by defining themselves as masculine while females will generally define themselves as feminine. Because these are social definitions, however, it is possible for one to be female and see herself as masculine or male and see himself as feminine. Therefore , i personally think that our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned, and i would like to use some examples to demonstrate my opinion.
It is important to distinguish gender identity, as presented above, from other genderrelated concepts such as gender roles which are shared expectations of behavior given one's gender. For instance , if a boy plays with girls during his childhood, according to this, he may acts more feminine, becomes timid. And as a same reason, if a girl spends all his time with boys, she will tend to behave very casual and dress up as boyish style.
Another great example to illustrate my opinion is homosexuality. Most people would say homosexual people’s concept is natural and unartificial, that’s possible but not the main reason why they chose to be homosexual, as mentioned before, they might spend time with people who has different gender during his or her childhood and even in school-days, they are more likely to play with them. Hence in most of the couples, one would act more on a side of masculinity and the other one is much weaker.
As a conclusion, i believe that our ideal of femininity and masculinity are learned by the environment we live in.People have views of themselves along a
!
14-12-4
!
!
Do you feel that our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned or natural? Why?
Give specific examples
!
Femininity and masculinity or one's gender identity refers to the degree to which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be a man or woman in society. Femininity and masculinity are rooted in the social rather than the biological.
Societal members decide what being male or female means, and males will generally respond by defining themselves as masculine while females will generally define themselves as feminine. Because these are social definitions, however, it is possible for one to be female and see herself as masculine or male and see himself as feminine. Therefore , i personally think that our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned, and i would like to use some examples to demonstrate my opinion.
It is important to distinguish gender identity, as presented above, from other genderrelated concepts such as gender roles which are shared expectations of behavior given one's gender. For instance , if a boy plays with girls during his childhood, according to this, he may acts more feminine, becomes timid. And as a same reason, if a girl spends all his time with boys, she will tend to behave very casual and dress up as boyish style.
Another great example to illustrate my opinion is homosexuality. Most people would say homosexual people’s concept is natural and unartificial, that’s possible but not the main reason why they chose to be homosexual, as mentioned before, they might spend time with people who has different gender during his or her childhood and even in school-days, they are more likely to play with them. Hence in most of the couples, one would act more on a side of masculinity and the other one is much weaker.
As a conclusion, i believe that our ideal of femininity and masculinity are learned by the environment we live in.People have views of themselves along a