Gender And Behavior: Human Diversity In The United States

Gender and Behavior

When examining human diversity in the United States or any other society, it is important to first understand the criteria commonly used for making group distinctions. There are many ways in which diversity and complexity can be explained. These generally are based on cultural and/or biological factors. So what defines gender? When put into a biological category, it is meaningless because gender is socially constructed and defined mildly different in each society. Gender cannot be measured or tested, yet gender is the key factor to determining so many things in life. From the time a person is born, as soon as the sex is determined the parents begin to visualize what the life of the baby will be like as a girl or
Through family, peers, and mass media, society will simplify lives by dictating how a person is to look, what to wear, what names should be, whether or not that person can join a combat infantry and whom each can marry. Though biological factors set the stage for the direction of one's physical being it is society that reinforces masculine and feminine qualities. Tradition has conditioned people to respond to individuals according to their sex. From birth, families add to the perception of what characteristics are considered as masculine and feminine. Traditionally, parents raised boys much differently than girls by giving each gender specific toys deemed appropriate by societal norms spread through media. Toys given to girls tend to be dolls and kitchen appliance replicas, such as an Easy-Bake Oven, which will prepare the girls for future "duties;" whereas, boys will play with toy cars and video games of violence or sports which will give the boys the masculine mindset necessary for future "success." Aaron Devor comments in "Gender Role Behaviors an Attitudes" about gender differences saying "The schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive and
A style of clothing or hairstyle that becomes trendy on television or in motion pictures quickly becomes trendy at school as well. Traditionally television has portrayed women and men in stereotypical gender roles. Characters who participate in nontraditional gender roles are frequently portrayed as silly. Such images have reinforced ideas about how a male or a female is "suppose" to behave, as one writer fiercely objects to such standards: "Instead of resigning ourselves to being at the mercy of the media, we have to recognize power to have an impact on it" (Morgan 497). Currently, there are many female characters which are shown as assertive and independent with nontraditional careers, such as surgeons, military officers, or police officers, in addition, male characters are shown as caring, nurturing husbands and parents. Conventionally, gay characters were used in movies and television as comic relief, but now they are featured as the main stars which the storyline revolves around. In observing these trends, one can speculate that the media's images of men and women have an incredible impact on the views of gender roles. As mass media continues to change and show different aspects of gender roles it becomes more socially acceptable for regular people to behave in the same