Throughout the progress of understanding human development, the notion of gender has commonly been the topic of discussion and debate when attempting to understand its foundation. While it is argued to be a societal and cultural manifestation, others suggest it is a biological…
Gill and Starr use a sarcastic undertone whilst describing the goals, strategies and research of the lobby; Most notably the Boys in Education lobby’s stance on the Theory of Gender. The lobbyists describe the boys in their research in a very ‘boys will be boys’ manner. That is to say that all boys are the way they are because of biology and only biology itself is to blame for their behaviour and schooling failures. This goes against the beliefs of feminist arguments which side on the constructed gender theory that acknowledges biology in the most minimum form while attributing behaviour or personality to the dynamic social construction of gender. In ignoring the social construct of gender, the lobbyists are not fully understanding the position of the boys and furthermore reinforcing a gender stereo type of all boys. The questions should be ‘which boys?’ and, in order to explore the reasons of these specific boys’ behaviours, it is necessary for the lobbyists to look beyond the biological make up of…
Describe and evaluate the biological explanation of gender development. Give evidence in your answer. (10 marks)…
In the article “The Gender Blur: Where Does Biology End and Society Take Over?”, Deborah Blum starts off sharing a personal story. She describes her own childhood, where she had two individual presents that are thought, in society, to be for a girl or a girl. She receives things that clash such as a Barbie doll and a softball glove. Barbie dolls are meant to be delicate and more girlish, where as a softball glove is more rugged or active and more boyish. This gave her both different opportunities to be more girly or boyish. On the other hand, when she had two boys, the older one had become quite fond of dinosaurs. Not the herbivores, but the blood thirsty carnivores. She soon found her son to be gnawing on her leg, and realized the aggressive boy like characteristics.…
When we were small children, our gender didn't mean much other than our anatomy. We recognized differences between ourselves and the opposite sex, but it didn't mean much as far as how we acted. The older that we got, observation and instruction began to dictate our behavior based on gender. We saw other children of the same gender acting a certain way and then we made the connection that that was how we were supposed to act also. Along with observation, adults and other older children told us things like, "boys don't cry" and "you're such a pretty girl." Statements like these focus on stereotypes of genders: the masculinity of men and the appearance of women. We are not born knowing these stereotypes. The world and culture around us cultivates the stereotypes that we will see in the future. As we grow up and learn these stereotypes in America, our…
Throughout the decades, human beings from a small age start learning the characteristics of a male and female. Whether it is from media, clothing and to the way one is brought up, society has similar views of what it means to be a man or a women. Men are envisioned to be strong, aggressive, successful, and someone who avoids feminine characteristics. Women are perceived to be submissive, delicate, passive, dependent, vulnerable, having the ability to care for children and at times worthless. These views of gender identity have been engraved in humanities minds due to the amount of exposure to television, advertisements and the way one is raised in their households.…
Another subtle way in which sexism exists isn’t even committed by men—women are taking part in a cycle of misogyny and hatred of the members of their own gender. Very commonly nowadays you see young girls and even grown women claim to be different from their female peers in order to seem more appealing to men. It’s a very simple self-perpetuating way for misogyny to exist without ever being perpetrated by males. With the “not-like-other-girls” mindset, women are pitted against other women, as opposed to standing in solidarity against the very institutional sexism they have been unknowingly perpetuating. Girl-on-girl hate has been sensationalized and normalize in the media via television shows (see Gossip Girl), movies (see Mean Girls), and books (see The Clique series) all of these are specifically targeted for young girls. Often the antagonists of these stories are female peers and the happy ending or “reward” is finally getting to be with which ever boy that has been lusted over for the length of the story. While they do highlight the very real issue of bullying in schools, these stories do little to nothing to promote the friendship and commonality that young girls have together. In relation to the aforementioned grievance, self-image doesn’t have to be limited to one’s personality or appearance—it can refer to one’s gender, and can lead to the dislike of members of one’s own…
I found the article written by Emily W. Kane so insightful and it reminded me very much of the film Tough Guise 2 by Jackson Katz. We find gender nonconformity of girls much easier to accept than that of boys. Girls can dress like boys and play sports like boys and they will simply be considered just a “tomboy”. However if boys choose to behave more feminine, they are constantly bombarded with insults such as “fag, pussy, or bitch”. Although often brushed off the shoulder, these insults can cause a boy to feel…
I will first explain the traditional gender roles that were assigned to females. Since the beginning of our country…
The discovery of germs has been a long process in history and still ongoing today. John Waller, author of The Discovery of the Germ: Twenty Years That Transformed the Way We Think about Disease, has stated as his thesis in this book, “…between 1880 and 1900…medicine underwent perhaps its greatest ever transformation. In just 20 years, the central role of germs in producing illness was for the first time decisively demonstrated and Western doctors abandoned misconceived ideas about the causes and nature of disease that had persisted, in one form or another, for thousands of years (Waller 1).” The germ theory replaced the medical society’s beliefs that relied on the humoral theory for thousands of years. The question that has risen is whether or not there is a problem with monocausal explanations of disease.…
Competition between genders has been going on for as long as we have existed. What psychologists are trying to figure out is why this competition exists in the first place. I believe the reason that genders feel the need to compete against each other is actually really simple. They want to impress each other and be the better one.…
Male are the dominant group in society which will make female's point of view to be lest competent.…
Everybody in today’s society experiences gender throughout his or her life. However, as a female, I have personally always been affected by the social construction of gender in my day-to-day life, whether I was aware of it or not. Gender is such a prominent aspect of life for everyone that we barely recognize the effect it has on us, especially when it’s constructed within our own families.…
From the m0ment a child is born they are born into a family that have set cultural norms that shape their behavior and the events they will encounter in life. Gender, the meanings that society associates with being male or female, in the media helps guide how society interacts with each other which in turn will develop cultural norms. In advertisements women are still portrayed to be cleaning the home, or modeling clothes where as men are portrayed in high paying positions, or overshadow women in car ads. As a society women are viewed as unintelligent, emotional and dependant. In contrast men are viewed as intelligent, competitive and independent. Therefore early on children learn from culture that female and males are different because gender bias shapes our thoughts and actions throughout life.…
From a young age, girls are taught how to behave and how to dress in order to not raise attention. They are taught that if a boy is mean to them or hits them, it simply means that he likes them. Boys, on the other hand, are taught to not show their emotions. They are taught that aggression is equal to manliness. They are taught that “to play like a girl” is an insult. Both boys and girls are born into a society that places limitations on them based on their gender. These ideas and values are ingrained into their minds and it is something that they are given no choice but to believe in.…