Preview

Gender Moments

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1416 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Gender Moments
"He throws like a girl!" This insult is heard all too often and is harsh to boys because of the perception of girls being weak. We are constantly bombarded with moments emphasizing gender in everyday situations. After training myself to see these differences my eyes have been opened to something I have previously believed "natural" and allowed a new perspective to push through. I see attitudes and behavior now as socially constructed and not usually inherent. In R. W. Connel's book Gender, he defines gender as "the structure of social relationship that centers on the reproductive arena, and the set of practices that bring reproductive distinctions between bodies into social processes" (pg 10). I have found that gender is an institution, a pattern that has attained a social state. Gender is unique in that it is meshed with many other institutions, thus changing gender, it would mean changing much of society. I chose to focus my paper on the different institutions gender is a part of, in education throughout development, relationships, religion, and politics. Although I have only touched the surface, I believe that gender is an institution; an order or pattern that has attained a social state or property.
Education is a potent institution used to reinforce gender differences. In our reading we found that children are much more likely to separate themselves at school in gender categories than in their neighborhoods. As Barrie Thorne points out in her book Gender Play, "Apart from age, of all the social categories of the students, gender was the most formally, and informally, highlighted in the course of each school day" (pg 34). I feel that many experiences in elementary school have reinforced my gender outlook. I spent much of my time in elementary school racing the boys and biting my nails to show I wasn't scared to "break a nail" and never wearing a dress. Recess was a fight for me half the time. I didn't like the connotation of being called a "girl."

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Gayle Rubin created the sex/gender system concept in the year 1975. She created this term to offer a new way of thinking about the difference between sex and gender. She defined the sex/gender system as “the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and which these transformed sexual needs are satisfied” (WRWC, 2015). The sex/gender system has many explanations that attempt to address how our sex plays a role in how we learn gender. A few of these theories include: cognitive-developmental theory, social learning theory, gender schema theory, social interactions and gender roles, and lastly, performativity theory. In this essay I will explain how the sex/gender system is created and reinforced from the perspectives of feminist theorists.…

    • 936 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The ideology that gender is socially constructed is a view that has been present in a number of philosophical, sociological and psychological theories. This view shares the understanding that gender is a result of enculturation through a prescribed ideal, and that society deems what is considered socially appropriate behaviour. Carol Vance, a feminist scholar, argues that gender and sexuality are not to be understood as “natural”, but rather as a socially constructed truth (Grewal, Kaplan 29). This reflects that society is shaped globally through social order. Each culture and society shares a social order that is unique to a particular set of customs, values and practices. These customs are engrained within society as individuals share a…

    • 1177 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to Cecilia Ridgeway (2011), suggest that gender frame affects social relationships based on gender inequality. Ridgeway states”Comptemporary levels of gender inequality represent a dynamic, changing balance between forces that act to undermine gender as a principle of inequality”(189). Gender frame should be eliminated because it affects on how sex and gender are defined by cultural beliefs. Also, sex and gender are looked as inequality because of social relationships in work force and households. At an early age, children are taught that we should behave based on our biological sex. Ridgeway (2011) states that “From early childhood. Our reliance on sex categorizing others is deeply rooted in the very process by which we learn to form and carry out social relationships” (191). For example, males have more status advantages because men are looked as more skilled then women.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The concept of gender is used by sociologists to describe all the socially given attributes, roles, activities and responsibilities connected to being male or female in a given society. Our gender identity determines how we are perceived and how we are expected to think and act as women and men, because of the way society is organised” (March et al, 1999)…

    • 613 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before a baby is even born, it’s gender and role in society is predetermined. Gender, a social construction, not only dictates what people “should” wear, but also how they “should” speak, and the jobs they “should” perform. For example, most societies expect men to be leaders, strong, dominant, honorable and ambitious. In contrast, women are viewed as nurturing, submissive, supportive, and sensitive. Essentially, gender serves as a primary basis for what is deemed acceptable. Furthermore, its use has more of a cognitive impact on an audience’s sense of understanding than what most would realize.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Topic 8 Summary

    • 886 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Your Sex depends on whether you were born with male or female genitals and a genetic program that released male or female hormones to stimulate the development of your reproductive system. However, the case of Bruce/Brenda/David shows that more is involved in becoming male or female than biological sex differences. Being male or female involves not just biology but also certain masculine and feminine feelings, attitudes, and behaviors. Sociologists distinguish biological sex from sociological gender. Gender is your sense of being male or female and playing masculine and feminine roles as defined by your culture and society. One’s gender is composed of the feelings, attitudes, and behaviors typically associated with being male or female. Gender identity is one’s identification with or sense of belonging to a particular sex biologically, psychologically, and socially. When you behave according to widely shared expectations about how males or females are supposed to act, than you adopt a gender role. The social construction of gender does not stop at the school steps because outside of school, children, adolescents, and adults continue to negotiate gender roles as they interact with the mass media. The gender roles that children learn in their families, at school, and through the mass media form the basis for their social interaction as adults. For example, by playing team sports, boys tend to learn that social interaction is most often about competition, conflict, self-sufficiency, and hierarchical relationships. Once the sex of children is known, parents and teachers tend to treat boys and girls differently in terms of the kind of play, dress, and learning they encourage. The mass media reinforce the learning of masculine and feminine roles by making…

    • 886 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The older we get the more we are defined by our gender. Children start to develop a sense of gender and the characteristics that accompany their sex as young as the age of two. Over time, they begin to recognize stereotypes that women and men possess. They are led to believe that only girls are only allowed to do feminine things such as cook or draw. Boys are only allowed to take part in activities that are deemed as masculine like participating in sports or playing with trucks. Many factors are at fault and lead many to believe and follow certain stereotypes. Teaching children stereotypes confuses them and can reaffirm the sexist ideas we are trying to diminish. There are mainly three things that impact a child’s views on gender: society, parental and peer influences, and popular culture. These influential factors make it difficult for children to develop their own ideas on gender. Though some do argue, stereotypes help children differentiate between genders and help them recognize what behavior is appropriate for each sex. Overall the standards we place on children could be…

    • 1629 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gender Difference in Play

    • 1019 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A gender difference is one of social contents that may affect young children either positively or negatively. By the ages of three or four, most children are aware of their gender differences through their physical appearances. (Tobin, Menon, Spatta, Hodges, & Perry, 2010). In the study of Lee & Troop-Gordon (2011), more often both male and female students are influenced by negative responses from their peers and may change the behaviors by either verbal or non-verbal harassments among their peers. Based on the studies, educators should be aware of the peer pressures that children receive in negative implicit or explicit behaviors toward stereotyped gender activities. (Tobin et al., 2010). When teaching school age children, educators should understand how negative responses through peers may affect behaviors of each gender. Educators also need to understand the typical behaviors of children when they are facing dilemma among gender norms and expectations. Teachers including caregivers in school age programs should provide the safe environment where children could learn in cross-gender education.…

    • 1019 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gender Stereotypes

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Deborah Tannen showed a few examples about men and women in society. Gender stereotypes are created at the very first day when the child is born. Usually, girls want to have a connection and feel close to their friend. However, boys tend to be competitive with their friends. They like to play the challenged game. A research showed that children learn the stereotypes gender form adult. This proves that children are affected by adult. Today, the stereotypic role of woman is to marry and teach their children. Men, on the other hand, are to support the financial for their family. Those kinds of gender stereotypes can prove harmful because it can separate the roles between men and woman in the society.…

    • 299 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many times when people talk of gender, they are always referring to women. It is rare for people to talk of gender when there are only men without a lady or when there are only women without a man. However the actual meaning of gender is the social attributes and the opportunities associated with being male and female and also the relationships between women and men and the relationship that exist between girls and boys, as well as the relations between women themselves and those between men themselves. Therefore these attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through the process of interacting or socialization. Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given context. In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as decision-making opportunities. Some places women are restricted to certain functions and men too are restricted to certain functions. Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context. Other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis includes class, race, poverty level, ethnic group and age (International Telecommunication Union.2011)…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socialize as a Men/Women

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In our society, socialization has shaped us variously. The effect the society has on our daily life from the beginning, in every stage in life is incredibly from our beliefs to our identity and including the gender roles in the society. Each of us takes a specific role in describing ourselves in the most suitable way for the world to understand. The biological is the origin how the society defines whom is male and woman. The gender roles appear in the images the world sees us in a physical appearance and the action each perform that suit their physical origin. Male is masculine, strong and protective. On the other hand, female is feminine, weak and empathetic. The gender roles appear in the society in the characteristics and the responsible in act.…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    *The school site is a stage on which gender roles are developed in our society. In our daily school, there are differences in curriculum. When we approach some books and stories, they almost present the lives of males and females in stereotypical ways. In book, it label which gender has what kinds of behaviors, colors, jobs, haircuts. Male characters are over represented in children's books-although some change toward more equal treatment has occurred in recent years.…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brandley, K. and Khor, D. (1993) "Towards an Integration of Theory and Research on the…

    • 5965 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Single Sex School

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The first reason is that boys and girls are not equal and develop at different times and speeds; therefore they should be taught separately. Acording to Gilbert (2007), Aacademic planners and school superintendents in the 1960’s had this foundamental assumption; they used to think that separate means unequal, so fearing that they would be unfair, provoking inequality and sexual stereotypes between students; they decided to mix the sexes at the earliest possible age. As a result, public single sex schools started to vanish, by 2000 only a handful survived. In the 1965, Most of America’s puplic school were single sex. This clearly shows that boys and girls were separated in the first place out of the fear of inequality; and if we want to mix girls and boys out of inequality we should mix them in all of the activities they do coupled with education. Sports are the best indication that boys and girls are not equal, each have their strengths and weaknesses. And to mix them in learning is a mistake as mixing them in sports is a mistake. Moreover, they develop physically at different speeds, girls often developing earlier; that is true on every level of analysis. This can lead to bullying from opposite sex for those who either over-develop or under-develop. Therefore, it should come to no surprise that, at least in the United States, elementary school boys are 50% more likely to repeat a grade than girls and they drop out of high school a third time more often. If they were taught separately and the curriculum and teaching was tailored to their needs, drop-out rates would not be so high nor as vastly…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics