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WHAT IS GENDER?

Gender is the description of  characteristics such as norms, roles, and relationships of women and men that is constructed by society. These constructed ideologies influence how individuals act, interact and feel about themselves. Gender roles are enforced by expectations from society on what you should wear, feel, and act in a certain way. For instance, men and boys are to be strong and not show any emotions, and love sports. Women and girls are expected to be kind, emotional, naturally nurturing, and domestic.

The male gender is socially conditioned to convey power over women. Male privileges are created through cultural expectation, legislative system, and social programming which establish and sustain a hierarchy that consistently puts men on the top. Therefore men tend to benefit at the expense of every other gender.

Most of us have been brought up with merely ideas of sex and gender. There are two sexes; male and female, and that they align with two gender men and women. However, there are 57 different types of gender according to google.

Post 3

For this post, think about the following: In what ways do you get to choose your identity? In what ways is it chosen for you? Do you notice a trend in who gets to decide which aspects? Do any identities or attributes/behaviors seem more managed or directed than others? By whom?

People get to choose their identity when they meet new people. That new person does not know anything about you and you have the freedom to present yourself however you want. I think it is chosen by society and family. Society puts labels on people not caring who they are and what they do. One look and society thinks they know everything about you. I think family also pressures you into thinking they know you so well. Usually, people do not reveal everything to their families because not everyone can be so close but just because they are family they think their opinion matters and they know you better than you do. I do not think I see a specific trend, there might be one but maybe for now I do not have enough knowledge and view to see it. I hope after the class I will be able to identify that trend. I think things such as gender gets to be more managed. Some of the genders get pressured, threatened, and not accepted which cannot be applied to other identities.

What is Gender?

The question what is gender is not as simple of an answer as some might think. In a traditional sense people believe that asking someones gender is the equivalent to asking what sex they are. This is far from the truth. Biologically the sex of a person is female or male, yet gender has more then just two. Gender is usually assigned to a person at birth. Many of us see this all over social media now of days labeled as a “Gender Reveal.” Unfortunately people don’t realize one can choose what they identify as later on in life, but assigning a gender from the start can cause much confusion for a child.

Imagine being born and was told you were a boy before even learning who you are and what you identified as, later on finding out that they were wrong . You as a person believe with your mind and body that you are a woman, even if your sex is identified as a male. Who is to tell this person that they themselves shouldn’t identify as what they believe in? Yet in todays society people still associate the color blue with male and pink as female. For some reason even in 2021 a persons sex is always being put against one another. One must act like what societies version has chosen for them. For example a male should be strong, brave, less sensitive than a women, a provider, and ex. While a woman must be quiet, neat, knows how to cook, be able to raise a family, and ex. When this isn’t the only way people see the world.

Gender has many different forms and can be confusing sometimes. But that doesn’t change its validity. As a society we must learn to respect what others believe. This can be done by referring to there correct pronouns like she, he, or they. Gender is what one believes they are and not always about biologically what they are.

What is Gender

Gender is the role we each play in society that identifies us as male or female. It is based on the sex assigned at birth and children are raised to conform with the roles given to that sex by society. Society manages gender roles by assigning characteristics and ideals for each sex. In America, it is now fashionable for couples to have a gender reveal party and at these parties, if it is a girl there will be a pink reveal and if it is a boy it is blue. Before the birth of the child, they have already been assigned to a specific color. Another example of societal reinforcement of gender roles are the gifts we give to children. Girls are often given dolls, tea sets or doll houses while boys are given guns, cars, or action figures. From an early age children are groomed by their community to perform specific tasks like girls will help their mother inside the home while boys will tend to the yard or assist their fathers with their cars.

In our society, men are automatically given power and privilege. Men are often hired for high status and high paying jobs over women as they are considered natural leaders and not as emotional as women. Men are believed to be more logical decisions makers and they are less likely to take time off to care for their loved ones. The US Department of Education states that more females graduate from college at all four degree levels than males, but only seven percent of company CEOs are female. In the medical field, more than fifty-two percent graduating in 2018 were females but there are only thirty-five percent female medical practitioners.

Women often face more obstacles than men. As the ‘weaker’ sex, women are more likely to be victims of sex crimes and face sexual harassment in the workplace. Women are more likely to stay at home after giving birth than men are, and therefore become financially dependent on their partners. I believe that our society have created the obstacles that hinder a woman’s progress. If a man returns to work after the birth of a child no one belittles him or thinks anything of it, but should a woman return to work, especially within a short period, she is often shamed and made to feel like she is a bad mother for choosing to work rather than stay at home to raise her child. Men benefit from their maleness more than women. Our community has decided that the male gender is the legitimate gender by ascribing privileges to them that are denied by females. Even though western society is more accommodating than other nations, women are still ridiculed and shamed for choices that men will be praised for.

Besides the male and female sexes, there are those who are intersex. These individuals may have both male and female organs, chromosome levels outside the normal range for male or female and other variations of the traditional male/female anatomy. Parents usually choose to assign a sex to intersex babies and surgeons operate to conform to the parents’ requests. There are also those who do not identify with their given sex. A male may have all the organs and genetic chromosomes of a man, but does not feel like he is male and the same is true for females.

Gender??

Gender is a social construct in my opinion. The dictionary.com definition of gender is “either the male or female species of a species”, but however it is much deeper than that. Biologically a baby is born with a sex of either male or female due to genitalia and genetic differences, but sex is not the same as gender. Gender is more of a abstract concept. To believe there are only 2 genders is very narrow minded. Society constantly reinforces gender roles by having unrealistic standards in which both genders are supposed to live up to, such as being “manly” or being “girly”. It is seen since we are born, such as giving baby boys blue colored items, while baby girls pink colored.

Gender definitely relates to power and privilege. Male Privilege can range from many different things, such as not being scared to walk alone at night, to never having to fight for the right to vote, to fighting for the right to be educated, to severe wage gaps and many many more. Throughout time, males have always held more power than women, who were seen as fragile, soft and “needing a man to take care of themselves”. Females have more obstacles than others because of the way we are viewed. For example, a female can be raped and men will turn around and blame it on the way they dressed, which still gives them NO right to touch them in any way shape or form. It is evident that males get certain privilege’s women only dream to get. Although over time it slowly gets better, we will never be seen as equal to every single male in this world.

There are countless amounts of genders, ranging from agender, to bigender to transgender and many many more. Gender is an expression, and people can express themselves in any way shape or form🤍 . It is someone’s internal belief of which gender they choose to fall under and no one is to tell them what gender they can and cant identify as of. Do not be narrow minded and think there are only two genders because of what we are told growing up!

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What is Gender?

As we all know, gender is based on birth and our biological parts. Gender ranges by our characteristics in which we portray feminie or masuline personality traits. Our society frequently enforces gender roles, we’ve seen it before coming out the womb aka gender reveals, we see it in clothing stores, shows, work fields etc. Sadly, when you are pronounced to become a boy automatically you have a bunch of awaiting traits that you need to fulfill. For instance, men automatically need to be strong, breadwinner, self-reliant and etc. Women “need” to be soft, emotional and nurturing to be a “woman”. Gender and gender roles shape the way we live to today. However, gender has expanded to be more than just female and male. 

Power and Privilege coincides with a large percentage of the male population. It is often found that men are more dominant and more opportunities are open for them. In many fields, you’ll see the majority of the ceo’s are white males. From the beginning of time, when voting came about women were not allowed until they protested and fought for their rights. It is also seen within many ethncities, for instance muslim women were forbidden to drive, or nigerian women were not allowed to divorce their husbands without their consent. Throughout many generations, men have held the dominance over every single thing. The way politics is set up, it is like its built that men possess and have the right to display such dominance. It is seen even within political work fields, such as our recent presidential election. It has taken years for us to have our FIRST women, as our vice president. Women face many obstacles throughout the work field and at home. Women face gender pay gaps, men creating laws about a woman’s body, sexual assault, in some countries many women need consent from their husbands before they do anything.

Over time, I have been taught that gender does not only mean girl or boy. It has an entire community filled with different stereotypes, preferences and over 64 genders that people can identify themselves with. It’s 2021, people should feel comfortable to express themselves and to do whatever makes them happy. Unfortunately, in our miserable society we have many people who have growing up to do , and accept that people blossom into new people everyday. 

Gender, Identity, and Intersectionality

By Serita

People get to choose their identity by dressing, the music they listen to, culture, race, gender, etc. Our identity is selected by how one’s raise, for instance, your parents buying you girl/boys clothing, specific toys your “gender” is supposed to play with. This reflects our childhood, but also the people around you can influence your identity and characteristics. Yes, I noticed a trend that our society gets to decide which aspects you are. Social media is apart of the trend; we compare ourselves to other people prettier, taller, and talented than us. We get influenced based on celebrity’ actions, clothing, makeup, etc. However, we should not always listen to what society has to say about our identity, gender, and intersectionality. I believe that racism plays a massive role in our identity, like Black and Asian people being targeted against hate crimes. Just because of someone’s race, nobody should have the right to be threatened, mistreated. Therefore, our society should be the blame for one’s identity and how we act and dress in a certain way.

Weekly Roundup — Feb 16

Hi all,

Thanks for another good week of class. This week, you should do the following:

  • Peruse other answers about gender for Post 2, and comment on someone’s post. What points did the author make that you agree with or share? Did they mention anything that didn’t occur to you? What did you learn from their post? (To make a comment, fill out the comment box below their post). In your comment, be descriptive and specific in your engagement!
  • Read the readings for Feb 23
  • Please do your exit ticket
  • Think about something that you would like to focus on for your independent project. We will share ideas in class.

Thanks,

Gwen

What is gender?

Gender is a social construct of roles and behaviors within a society that governs how someone should behave from birth based on their sex(male or female). Identifying gender is more diverse than corresponding to sex, it’s a way of expression. These roles and behaviors influence how we socialize and form relationships. Gender can be a physical expression such as clothing or a social expression such as name and pronoun choice. We see society managing gender by teaching young girls to cook and take care of a home but neglecting to teach young men these skills. Also, as parents prepare for a newborn they buy clothing or accessories based on the sex of the baby. It’s not done because this child may love pink or blue nor trucks or barbies. These are the earliest signs of society reinforcing the construct of gender. 

When I think of power and privilege I think of rich men with prestigious titles in corporations. If that isn’t your thought or remotely close, I guess we may not be living in the same reality. Power and privilege have always been given firstly to men in general then white men second. We are all human beings and we face different obstacles but of the two genders, males have always had a place in society. While women continuously try to break glass ceilings one after the other. This is so because of the roles and labels society has given us from birth and continues to uphold from generation to generation. For example, in 2016 when presented with the choice of Hillary Clinton as a candidate for presidency people were less concerned with her ability and knowledge to get the job done and more fixated on the fact that “that is not a woman’s place”. Though there may have been further reasoning of sound minds against her candidacy, the consensus was appalled to have a woman govern their democracy. It is not hard to tell who benefits, it’s men. Men are respected more than women. Society always holds space for men. 

Gender is your own, there is no-one that can choose that for you. Someone else cannot say whether the way you present yourself through physical and social expression is legitimate or illegitimate. According to (www.healthline.com, 2019), there are sixty-four (64) genders available for individuals to choose from that they can identify. I am only familiar with a few and support everyone to identify with whatever gender best describes them.