Posts – Page 69 – Intro to Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies

What is gender?

Gender refers to the roles, attitudes, behaviors and personalities of women, men, and individuals of different genders. They are socially constructed. It affects how individuals view themselves and each other, how they behave and communicate. Where do we see it? Society recognizes it as a color of clothing, accessories, mannerisms, etc. For example, society looks at pink as a girl color and blue as a boy color. I think that these things does not matter and if a guy wants to wear pink he can, as well as the girls can wear blue.

The decision-making and financial responsibility expected of each gender and the time that women or men are expected to spend on homemaking and rearing children varies between cultures. In many societies, men are taking on roles traditionally seen as belonging to men — working, support a family, and women are playing the parts like carrying children, getting job at home. But right now everything changes and women are not like that anymore. Some women right now are more successful than some men.

For example, women don’t run very many American corporations, and they do not hold many positions on corporate boards. In general, male privilege ap- pears everywhere. People keep building facilities without enough ladies rooms when everyone knows the difference in wait times for men’s and women’s bathrooms. Also, women’s health was jeopardized because doctors, who only studied men for many years, failed to recognize differences between women’s anatomy and men’s anatomy.

I believe that if a person wants to identify with a gender this person wants they can. This thing does not affect me in any way, you do you, I am not going to be upset or aggressive because of this. First of all, other people’s lives and decisions are none of my business. Healthline.com says that there are 64 different definitions for gender identity and expression.

What is Gender?

To unpack, the history of gender is a difficult task because of the long-standing relevance it has on society. There is always a discussion about how gender can really impact an individual’s life when it can be best described as the way you were born. In fact, that specific element determines the roles in which people are expected to carry out for the rest of their lives without any say. When there was a time where women were expected to keep the house in order by cleaning, preparing meals, and watching the children. While, men have the responsibility to go to work and provide the family with essentials. These roles were implemented for things to run smoothly. Now, that times continue to change so does the conversation and perception of gender. However, there are some professions that have their own set of expectations that depend on gender. Society has always had the power to dictate to what men and women are expected to do. I would say that any gender faces their own set of obstacles because life is different for everybody. When society tends to benefit a lot of people in order to provide them with the opportunities they need to succeed. I believe that no one emphasizes enough how important both genders are and what they have to offer the world. There may be a hundred more genders out there that we don’t know yet but, when that time does come society must change in order to fit the new set of needs of the people. When it may be perceived as restrictive and feel that they are being forced to conform to the ideals proposed by society. Therefore, the concept of gender is forever changing and must be constantly discussed.

How to Create a Post!

If you haven’t already the first step you want to do is register and activate your Cuny commons website account.

After successfully registered and logged in, you want to click on the class in which you are registered for.
Once you’re sure that you’re in the correct class, click on assignments located in the menu
Once in assignments, check to see what assignments have been posted by your instructor and follow the instructions for the particular task assigned. Please Read this carefully.
You next want to click on the “+ New” at the top of the page, hover over this and drop down menu will appear in which will have various options to choose from. You want to click “Post”.
This will take you to the page in which you will be writing your post. You must add a featured image and a category on the right side under “category”
When you are satisfied with the post, click on the Publish icon in the top right.

What is Gender?

Gender is a social construct that prescribes members of each sex with gender roles, attributions, and characteristics according to its society’s cultural norms. It is recognized from the blanket color a baby is wrapped in at childbirth, through the type of games and sports each sex is presented in childhood, the sexual guilt or emotional repression they experience during their adolescence years, and the responsibilities, glass ceilings, and pre-determined choices they are handed in adulthood.

Gender helps segregate humankind into two groups: men and women. By assigning each member to its gender roles, a society can better manage and maintain its people according to its convenience. By prescribing logic, power, and leadership qualities to men (over women), a society controls the sex of its leader and prevents it from changing. In order to maintain this unjust status quo, the leadership must keep men the rights and privileges holders (owning possession, studying in school, being trained for a trade, doing business, voting) in its society, and keep women (and other minorities of gender – non-binary for example) out of its reach, and thus unable to change their position.

I believe that through history men have come to this place of privilege and power over women for two reasons:
1. Biologically (usually), males are physically stronger than females. When humans lived in a time when physical strength was a large aspect of who can lead the group, I believe the male sex could have gained this advantage, like many other animals that are led by stronger, larger males of the pack.
2. Females control childbirth, thus their bodies have an immensely influential potential or risk to their communities. By controlling their bodies, society is better able to control its people.

Currently and historically, males benefit from the effects of gender norms and are given greater opportunities within their society, while females remain to have less control over changing their social norms. The people who decide which gender is legitimate are the same people who decide other political, social, economical, or religious decisions – ourselves and our leaders. Both liberals and conservatives decide which gender is legitimate as they represent their community and their own agenda. A gender that may not be legitimate in one place could be common in another community, depending on how prone that community and its leader are for diversity and change.

My mother once told me that she thinks of herself as Jewish just as she thinks of herself as a woman, meaning she does not argue with it. We know that there are many ways of cherishing, celebrating, or neglecting one’s religion. Similarly, there are probably infinite ways to claim, demonstrate and nonconform with regards to your own gender.

* In the 19th-century picture, “L’Origine du monde” (the origin of the world) by Gustave Courbet was accidentally censored on Facebook as a nudity photo in 2011.

Steps on how to write a post

Without a doubt, it is always helpful to have a set of instructions nearby in order for things to run a bit smoother. To start off, when it comes to creating a post you must first sign into the website using your username and password. Once you have done so it will lead you to the home page also known as the Dashboard portion of the website. Next, select the tab titled “Posts” on the left-hand side that will give you a drop-down menu where you click “All Posts”. Then, at the top of the website you will click the tab titled “New” that will also give you a drop-down menu and you select “Post”. That will bring you to a new post where you will follow the prompt that was given on the roundups. Not to mention, that when you finish writing the post you must make sure to select the tabs on the right-hand side that apply to you. Such as, the time, day you class, which assignment it is, and a picture. Final step, is to make sure that you click publish otherwise no one will be able to see it. Therefore, those are the steps you can follow to ensure that the process of making a post is made much easier.

How to write a post?

Log onto the Cuny commons website.
Click on your class (in this case it would be WGST 1001)
Click on the time in which you have that class.
Then go to “Assignments” on the left hand side of the screen.
Click on the assignment that you are completing and you’ll see the words “New+” on the top of the screen.
Click on that and begin your assignment.
Once you’re done, make sure to add a featured image, add a category, and press “Publish” and you’re all done!

What is Gender?

Gender has no one particular definition, but it is something that has been constructed across societies and through cultural definitions rather than pure biological ones. Importantly, sex and gender do have different meaning. Ender plays a significant role in how society is organized, and depends on geographically where you are located in the world. According to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, gender matters everywhere in the world. Men and Women experience the world differently, Gender colors the way we experience the world’. This explains and connects to my own personal experience.

I was raised in a society where the male role meant household head, bread maker, sole responsible for family financial matters and sole responsible decision maker for any such thing such as marriage. In one sense, this power dynamic can be constructed as ‘authoritarian’. This is how gender has been used as a tool to assign roles and responsibilities in household dynamics. I knew it this way until I finished my high school in Bangladesh back in 1987. Since I moved to this country there has been unimaginable and unprecedented perception changed from my thought and mind because culturally and socially are very different from where I came from which is in part of Southeast Asia.

There are a time back in the days ,in my birth place when I grew up have seen when a husband died in a South Asian household, the spouse would have to wear white clothes, specifically a saree and salwar, because it was a ritual that she has to grieve for 4 months, she has to take off her jewellery such as bangle, nose pins and make sure she is following social interaction within permissible immediate family members which is given permission in the religion. This form of grievance was particularly gendered and expected of women, but not of men. Men are seen as the head of the household where he manages and is seen as the decision maker because he is the one who is responsible for the financial matter of a household. Indeed, majority women are dependent on men due to barriers in accessing education, economic opportunity and financial insecurities which all make them vulnerable. On the other hand, men are not obligated with anything they are able to do after their wife’s death, no restriction such as women do all the rituals, but aren’t expected to grieve in such ways. It doesn’t apply to men with all these norms, customs and traditions. But time has changed in every part of the world .There is a change of policy and law which has been implemented and towards Millennials and Generation Z people’s attitudes have changed as well too, with less embrace and take up of these particular old norms or traditions.

Another example of how gender is constructed in Bangladesh, it makes it pretty clear that as much as society and generation changes in so many ways but people of its older citizens haven’t changed that much yet with certain norms. For example, women after 40s and 50s you won’t find not even one in a million, a woman obtaining their college education degree because it’s impossible to think in that particular society or time period someone pursuing higher education. It wasn’t the norm, it was seen as something only privileged elite individuals had access to. Gendered perceptions of what masculine and feminine were created around gender identities. Perceptions about men are seen as strong and masculine. On the other hand, women are seen as weak and passive, not worth the time and money to search for their dreams because all of this is still in place in today’s society in Bangladesh. Women and those who are feminine are devalued and dehumanized. I haven’t seen when I grew up any Rickshawala, train or bus driver, taxi driver as women as well as now because of the stereotype of attitude still existing in that society, that these career callings were not possible, but also creating the economic power for women.

Gender roles and expectations are not the only way they interact with how people live and experience and navigate this world. The question of defining gender means speaking about gender in relation to sex. In my perspectives gender and sex are two diffrent definitions. When I hear the word sex it comes to my mind a biological context. On the other hand, when I hear the word gender it comes to my mind is someone male or female. Based on the lived experience of people in the west, men have held power and are often highlighted in history for being the ones who have made advancements in industries such as politics, science and entrepreneurship. It’s been in the past history all presidents, scientists, commander-in-chief, inventor,construction worker etc. For example it took over 240 plus years since independence in 1776 to elect a Vice President in Kamala Harris has been the first woman who got elected as vice president in American history. And yet globally we still see injustice happening for girls education as demonstrated by Malala Yousefazai story, who was a normal 10 years girl who wants to attend school to get the basic education but she wouldn’t be able to get the basic right because of religious fundamentalism.

Gender is more than just a difference of biological, social, cultural differences. It is how we perceive ideas and thoughts and filter the world around us. For most of modernity, gender has reinforced patriarchy and allowed for huge inequities to take place, including genital mutilation, education access, wage disparities, child marriage, domestic and gender-based violence, and so much more. Why are these issues so pertinent around the world? Even though women are holding high positions of power in South and Southeast Asia, wage and gender inequality continues to exist in these spaces. And yet, Gender is no longer going to be seen as something that defines somebody in the 21st century. Despite all stereotype attitudes that still exist in society women going forward, which we never seen before such as in Pakistan, where the Pakistani Air Force has its first combat-ready female fighter who is Ayesha Farooq is the one of 19 female pilots in the force. Or in Kalpana Chawla, the first Indian woman who reached in space. Or In Saudi Arabia where Nora bint Abdullah al -Fayez, a US educated former teacher, was appointed deputy education minister in charge of a new department of female students. Today in Saudi Arab women are allowed to drive which is a significant breakthrough for women achievements. What is Gender? It is something that still organizes society, but should not determine who or what a person can become. This all changes are happening because people are focusing on abilities instead of gender!

What is Gender?

The World Health Organization defines gender as the “socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles, and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed”. In this society, our gender roles are forced upon us before we even leave the womb. With gender reveal parties where the color pink is assigned to girls and blue is assigned to boys, the clothes and toys that picked out for you, etc. We have designated what is considered appropriate for each gender to do, say, and wear by classifying things as masculine or feminine; which we know changes all the time. High heels for example were originally designed for soldiers to keep their feet secure in stirrups, then became a staple piece for aristocrats to wear to appear taller. Over time society start to changed their prospective of heels and deemed them too feminine for men. Starting from a young age boys are taught to play with action figures, be into sports, and not to cry. Girls are taught to play with barbies or a kitchen set. Women and girls are expected to be weak and vulnerable while men and boys are expected to be strong and powerful.

Typically men, especially cisgender white men, are the ones who hold power and privilege. They face the least amount of struggles and obstacles than everyone else. Take the workforce for example. Any job that held authority, you would most likely see a white man in that position. It’s hard to why this is how our society is because of the fact that its always been like this. Ignorance and close mindedness is definitely a big reason as to why. A lot of the time people don’t like what they don’t understand, so when people identity as anything other the the “norm”, it’s hard for them to accept. People make it so difficult for others to be themselves and feel safe doing it.

I’m not sure how many genders there are, but considering that it’s a social construct to keep people conformed to fit society’s standard, there probably isn’t even a number.

What is Gender?

To preface, I’d like to state that gender is not the same as sex. While sex refers to the biological differences between males and females, gender refers to a set of socially constructed roles, behaviors, and expressions that people are expected to follow based on their assigned gender at birth.

In our society, the reinforcement of the two “accepted” genders (male and female) is prevalent everywhere we look. For example, gender roles and expectations are a prime example of this — while men are expected to be masculine, dominant, and tough, women are expected to be feminine and submissive. Men are not expected to show vulnerability, to cry, or to show negative emotions other than anger or aggression. However, no one ever looks twice when women act vulnerable or cry, because it’s expected. Additionally, how a person presents themselves is often a result of gender roles. Clothing stores split their selection of clothes by men and women, often marketing skirts, dresses and tight-fitting garments to women and shapeless shirts, suits, and loose-fitting garments to men. Clothes are either deemed feminine or masculine.

In our society, cisgender men more likely than any other gender to hold positions of power. In her TedTalk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie quotes Wangari Maathai and says, “The higher you go, the fewer women there are.” This is often the case because of the gender expectations discussed before; people believe that a woman’s emotional nature prevents her from being calm and collected, and therefore she is unfit for higher positions of power. While she makes no reference to other genders, we can agree that cisgender men have the greatest privilege in society. There are even less gender non-conforming people in positions of power, and the discussion on how society regards people with genders out of the norm is a highly complex one.

In my opinion, I believe there are an infinite amount of genders. After all, gender is a social construct and there is nothing natural about it, therefore a person’s gender can change according to their own comfort. The very reason gender is so complex is because it is a social construct and a concept unique to humans. In order to simplify it somewhat, I want to use colors as an analogy for gender. Traditionally, we view women as one color and men as another color. And even in recent years, as society has become more accepting, many people have the well-meaning but misguided view that non-binary is a third gender. However, rather than treating gender as colors with clear boundaries that people dare not cross, I view gender as a color wheel, as having endless possibilities and combinations.

Post 2: What is gender?

Gender is a label given to us from the day we are born, a sex we are linked to. It is a title we hold to ones self and society has given this to us as a form of “identification”. Genders are seen globally and mainly enforced the “two” genders, male and female. With birth, our genders are automatically given by the organs we are born with. As well as no say in association to our gender, we are basically forced to live as the gender. For the rest of our lives, our genders are predetermined and supposedly stays the same.

Often in society, especially in the past, Men are seen as more “dominant” than woman. Back then, Men are set to be in the work force and women would stay at home and care for the children. Women were not allowed to work jobs, vote and perceived as inferior compared to men. Now, society is more diverse and women are seen as equals amongst the people. In my eyes, I see that men have way fewer obstacles versus others. I think this is because people set a persona that women are gentle and not “fit” to be working or doing things men would do. I heard countless stories where a women employee would be taken less seriously then men and are set to working a “mans” job. Also, according to Ngozi Adichie’s Ted talk, she shares an incident where ” The hall monitor had to be a boy…. She assumed it was obvious”. This “character” of being a boy is placed into peoples head that girls cannot be the same as them.

Traditionally in our society, there are 2 numbers of genders, male and female, but throughout the years many people would beg to differ. These two genders are placed upon us without clearance and I don’t think we are obligated to associate with something we don’t want to. Honestly, all my life I have heard that there are only 2 genders and its drilled into my head. But as I matured, I have learned that there are people who don’t go by those two genders and associate themselves with another gender or something else. I would assume that there are only 2 genders but realistically, you can go by anything you choose to believe in and identify yourself as.