More often than not, society compels us to behave like genders we are not. For instance, when faced with challenges like finance, family issues and education, women are expected to be exceptionally strong. Likewise, when men are confronted with sensitive issues they are not expected to openly show their emotions like women. Some jobs description requires female
Gender binary is a classification system that people use to identify as maleness and femaleness. In the Colonial and Industrial era, the gender binary that one identified themselves with, played an important role in how society shaped their lives. For generations, society has separated the duties of males and females. Men are usually higher on the power spectrum, whereas women are inferior . However, over the course of the colonial and industrial eras, there were many changes in the role of genders.
The book and class lectures discusses how biological sex, gender, and sexuality can differ from individual to individual. Biological sex is discussed by amount of X & Y chromosomes that a person through genetics. Gender is the acting out or performance of what an individual associates with feminine, masculine, or a mix of the two. It states that gender does not determine sexuality. A man might associate their self with feminine behaviors but might have an attraction to women.
Another example is how for women it is not right to get home late but for men there's nothing
The narrative sense is assaulted to depict hyperboles of social constructs such as women’s roles and government control. In the opening scene, the women are depicted in a doll like quality and lack of intelligence. They say comments such as they are not capable of doing things productive. Their posture is propped against a wall and it seems to be like a machine with their still movements. The filmmaker makes commentary on how the women in her society are seen as vessels to follow the government; they rarely have a role and are just a beautiful body.
Synthesis #1 Our concepts of gender are constructed by our biological characteristics and societal factors. In many societies, these concepts of gender, and the differences in men and women are rooted in tradition. The moment a child is born a kind of social construction begins. A child whether girl or boy will most likely be shown some behaviors on how they should behave according to their biological characteristics. Throughout history, we have seen the same stereotypes placed on gender, men should be strong and brave.
That’s a Social Construct. There are social consequences for breaking a Social Construct. Gender and gender roles is an example, we are born either with a biological sex, it is a Social Construct to attach gender and attach traits to these sexes, such as wearing blue for men or wearing pink for women. It’s why women are expected to be feminine and men should be masculine. Race is another example, we are all human, yet the melanin in our skin have attached behaviors and expectations to them.
“A sex category is achieved through application of the sex criteria, but in everyday life, categorization is established and sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one’s membership
The core concept of social constructs is that these systems or concepts only exist because
Unlike ‘sex’, which typically refers to the biological and physiological differences, gender is a sociological concept that describes the social and cultural constructions that is associated with one’s sex (Giddens & Sutton, 2013, p. 623-667). The constructed (or invented) characteristics that defines gender is an ongoing process that varies between societies and culture and it can change over time. For example, features that are overly masculine in one culture can be seen as feminine in another; however, the relation between the two should not be seen as static. Gender socialization is thought to be a major explanation for gender differences, where children adhere to traditional gender roles from different agencies of socialization. Gender
Social constructionism goes beyond the positivist thought of objects and claims that human action constructs meaningful reality rather than existed before consciousness (Crotty, 1998, p. 43). For constructionism, consciousness means referentiality, relatedness, directedness, and “aboutness”; it has nothing to do with purpose or deliberation. Intentionality does not reject objectivism or subjectivism, instead, what intentionality emphasizes is the interaction between the conscious subject and the object of the subject’s consciousness. Constructionists contend that representations of objects or problems in people’s minds vary from the corresponding actual objects or conditions on which they are based. More important, constructionists contend
Yet should human nature be in the question regarding system constructed. For many man is too fickle and prone to violence and that states should be above nature or based on principles rather than universal values. Social Darwinism frequently over history has been used justify many social injustices or the most awful of tragedies. The nature of man is called into question frequently by Hannah Arendt who states that Himmler constructed terror “on the assumption that most people are … first and foremost jobholders, and good family men. … [who] for the sake of his pension, his life insurance, the security of his wife and children, … was ready to sacrifice his beliefs, his honour, and his human dignity.”
According to sexologists John Money and Anke Ehrhardt, sex and gender are separate categories. “Sex, they argued, refers to physical attributes and is anatomically and physiologically determined. Gender they saw as a psychological transformation - the internal conviction that one is either male or female (gender identity) and the behavioral expressions of that conviction” (Sterling 4). Although there are biological differences between the two sexes, but gender roles are socially constructed. They determine how males and females should think, speak, dress, behave and interact with society.
1); as well as aspects of categorizing concepts with reference to factors in social psychology. For example, the article titled, ‘Prototype Theory: An Alternative Concept Theory for Categorizing Sex and Gender?’ seek to explore the prototype theory to determine whether it captures the fluidity of gender and is able to accommodate transgender and queer identities. The article clearly defined the features of the category labelled ‘woman’ on the basis of sex and gender and applied the prototype theory to these concepts as it relates to the hierarchal levels of categorization. According to Fox (2011), utilizing the prototype theory as a theoretical framework for the concepts of sex and gender provides structural flexibility and inclusiveness (Fox, 2011).
1 / 2 GENDER AND SEX In the 21st century, the words gender and sex have a fine line of difference between them. Though the words might look same but one is used to depict the social status and the other one is used to depict the biological status. Where 'Sex' talks more basically about the physical traits, 'Gender' carries a social tone. We have things decided for us even before we are born.
