Gender Identity Nature Or Nurture

The question about whether or not an individual’s identity is innate or acquired, has always been a debatable issue. Some people argue that gender identity is a result of the social context they live in, while others believe a person is born into it. Gender identity is a “person 's subjective sense of themselves as masculine or feminine and is exhibited by the degree to which they act upon their gender roles” (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). However, based on the current society people live in, it is more likely that an individual’s identity, such as their sexuality, education, and social status are acquired as a result of the social context they live in.

Some argue that nurture affects an individual’s sexuality, or sexual preference, while

Although some people believe that nature affects the gender identity, others argue that, based on the education an individual receives, it is actually nurture. For example, John Moore, a teacher at a female-only school, says, “My findings suggest that, in some senses, the single-sex school is strongly feminist” (Moore, 2005). On the other hand, many societies teach the children gender stereotypes to try and limit them from becoming against what the society feels is appropriate. Gender roles or stereotypes are “a set of qualities, behaviors, and attitudes that are considered appropriate for males and females based on their biological sex” (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). Most of the time, these stereotypes are taught and explained to the children in the early stages of learning, since as mentioned above, gender identity is most likely detected after the child is two years old. For example, some stereotypes say that men tend to study math and science, while women tend to study arts and literature, because they believe men are smarter than women. So, in some societies, if a woman likes to study math and science, it is considered wrong and odd. Still, not all societies believe men are smarter, but they believe women are. However, the debate on which sex is smarter is never-ending. Another gender stereotype found in many countries is that boys tend to play with toys like Lego pieces, trucks, or nowadays, one can

Some argue that people acquire their gender identity based on their social interactions with others or based on the gender roles, or stereotypes. For example, women usually tend to be more emotional and sensitive, while men usually tend to be aggressive and athletic (Whalen & Maurer-Starks, 2008). However, nowadays more and more men are becoming emotional and less aggressive and, in some cases, they are becoming homosexual, maybe because of the way they were raised; some children are raised without being limited by gender stereotypes and without being judged based on them, and this is most likely the effect of the current society people live in; where many countries accept homosexuality. Furthermore, nowadays there is a wide variety of gender options a person can choose, and this led to the fact that cyberspace must also adapt to this change, or more specifically speaking, the social networking websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. For example, a newspaper article said that many Facebook users demanded Facebook to increase the gender options, rather than only “Male” and “Female”, so, Facebook responded recently by adding 50 different gender options. Still, for some people, this response wasn’t enough, such that one user said, “ 'Interested in ' now needs to be fixed, it 's still only Female/Male”; however, Facebook only responds to major groups with major issues (Inc.,