What Does It Mean To Do Gender Essay

What does it mean to "do gender?" You first need to define a gender. Biological sex is a biological fact and gender is the societal interpretation of that fact. "there was sex and there was gender…we told students, was what was ascribed by biology: anatomy, hormones, and physiology. Gender, we said, was an achieved status: that which is constructed through psychological, cultural, and social means". Doing gender means, "creating differences between girls and boys and women and men, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological". Our society teaches us gender is a fixed biological sex category. Women are shown to be soft, passive, nurturing, caring, housekeeper. Men are inculcated to be strong, provider, problem, and problem solver. The authors

There is no way a man can be soft, passive, nurturing or caring, he will be called a sissy. There is no way a woman can be strong, the provider, problem solver or athletic she will be called a tomboy. I do not feel that my mother raised me as a girly girl. She is not a girly girl at all. She plays a softball, loves to hike and to get her hands dirty, she also let me play with the boy toys. However, I grew up and I am the biggest girly girl. My mom doesn't understand how it happened, but it happened. I do not like to get dirty, play softball, hiking is okay. You want to get your nails done, do a makeup and go shopping call me. I do feel however that society does have an enormous influence on how women and men should act. If a woman is a little too masculine she is a tomboy if a man is too soft he is a sissy, why can't women and men be a little of both. With society believing that sex and sexual category are about the same thing. Some of the ways our society has accentuated gender differences, you need to take a look at organized sports. Women that excel in sports are often tested to see if they are a man. My sister-in-law is also a sincerely big girly girl, but she was all-league, six-time athlete of the