Analysis Of Harriet Bradley's Gender

The first reading selection I chose was Harriet Bradley’s Gender, in which the reading selection was Chapter 1, “What’s in a Name? Meanings and Usages of Gender; Gendering and Class: Growing Up Girl, Growing Up Boy.” Bradley mainly focuses on the meaning of gender, and how it is used and how we as humans identify gender. She puts emphasis on how we as humans have created the division between the ‘genders’, as well as created what it means to be a “man” and or a “woman”.
Bradley emphasizes that we created the meaning of gender as “an arrangement between men and women, encompassing the organization of reproduction… femininity and masculinity.” In the society and time we live and are growing up in today, we have created a ranking, between men …show more content…
In the chapter, “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender,” she argues that “gender is so pervasive that in our society we assume it is bred into our genes,” when in reality we aren’t born to a gender, however we’ve created that idea that at birth we are a certain gender (boy or girl). We don’t realize how we classify gender until we see someone not doing or wearing the ‘gender norm’. She claims we do this thing they declare as ‘gendering’. Where we gender through many different factors, we gender at birth through naming, and as we grow up we gender through dressing or what we …show more content…
I realized how much, I, myself play a big role in gendering. I follow the gender norm, as well as noticing when someone isn’t particularly dressed how a typical male or female is expected to dress. I agree with the fact that both males and females are pressured into acting, behaving, and dressing a certain way because of their given physical characteristics/traits. Males are taught to be insensitive, and that it isn’t okay to share feelings, while females are taught to be sensitive and that it is okay to share their feelings. One statement really stood out to me during my reading, Bradley inserted a statement from Gilligan, “Masculinity and Femininity put limits on full achievement of humanity.” I agree with the quoted statement, because we’re all scared to act a certain way, we want to fit into what how our ‘gender’ is expected to act and behave. We listen because we are taught at a young age how a male or female should act, or what our roles in society should or will be when or by the time we enter a certain age. The idea of gender should be