The moment babies are born, is the instant which they are exposed to the binary gender system that rules today’s contemporary society. There are set expectations and attributes given to each gender (female and male) that are being practiced on a daily basis, which leaves no flexible space for the gender system to include other people who define themselves other than the two dominant genders. When people are not perfectly placed in one gender or the other, then as Judith Lorber stated, “we feel socially dislocated” and become uncomfortable unable to identify someone correctly (Lorber 14). Betsy Lucal struggled with society’s inability to label her as she saw herself and instead placed her in a category as they perceived her to be. Both Lorber
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Even so, those who are identified as female or choose to express themselves in that manner suffer more from oppression and are disadvantaged in the binary system. Lorber and Lucal similarly see the oppression of women; they both see rebellion and resistance of the patriarchy of the system to be the best solution to take away its power. This society which is gender-stratified usually deems what men do more highly valued than that of women (Lorber 32). For Lucal she is able to walk home at night by herself without fear because society thinks of her as a man; that is privilege unfairly only given to men (Lucal 788). The social institution also shapes the way men and women treat each other and why women are given the short end of the stick. Human beings can be shaped and brought up in a variety different ways, but the institution of gender produces and maintains the limited number of gender statuses and how similar they are to each other (Lorber 22). In this case that’s why babies are taught to be either feminine or masculine and attribute traits of how to treat and act around the opposite gender.
Society is not taking initiative to change the binary gender system, they are contributing to it by gendering those who don’t necessarily want to be. People trust that society’s gender system is the natural way because the norms and expectations of male and females get built into their worth of identity (Lorber 35). The issue lies in enforcement of the social institution, there needs to be rebellion against the binary system in order to break down the boundaries and allow people the freedom to self-identity and express as they
Even so, those who are identified as female or choose to express themselves in that manner suffer more from oppression and are disadvantaged in the binary system. Lorber and Lucal similarly see the oppression of women; they both see rebellion and resistance of the patriarchy of the system to be the best solution to take away its power. This society which is gender-stratified usually deems what men do more highly valued than that of women (Lorber 32). For Lucal she is able to walk home at night by herself without fear because society thinks of her as a man; that is privilege unfairly only given to men (Lucal 788). The social institution also shapes the way men and women treat each other and why women are given the short end of the stick. Human beings can be shaped and brought up in a variety different ways, but the institution of gender produces and maintains the limited number of gender statuses and how similar they are to each other (Lorber 22). In this case that’s why babies are taught to be either feminine or masculine and attribute traits of how to treat and act around the opposite gender.
Society is not taking initiative to change the binary gender system, they are contributing to it by gendering those who don’t necessarily want to be. People trust that society’s gender system is the natural way because the norms and expectations of male and females get built into their worth of identity (Lorber 35). The issue lies in enforcement of the social institution, there needs to be rebellion against the binary system in order to break down the boundaries and allow people the freedom to self-identity and express as they