The Societal Consequences Of Gender Stereotypes

What does the average person use to guide their decisions throughout their lives? Morals, maybe? Circumstances and desperation, or coercion? If we delve even deeper into the commonalities between all of these different guides, we find societal expectations at their core. The way we are socialized affects all of the aforementioned criteria; society tells us what we should believe is right and wrong, how we should handle circumstances, what we should desire. What society expects from an individual is different depending on their characteristics: things like race, class, ability, age, and most broadly, gender, a product of sex. Sex, usually assumed to be dimorphic, is what divides the entirety of the human species, and it transcends all other social categories, but along with the other categories, the differences are meant to derive some meaning. The societal consequences of sex collectively are considered to be gender—they are traits associated with and (taken as) indicative of sex. Although gender is performative (and often referred to as something we “do”), it treated very concretely, in most cases as “default” or “natural”. As a result, gender is construed as opposite sets of behavior between two groups that are not supposed to intersect. The arising stereotypes are constraining to people of all forms of gender and sex, in complex ways that are visible in many aspects of life. It matches the very definition of a social problem, and one that is in the process …show more content…
Firstly, it contains men within the extremities of masculinity in a way that may cap their potential as humans or force incompatible identities upon them. Maintaining the patriarchy also necessitates a bi-gender system, which excludes those who don’t perfectly fit within it. It creates room for deviance and risk of “gender misattribution and any interactional consequences that might result[.]” (Lucal, 1999,