Education:
The way we learn to be gendered is a highly complex process that cannot be simplified down to a generalized “sex role system.” Humans learn gender in ways that disregard a strict dichotomy between the sexes, and in fact creates new space for completely different genders, or for people who simply don’t gravitate towards any particular gender.
When humans are born, they are assigned a color (pink or blue) which will label them as ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ before they are even named, and based their behaviors will be expected to correspond with this assignation (Connell 2009). Based on the color and gender that babies are assigned, they are taught different things as they mature. Blue, or ‘male’ babies are taught about math, cars, ‘manliness’ …show more content…
In actuality, the process of achieving gender is an entirely interactive one, in which the student is actively participating in both positive and negative ways, and flows in a variety of directions regarding assimilation, often simultaneously. The “gender patterns” of an individual develop in personal life as a “series of encounters with the constraints and possibilities of the existing gender order” and the way these regulations and potentialities are navigated varies radically by the individual perception of them (Connell 2009, …show more content…
From this concept arises the idea “identity politics,” in which people claim an identity that allows them access to specific social movements, and can also be a way for an individual to pronounce their own uniqueness relative to the general masses (Connell 2009, p. 107).The “configurations of sexual and social practice” were “dependent on historically transitory social conditions” and were a very limited aspect of many peoples life history (Connell 2009, p.108). The fact that many different cultures around the world have recognized the exist of three or more genders is poignant evidence of the importance of the social processes involved in learning gender, and further proof against the concept of biological essentialism (Connell 2009). The temptation in these contexts is to simplify everything down to the most basic and essential components in order to make everything easier, but the process of learning gender is far too complex to ever be disentangled enough for straightforward understanding of the gendering practices of any
The way we learn to be gendered is a highly complex process that cannot be simplified down to a generalized “sex role system.” Humans learn gender in ways that disregard a strict dichotomy between the sexes, and in fact creates new space for completely different genders, or for people who simply don’t gravitate towards any particular gender.
When humans are born, they are assigned a color (pink or blue) which will label them as ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ before they are even named, and based their behaviors will be expected to correspond with this assignation (Connell 2009). Based on the color and gender that babies are assigned, they are taught different things as they mature. Blue, or ‘male’ babies are taught about math, cars, ‘manliness’ …show more content…
In actuality, the process of achieving gender is an entirely interactive one, in which the student is actively participating in both positive and negative ways, and flows in a variety of directions regarding assimilation, often simultaneously. The “gender patterns” of an individual develop in personal life as a “series of encounters with the constraints and possibilities of the existing gender order” and the way these regulations and potentialities are navigated varies radically by the individual perception of them (Connell 2009, …show more content…
From this concept arises the idea “identity politics,” in which people claim an identity that allows them access to specific social movements, and can also be a way for an individual to pronounce their own uniqueness relative to the general masses (Connell 2009, p. 107).The “configurations of sexual and social practice” were “dependent on historically transitory social conditions” and were a very limited aspect of many peoples life history (Connell 2009, p.108). The fact that many different cultures around the world have recognized the exist of three or more genders is poignant evidence of the importance of the social processes involved in learning gender, and further proof against the concept of biological essentialism (Connell 2009). The temptation in these contexts is to simplify everything down to the most basic and essential components in order to make everything easier, but the process of learning gender is far too complex to ever be disentangled enough for straightforward understanding of the gendering practices of any