How Gender Roles Affect Gender Identity

Pink or blue? Sooner than we are born, and certainly before developing the capability to choose colors, we are assigned to gender roles. Unfortunately, societal ideals of how we should behave will influence nearly every aspect of our lives. This socialization begins at birth and continues well into adulthood. Through this process of life each of us will acquire a distinct gender identity through the internalization of the world around us. My views have been shaped by many experiences throughout life and I know that they will continue to change well into the future. Considering the influences around us as we grow up, it is reasonable to look back at my personal experiences in order to understand how I developed the views I have today. Most of my early childhood was characterized by instability. I was the first born to parents who battled with trauma and subsequent addictions. At a very young age I realized my parents were troubled and I could not rely on them. My mother was obsessed with vanity and appearance. She thought that if we looked and dressed a certain way, society would deem her a fit mother and everything else would be ignored. As a small child she took me to modeling casting calls and …show more content…
No matter the social pressures or those views imposed on us by family members, we ultimately choose our own fate. The beautiful thing about growing up is that we are able to not only soak up everything we experience, but we are able to mold this into whatever we feel comfortable with that coincides with what we believe is right. Gender roles and equalities are leaps and bounds better than that of a century ago. The progress, albeit slow, that has been made is noticeable but still not where it should be. I believe that if education and exposure to the positive changes made continue through future generations, the constraints placed on genders will slowly fade