Gendered In Early Years Essay

Question Five: What are the key factors that determine how we become gendered in our early years? In addition to discussing what we know about this topic from the research discussed in the text, discuss how YOU became gendered in your early years, using specific examples. At birth you are labeled as a sex, either male or female. Sex refers to the biological characteristic that define an individual. However, gender does not. Gender indicates an individual’s social roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that society considers appropriate for men and women. Sex usually corresponds to the gender identity that you were raised as in your early years of life, but not always. Gender identity is a person’s private sense of, and subjective experience of, his or her gender. Gender identity is shaped at an …show more content…
I have a twenty-one year old sister, and I am twenty. This leaves us just fifteen months apart. My sister, Taylor, was gendered (I believe) in more ways than I was. Because she was the first born, my parents were more gender excited. Taylor was exposed to the pink blankets, floral clothing, and glittery nail polish at an early age. At our first house, she had a purple room with floral wallpaper, and at our second house the walls were pink with zebra print. Taylor has always identified closely with my mother, from what I believe is part of Freud’s claim. About a year later my parents tried for a boy, and ended up with me. Because my mother and sister were so close, I veered off of Freud’s path and latched onto my father. I think he influenced me from a very early age. I say this because when I was around six, I cut my hair to be like my dad, and I have had blue walls in my bedroom since I could choose. I don’t want to be a boy, and I don’t identify as a male, but because I was influenced so much by my father, I picked up some masculine gendered