Learning To Be Gendered By Penelope Eckert And Sally Mcconnell-Ginet

Boy or Girl? Pink or Blue? Our society is built up on many norms and customs. For several decades the norms have revealed that if a newborn is a girl, they associate with the color pink and if a newborn is a boy, they identify with the color blue. Also, only girls wear dresses and only boys play with toy trucks, but who 's to say that this is the correct way to classify gender at all? The essay “Learning to Be Gendered” by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet explains how individuals are gendered before birth and how they do not have the option when choosing how to grow up because they either have to be a boy or a girl. Society has built up a plan for each gender and as it is the “norm” that specific plan must be followed. For such reasons …show more content…
Before birth parents will decorate the baby’s room according to the sex. As they state, “The newborn initially depends on others to do its gender, and they come through in many different ways, not just as individuals but as part of socially structured communities that link individuals to social institutions and cultural ideologies”. Essentially, children are molded into the gender that their parents choose. Since kids are young they are not smart enough to know that they are abiding to the gender that has been given to them. Eventually as they grow up they are accustomed to what colors and toys pertain to each individual gender. Often times children will also be told what they can associate with and what is right and what is wrong. The article “Gender Identity Development in Children” mentions that at a young age, “children learn gender role behavior—that is, do¬ing "things that boys do" or "things that girls do." It often occurs that children are scolded for doing something that is not feminine or masculine. However the problem is not just about who gets to play with what toys. This expands up to how each gender is treated and often times the treatments that both genders receive are very …show more content…
In the article “What is Bisexuality?” Robyn Ochs explains his own definition, “[Some bisexuals] are attracted to masculinity and/or femininity, regardless of a person’s sex. Some of us who identify as bisexual are in fact “gender-blind.” For others — in fact for me — it’s androgyny or the blending of genders that compels”. Bisexuals can identify with both genders in two different ways. One way can be that they are attracted to both sexes, meaning that they can have relationships with both men and women. There is cases in which men or women can dress and act like the opposing sex but still be physically attracted only to the opposite sex. In these circumstances it can become difficult because bisexuals do not know what gender they belong to. Once again society sadly still views these topics as abnormal since they are not the “norm” and the people that belong to the LGBT community cannot be blamed because they were born that way and had no control over their sexual preference or