The majority of males during their adolescence are taught that you must be strong, brave, aggressive, and territorial in order to become a man. Whereas, females are known to be petite, gentle, kind, and sensitive. These gender identities are not only reviewed simply in the…
When a baby opens his or her eyes after birth and looks around, whom will the baby emulate and whom will he or she merely notice? Perhaps a male baby will emulate his father or other men, perhaps not, and a female baby her mother or other women, perhaps not (p 244). Gender identity can develop at almost any time throughout a person’s life, but it usually occurs as a small boy or girl. They will find themselves drawn to the same gender, not necessarily in a sexual way, but with intrigued feelings.…
Gender roles and performance are often the first visual cues many people have when meeting another person. This seems to have been a primary concern for many young gay men in Lawrence and Ames. Members of society discovering they are queer based on their appearance and mannerisms. In Lawrence a young gay man wrote a coming-out story in the Vortex that discussed his struggle not only with homosexuality but with his effeminacy. He said for many people it was his rejection of masculinity that was the hardest to grasp.…
Based on his research, Devor came to the conclusion that children “often believe that people may change their gender with a change in clothing hair style, or activity” showing that how we dress and what we do is how children learn to identify different genders…
These roles are constructed by society and through social interactions. Slowly, we can determine which of our behavior receives positive sanctions and we begin to conform to those gender roles. In Spencer Cahill’s “Fashioning Gender Identity,” he explains that adults treat babies differently based on their sex, starting from the earliest days of infancy. This is the beginning of an identity that children begin to develop and eventually goes on to become a sex-class. By associating emotions, attitudes, and even colors with a specific gender, children learn that there are two different types of people.…
I was born, given a name as well as dressed as a girl since the day I came from my mother’s womb; that is, I am female and identify myself as a woman. Thus far, my family, friends, and whoever gets acquainted with me obviously see me and treat me as I am a woman. In her article, Lorber maintains, “Children 's relationships with same-gendered and different-gendered caretakers structure their self-identifications and personalities. Through cognitive development, children extract and apply to their own actions the appropriate behavior for those who belong in their own gender, as well as race, religion, ethnic group, and social class, rejecting what is not appropriate” (Lorber 94). Indeed, when I am out for school, work or just to hang out with friends, I sometimes do something like a man does.…
Young adults are being criminalized in institutions because the social control challenges young men to prove their masculinity by forcing them to accept hyper masculinity. This affect young men because they are forced to comply with authority by embracing their masculinity. Therefore, Young men dignity are being questioned because they constantly need to prove their innocence. Rios supports his argument by using interviews and observations and official records to describe the interaction of young boys in education and institutins.…
Gender development explains the principle of how male and female identification is interpreted through experiences and interactions with social environment. The pervious statement stands as a major issue within the learning approach, and that the dissimilarities between females and males are required through learning from experiences and not biological development such as genetics. Explanations of the operant conditioning theory can explain gender development, which suggests that reinforcement and punishment craft the idea of gender development like all other natural human behaviors. Reinforcement proves to be the main concept in operant conditioning; two reinforces are presented: positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Positive…
Wickman, S. (2005). An examination of the five factors of personality, pubertal onset and alcohol usage in adolescent males. Masters theses & specialist projects. Paper 981. http://digitalcommons.wku.edu.libsrv.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1984&context=theses…
Formation of Gender Identity Through Societal Influences When discussing the process of gender identity, it is thought to be strictly a biological function. I believe societal influences can outweigh biological influences when it comes to the formation of gender identity. A major part in the development process as an adolescent is the formation of identity. The second a newborn is brought into the world they are immediately grouped into a category of boy or girl.…
The America we live is a patriarchal society: in which male is the favored gender, and men hold power, dominion and privilege. Society creates molds for how men and women should behave. It is expected for men to be masculine and women to be feminine. Masculinity is attributed to power, dominance, and independence. These are all desirable characteristics, but by society’s rules, they are only attainable by men.…
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…
When I was in early childhood, I was addicted to the color pink. I still have a funny photo in which I am giggling wearing a pink t-shirt, pink pants, a pink backpack and pink sneakers. I might have thought that pink is girls’ color and I am a girl, so I should choose pink not sky blue. Like this, in early childhood, children have their own gender identity and construct a gender stereotype based on environmental information. This gender stereotype causes them to build gender roles.…
We are shaped to act according to our gender from the time we emerge from our mothers womb. Boys are formed into rough and tough beings; while girls are geared towards delicacy. This is apparent when we analyze baby clothing and accessories. It is interesting to think about why most parents choose to form their baby's gender in a social aspect from such an early stage. This is a societal norm.…
When we are born we are immediately brought into this human-created institution. Instead of uniting us, gender as a structure does a better job at hindering us. Our parents begin dressing us in either pink or blue clothes, buying us either dolls or dinosaurs, setting expectations of how we dress, act and play based upon what gender we were assigned. However, the concept of gender as a social institution also gives us hope that we can change what is acceptable as either male or female and as time goes on we will see more and more change about how we define…