Masculinity And Femininity In Society

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. Femininity entails that women are dependent, nurturing, and empathic. There is a complementary relationship between masculinity and femininity; men are expected to financially support himself and his wife while women are expected to care and nurture for her husband. This was seen as the norm during the nineteenth century. Soon, women …show more content…
We have learned that gender is a social construct, it is a set of rules that provide individuals with a template of how they should behave. As a society, we devalue femininity and praise masculinity. Femininity is associated with dependence, empathy, and being nurturing whereas masculinity is associated with power, dominance, and independence. To be considered masculine, essentially, a man has to display little to no feminine attributes. This becomes apparent when discussing the fag discourse. C.J. Pascoe’s Dude, You’re a Fag, declares that fags are thought of as feminized men. When a heterosexual man is called this, it threatens his masculinity. As a result men will try to emphasis their mastery over women or passing on the title fag to someone else. The cheapening of feminine attributes has long-term effects on women; they are viewed as subordinate, their work is devalued, and as tools to demonstrate masculinity. Surprisingly, men are also negatively impacted. Due to the normalization of the sexualization of women, men are reshaping the ideal of how what is a woman and how they should be. Also, it teaches men that there are circumstances when it is acceptable to objectify a woman. After taking this class, I learned to be precautious and to be conscious of how my actions affect not only individuals perceptions of men, but …show more content…
In recent years, there has been increasing evidence that shows that men and women are similar on most psychological variables. I believe that any perceived differences between men and women are result of the reinforcement of gender norms. When an individual is born, they are given a sex. Differentiating between sexes in based chromosomal typing or biological criteria, i.e., having ovaries or testes. Society has rules for how one should display themselves based on sex. The way individuals portray themselves determines their gender. At a young age, children are conditioned to align their sex with the respective gender: males are masculine and females are feminine. Parents and teacher reinforce these norms punishing inappropriate gender displays and reifying that they must be a “good boy” or “good boy.” In addition, they serve as models for how one should behave based on their gender. With this being said, individuals still have the freedom to choose what they identify as. For example, in C.J. Pascoe’s Dude, You’re a Fag we are introduced to Rebeca. Rebeca is girl, but identifies with masculinity. She has embodied what it means to be a boy, she has even aligned her sexual preference to what is expected of a boy. As a result, she is widely treated as if she was a boy. She reifies the notion that gender is