• Home Page
  • The Importance Of Gender Policing

The Importance Of Gender Policing

Improved Essays
Show More
Gender Policing sometimes defines our society and this needs to change. “Gender policing is a normative approach to gender that involves coercion and socialization of individuals into conforming to the gender binary” …(MediaWiki, 2014.) Gender Policing also goes hand in hand with gender norms. Normative approaches to gender such as clothing categories for either females or males, what sports each the average male or female should play, if a baby is female or male at birth. The fact that at birth we are forced to give babies a gender when just coming out of the mother’s womb just shows how strong the influence of gender policing is in our society. There are also norms like how a girl should act or how a boy should act, the sex categories we …show more content…
2) This is one of the major gender norm problems. The classification of genders under types of clothes, such as skirts, dresses for girls while Trousers, shorts for boys. Also the colours blue and pink used to differentiate unisex clothes noting that blue for boys and pink for girls. Down to the types of toys both these genders are supposed to be seen with, football for boys and dolls for girls. Which is why in Gould’s story while other kids tried to figure out the sex of X they got confused because it said “Its favorite toy was a doll, everyone decided that X must be a girl. But then X said that the doll was really a robot and X had computerized it, and that it was programmed to bake fudge cookies and then clean up the kitchen” (Gould, 1972, p. 6). All the reasons X gave broke free of the gender norms applied to toys for kids. “It was a doll”, which is assumed for girls. “it was a doll that was a robot” robots usually are made for …show more content…
Some people might consider not being identified as female or male a distort in societal order. It is also expensive to raise a genderless baby. You have to buy both sex clothes, put in the extra efforts to bring up the child in a neutral way. Baby X’s parents had to “Buy plenty of everything” (Gould, 1972, p. 3) this costs more money and time. Understanding this story will be different for everyone depending on your background, culture, beliefs, experiences. For me, I understood the point of view of the kids and parents who were confused as to why baby X did not have a gender. I grew up In Nigeria where you could get arrested and jailed for having different views from the usual social norms or looked at differently. The reasons why they might have looked at baby X differently is because of what their parents might have thought them. But at the same time, I understood why there needed to be a baby X. Our society is so gender based that swaying away from that just a bit creates tensions and you are frowned upon. At the end of the X story, baby X was accepted as a genderless baby in hopes to find out when it actually matters. Which I believe is the basis of this story. Why rush, when you can just wait and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Gender Roles In Human Development
    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Gender Roles In Human Development

    Finding out the sex of a newborn is significant setting the agenda of their developmental experiences influencing them throughout their life. Before birth, parents will usually want to know the sex of their baby, to set up the name, room, and basically predetermine what you will be involved in. Girls usually get pink, dolls, and floral designs, whereas boys get blue, trucks, and outdoorsy designs. Girls will be involved in sports like cheer and dance, while boys are in football and baseball. Identity development is associated with adolescence, being that boys hangout with boys, and girls hangout with girls. This makes them adopt the same interests as their peers, which is usually connected with their gender. Children use their abilities and likes to choose other things throughout life that are in the same category as what they were taught growing…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Baby X A Fabulous Child's Story Analysis
    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Baby X A Fabulous Child's Story Analysis

    Gender is an important characteristic in distinguishing an individual’s identity within society; but what if gender didn’t exist? Relating back to Adam and Eve, the first man and woman to exist on planet Earth, we’ve implemented a separation among the sexes of human beings and principles that pertain to how one should live their life accordingly. We have always been taught that we are either a boy or a girl, a man or a woman, but we have never stopped to consider the possibility that evolution no longer supports this idealized approach. In ‘X: A Fabulous Child’s Story’, author Lois Gould considers what may happen when a child is raised without a gender and is undistinguishable as either a boy or a girl. Her piece challenges the issues involved…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Are We Unmarried About Storm's Identity Summary
    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Are We Unmarried About Storm's Identity Summary

    In English, there is no adequately humanizing yet universal pronoun for a genderless baby. There is no general reference to common humanity; in order to speak comfortably, one automatically must yield to the partitions of him, of her, of gender. For that reason Society becomes instantly enraged and discernible when the sex was not revealed. “Gender, rather than sex, is a social response, embedded in our language, culture, education, ideology,” and “vision.” (547) Society fails to remember sex and gender are not alike. Sex refers to the biological and physical characteristics while gender is the social…

    • 457 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Night To His Day The Social Construction Of Gender Analysis
    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Night To His Day The Social Construction Of Gender Analysis

    While recognition and acceptance of non-binary genders is the right way forward, more needs to be done. Ideally, the rules and boundaries of gender need to be loosened; the idyllic portrayal of what a man and woman are stripped away. A society that operates on newborn babies to mold them into a two gender system and uses language as a means of keeping the two genders distant, is both ignoring the millions of people who do not fit into the system and actively fighting against biology which tells us that the genders are not so different. A person who does not fit their gender should not have to choose between the gender they were assigned and the gender they were not. The spectrum of gender is not a venn diagram with distinct boundaries, but rather a boundaryless space for individuals to determine who they are for…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Gender Roles Affecting American Youth
    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Gender Roles Affecting American Youth

    “Go into a store in the United States to buy a present for a newborn baby, and you will be immediately be asked “boy or girl?” overalls for girls may be OK but gender liberalism goes only so far( Eckert, 738). This just goes to show that no matter where you go how you are looked at is based upon your gender. Whenever I was shopping for an infant based upon their gender I always shopped for either pink or blue colors. If someone sees perhaps a boy in a pink shirt or even a dress people are automatically going to assume something is wrong with the child. We have created this process of gendering in society and if someone goes against the standard society has set others will judge and criticized. The child doesn’t have the biological instincts of understanding whether they are a boy or girl, it is something that was created and instilled from birth. Clothing is something in our daily lives that will continue for the rest of our lives. Based on clothing at child wears being a boy or a girl they will be treated differently. “Indeed, we do not know how to interact with another human being (or often member of other species), or how to judge them and talk to them, unless we can attribute a gender to them” (Eckert, 739). In my personal experience, I have seen women that are dressed in men’s attire either at a restaurant or shopping center and because that are not in proper gender attire people are confused and don’t understand how they should treat the person. No matter how a person dresses or their gender everyone should be treated equally. We as humans shouldn’t see someone for their gender but see them as a…

    • 1248 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Penelope Eckert Learned To Be Gendered Analysis
    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Penelope Eckert Learned To Be Gendered Analysis

    As soon as the fetus’s sex is determined, the unborn children are assigned a gender identity by which they are characterized and expected to behave upon on. According to Eckert and Ginet “the ritual announcement at birth that it is, in fact, one of the other instantly transforms an “it” into a “he” or a “she” (736). This idea of gendering babies the instant they are born, into a boy or a girl and bringing them to the light of gender differences, restrains children from freely choosing and expressing their personal gender identity. Often, parents tend to set a gender themed environment for their children that match their biological sex, so they can learn from their caregivers what does it mean to be a boy or a girl. By way of example, parents have a habit of choosing a blue color clothing for a boy and a pink color for a girl. The first baby outfit represents the expectation and the label parents have for their children, while a rugby custom might be a boy’s first outfit because he is expected to be rough and masculine. A baby- girl outfit might be a princess themed dress because she is expected to be soft, sensitive and…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Child Secret Samuel Timson Analysis
    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Child Secret Samuel Timson Analysis

    Firstly, Timson outright begins her article with a sarcasm tone. Thereby, her use of sarcastic language shows bias against the couple’s decision. “Bravo to the parents for sparking controversy” (Timson, 2011, para. 1). Here she basically uses this statement as a negative way to ridicule the couple for their decision. I doubt that the parents wanted their decision to be a public debate. I agree with the author’s point because if the parents hide the child’s gender identity, it will stimulate controversy, which in my opinion is not ideal for the livelihood of the child.…

    • 697 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Brave New World Society Changing
    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Brave New World Society Changing

    When you think of a child being born most of us think of the usual father and mother having an intimate moment which then sometimes ends up in the mother becoming pregnant so she gives birth. When this happens you don’t get to pick what the gender…

    • 578 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Pros And Cons Of Non-Binary And Transgender People
    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Pros And Cons Of Non-Binary And Transgender People

    When a child is born the first thing their parents hear is, “Congratulations it’s a girl,” or “Congratulations it’s a boy”. Already trying to enforce the idea that there are only two genders the moment they take their first breath. JAC Stringer of the Heartland Trans* Wellness Group defined, gender binary as the cultural belief of only two genders existing and they have to correspond to the appropriate sex. This social construct is iterated on a daily basis whether it is through medical institutions, language or applications. As a result of its dominance in society, the gender binary system is highly exclusive towards non-binary and transgender people. Today, I will discuss why gender non-conforming and transgender…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Sam Moehligs Case Study
    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Sam Moehligs Case Study

    A person mental health can be greatly affected if they feel that their physical body does not match their gender. Children who feel like they are not who they're supposed to be tend to have high rates of depression and suicidal…

    • 442 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing The Social Construction Of Gender By Tracey Wilson And Harriet Cunningham
    • 159 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Comparing The Social Construction Of Gender By Tracey Wilson And Harriet Cunningham

    In this video, Tracey Wilson and Harriet Cunningham are identified as girls who were born as boys. They both had experience difficulties such as rejection, bullying etc. Their parents had accepted and supported them but other people have not. A question was asked, “ who gets to decided whether they are a boy or a girl?”. In Judith Lorber’s article, “ The Social Construction of Gender,” Lorber states that gender, as a social institution, is one major ways that human beings organize their lives. She also stated that gender and sex are not equivalent, and gender as a social construction does not flow automatically from genitalia and reproductive organs, the main physiological differences of females and males. It potrays that your gender is not…

    • 159 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Gender Outlaw Kate Bornstein Analysis
    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Gender Outlaw Kate Bornstein Analysis

    The social construction of gender begins for each of us before we are even born. When a pregnancy occurs, everyone wants to know “is it a boy or a girl?” so they can easily select…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Gender As A Social Institution Essay
    • 1020 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Gender As A Social Institution Essay

    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…

    • 1020 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Human Sexuality Reflection Assignment
    • 1301 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Human Sexuality Reflection Assignment

    I was surprised to learn that most people who do not identify with their biological gender, do not feel they are that gender. If someone is born with female reproductive organs and hormones, but don’t feel they fit the role of a female, they will live their lives believing they are male. This was a strange concept for me before this course. I was naive to think that if one is born a female, they play the part of a female and if one is born a male, they play the part of a male. After reading the chapters of the textbook, and reviewing the PowerPoint provided on this topic, I strongly believe I have applied what I have learned from this topic in my everyday life. I now make sure I’m not being judgemental when I speak of people, especially people who identify with a gender different from their biological…

    • 1301 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Personal Reflection On Marijuana
    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Personal Reflection On Marijuana

    Fausto-Sterling describes that legally there are two genders of male and female, but “biologically there are many gradations running from female to male and one can argue that spectrum lie at least five sexes” (1). There are hermaphrodites, those with one testis and one ovary, pseudohermaphrodites with testes but no ovaries, and female pseudohermaphrodites with ovaries but no testes. Intersex babies are very common as 240 in 6,000 students at Brown University were intersex (1). In society, it assumed that male and female are “normal,” but in reality gender is socially constructed versus biologically constructed. Society has a stigma behind intersex babies, as parents are scared, shocked, and confused and do not know if they should change the baby or alter the baby. Sociologists have come to learn that those who alter the baby, the child ends up being be less happy, as suicidal thoughts would increase, but there would be a less societal cost. On the other hand, those who do not alter the baby will be happier, but there would be a more of a societal cost. Sociologists study on gender emphasizes the fact that gender is not two distinct categories of male or…

    • 1272 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2023 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings