You’re not being much of a man right now. That isn’t very ladylike at all. The seemingly simplest of statements have the largest of impacts. Gender, is learned (Wood 21) and “socially constructed and expressed (Wood 19).” As we “are born male or female (sex) but cannot claim masculinity and femininity as acquired traits (Wood 21), gender fluctuates. Growing numbers of individuals today identify as transgender for their identities do not correspond with their biological sexes; these identities are radical and progressive as they challenge the age-old roles our society has conditioned us to accept as ‘normal.’ In this contemporary world, gender’s hypervisibility can either present opportunity or be used as motives for discrimination. To be gendered
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Firstly, symbolic interactionism states we come to be who we are because of communication in conjunction with “how our culture views our identity (Wood 55).” Parents subconsciously send signals before their children even leave the …show more content…
My nursery was coated in pink, from pacifiers to rattlers to the angel wallpaper. I’ve adored flowers for as long as I can remember and used to ask for permission to wear one in my hair to complement my dresses during Sunday morning worship. I imagine this greatly irked my mother but my father, who prayed for a daughter, was pleased that I had the ‘right’ interests and showered me with ‘gender appropriate’ surprises. When my friend’s son could sit upright and babble, he was almost immediately given toy basketballs and footballs to accompany the blue blanket in his crib. “My son is going to be raised right. No funny business,” he would say. Symbolic interactionism once again manifests in my own life as “you’re not being nice (Wood 56)” is not just a phrase use to reprimand girls but one that boys internalize and carry into adulthood. Society’s ‘ideal’ woman is one who is compassionate, sensitive to men’s feelings, and takes care not to offend. I am a heterosexual, cisgender, African-American female. Yes, we are assertive (Wood 24); unfortunately, this is misconstrued as coldness, if not aloofness. My mother stressed the need for self-sufficiency (which society usually
Firstly, symbolic interactionism states we come to be who we are because of communication in conjunction with “how our culture views our identity (Wood 55).” Parents subconsciously send signals before their children even leave the …show more content…
My nursery was coated in pink, from pacifiers to rattlers to the angel wallpaper. I’ve adored flowers for as long as I can remember and used to ask for permission to wear one in my hair to complement my dresses during Sunday morning worship. I imagine this greatly irked my mother but my father, who prayed for a daughter, was pleased that I had the ‘right’ interests and showered me with ‘gender appropriate’ surprises. When my friend’s son could sit upright and babble, he was almost immediately given toy basketballs and footballs to accompany the blue blanket in his crib. “My son is going to be raised right. No funny business,” he would say. Symbolic interactionism once again manifests in my own life as “you’re not being nice (Wood 56)” is not just a phrase use to reprimand girls but one that boys internalize and carry into adulthood. Society’s ‘ideal’ woman is one who is compassionate, sensitive to men’s feelings, and takes care not to offend. I am a heterosexual, cisgender, African-American female. Yes, we are assertive (Wood 24); unfortunately, this is misconstrued as coldness, if not aloofness. My mother stressed the need for self-sufficiency (which society usually