Gender Roles

Throughout our history, there has been the idea that there is only two types of gender, male and female. However as the earth and population evolves, our opinions and ideas of gender typically have changed therefore creating drastic change among the socially accepted views of solely having a choice between male and female. Although, we still are seeing patterns among judgements being made of what gender the person will identify is which is called the gender binary, which defines as “the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. It is one general type of a gender system.” ( Wikipedia, n.d.).

Gender is defined as being a male or female and determines the personalities, genetics and body functions of an individual. Nowadays people have taken something so simple and have almost changed it completely. Men now want to be women, and women want to be men. We live in a world where many people feel as if they are born into the wrong body and need to change their physical appearance to Appeal to others and feel comfortable again. Gender identity is not the same as it used to be and has been taken to a level that is almost life changing.

In today’s society, we see people everyday “doing gender.” You do gender, I do gender; in fact, it is impossible not to do gender. Gender was created by society and it has gotten to the point where everything runs on gender: restrooms, clothes, toys, actions and even colors. Since society runs on gender, society assumes that participating in any action that is considered feminine correlates to a person being a girl, and vice versa. Consequently, masculine actions correlate to that person being a boy. The statement aforementioned runs on a concept that only two sexes in the world coexist: male and female. However, what if someone doesn’t fit into this category? How exactly does society choose what gender this new sex is to play? In my case, my child was born as an intersex baby, a baby whose

Besides the genders male and female, there is also intersexed. Within that group of intersexed, there are subgroups. Fausto-Sterling explains this in her “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female are Not Enough”:

Regarding the issue of gender, there are many ways to classify the issue. One-way is the very influences that function to constantly describe and define sex classifications as dissimilar dualistic. It 's a kind of invisible, but all around society and mechanism every day to tell human that people are

Some say the need for a non binary gender system is moot because people that don't align with our traditional gender roles are mentally deranged. In the

Since the moment of birth we are placed on the dual track. A newborn is wrapped in a pink blanket emphasizing that the newborn is a female and a newborn wrapped in a blue blanket shows that the baby is a male. After this moment the newborn male or female are gender scripted. A female is typically on the pink side of the dual track expected to be sensitive, feminine, dependent and to stay home to clean the house and take care of her children. On the other hand, a male is on the blue side of the dual track and suppose to be strong, masculine, independent, head of the household, successful and aggressive. We are gender intensified three times in our lives, the first time is when we are born we are place on either the pink or blue side of the dual track emphasizing which track we belong to based on our gender. The second time is when we are beginning adolescence, during this time one is going through puberty and is in search for his or her identity leading to once again basing on one’s genitalia, clarifying whether you are a female or a male. The third time is when a couple is going through a pregnancy, gender scripts are clear indicating that the female will be giving birth to the child therefore is expected to stay home, while the male is expected to provide and protect in all ways for his family. These expectations lead to why men and women are considered as the “opposite” sex, meaning that these two genders have no overlap what so ever. It is

In many cultures the common idea is that there are girls and there are boys and they are expected to follow rules that define them. This is the idea of there being binary genders. The idea of there being more than these two set genders is not new but has only recently gained acceptance in a large portion of the world. However, that’s because these defining rules are part of a social construction. It is simply the way we are expected to do gender and we are shown how to through our socialization with our peers and family or even school and media. Though once we stop or do

The concept of gender was debated and changed throughout time. The traditional logic on such concept regards a binary division, meaning, something that divides in opposites, for instance male and female. From this point of view, human beings are born with biologic characteristics that define if an individual as male or female, the biological sex, and that each of these extremes acts and behaves in a specific way. However, that is not the only factor when describing an individual. Gender, in a sociological perspective is understood as a social position in which a person identifies with certain traits of the imposed biological sexes. "A set of social arrangements that are used to differentiate people in a collective context, taking into account historical and cultural patterns attributed to men and women". Since gender is a social role, it can be constructed and deconstructed, meaning that it can be understood as mutable and unlimited. Considering that it is based on a social background some cultures have extremely specific gender roles.

What is a sex? What is gender? According to Merriam-Webster the word sex means, “either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures” and gender means, “an inflection form showing membership in such a subclass”. Basically, an individual’s sex is determined at birth, but is interchangeable depending on the gender those individuals desire.

The first part to understanding gender roles is to understand genders. According to the dictionary, gender means “either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior” (dictionary). Male or female? Still according to the dictionary, female means “a person bearing two X chromosomes in the cell nuclei and normally having a vagina, a uterus and ovaries, and developing at puberty a relatively rounded body and enlarged breasts, and retaining a beardless face; a girl or woman” and a male is “ a person bearing an X and Y chromosome pair in the cell nuclei and normally having a penis, scrotum, and testicles, and developing hair on the face at adolescence; a boy or man” (dictionary). These definitions would be fine, but they don’t take into consideration people who are, perhaps, transgender or gender fluid. Therefore, we should not have gender roles because they constantly discriminate against those who deviate from the “traditional” way of life.

Gender has always been around, but it has caused confusion for some about the true meaning, through this, two perspectives have come to light. Those who believe that gender is something that you are born with, your biological self that differentiates you from your opposite (male/female). Then there are those who believe that gender is a social constructed aspect of ones life. What your parents and society label you the minute you are born. Examples being a girl wears pink, a boy wears blue. These colours are a significant symbol of assigning one a gender, for if they do not wear those colours (in some instances) then people will not be able to distinguish them — this generally shown in a newborn babies case. Through a socially constructed perspective, certain ways of living are formed for each persons gender, in olden day New Zealand, women, at a certain point in time were assumed to stay at home, with the children and be ‘good wives.’ Whereas men were to be in the labour force, whether it be working class, or in the higher areas of parliament. This was all up until the mid 1800s were the first wave feminism came into act.

Sex and gender have been categorized in the same loop time and time again, but is merely confused about between one person to the next. Sex is what you are born with penis, vaginia, and in some cases both as opposed to gender. Although we link two and two together mentally, logically they are opposites. Socialization, parenting, and media throughout the world, develop your sense of gender, male or female “gender roles.”

In all probability the pre-historical human societies had close to 5 or 6 gender identities, keeping with the nature of humans. Indeed some of the surviving ancient tribes (e.g. the Native Americans or the Bugis of Sulawesi, etc.)). When there were not enough gender identities, unlike present day west, these cultures accommodated all the possible shades of gender within the ones available.

Today’s society is composed of two genders, male and female, each gender truly not much different from the other, as they only differ based on the twenty-third chromosome pair they were born with. In The Second Sex, de Beauvior quotes, “The division of the sexes is a biological