Middle Sexes: Redefining He And She Summary

In this essay I discuss that "doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men...." (West & Zimmerman 2002:13) I am concentrating on the female perspective, how societyputs forth expectations of what is 'natural' or biological even though, in some cases, it can be quite demeaning and degrading. I am using some examples from the local media and also a few childhoodexperiences that have helped me to now strongly suspect that the quote from Simone Beauvoir (1972) "One is not born a woman, but rather becomes one" most likely has quite a bit of truth to it.

Gender is one of the most prominent features of a human being and not enough people pay attention to the development of such delicate trait. Our gender contributes a lot to our daily lives. Whether we are shopping or talking to somebody, people act differently based on your gender. Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet wrote just about this peculiarity in their article “Learning to be Gendered”. Penelope Eckert’s and Sally McConnell-Ginet’s article exposes some things that define a boy as a boy and a girl as a girl.

In the article, “Doing Gender,” West and Zimmerman (1987) argues the concept of gender as a social activity or interaction, as opposed to an intrinsic individual value. These activities and interactions are socially constructed norms of male and female, masculinity and femininity. To further explain gender, the authors define 3 important concepts: sex, sex category, and gender. Sex refers to biological factors (e.g., hormones, genitalia), sex category refers to visual markers (e.g., dress, hairstyle), and gender is the interactive piece. The authors state that doing gender is always certain and ongoing as it is embedded in everyday life (e.g., the way we dress, walk, sit, and communicate) and it is the individual who holds sole responsibility

He then proceeds to examine how society characterizes masculinity and femininity. The author also analyzes the relationship between femininity and masculinity and how that relationship is reflected in social hierarchy. Finally, Devor concludes that gender is a phenomenon that one is not born with but it is rather acquired from early childhood and is manifested in adulthood. This essay is a credible academic paper that shows that gender is a social construct rather than an inborn trait. Devor clearly proves that gender is a social construct by showing how young children interpret gender and how it changes as they grow up.

It has opened up a new understanding to what factors are more important in the development of gender identity. Which shows us that the debate of nature and nurture isn’t as much of a debate as much as it is two factors that are intertwined together to create the development of an individual’s gender, and sexual identity. David’s mother worked hard to engulf his environment with feminine impressions. She gave him dolls to play with and even allowed him to participate in activities like baking cookies to promote gender roles. Even with all of this effort to support, an environment of femininity David began to show signs of the masculine gender that he was born with.

Society today places many ideals when it comes to proper behaviours regarding gender roles. These are considered societal norms that are widely debated and controversial. Society has created a norm, which encompasses specific expectations and rules that change the daily lives of men and women, giving them specific tasks and behaviours to abide by. These standards are known as gender roles, which are defined as distinguishing actions, thoughts, and feelings of males and females. Gender roles are said to be a result of nature, which is a natural process, every male or female is to follow. On the other hand it can be a result of nurture, which changes ones way of thinking and adapting their lifestyle to fit their environment. Either way gender roles are a part of someone’s life from the moment of their birth, as they develop, and long after that, this proves that gender roles are influential to a person’s life and development. This essay examines how media such as music, family life, and different parenting styles encompass gender roles and teaches behaviours regarding them. Therefore, gender roles define males and females are a result of nurture and not nature.

Renowned op-ed writer Claire Cain Miller in one of her articles, "Boys and Girls, Constrained by Toys and Costumes" brings our attention to the distinction between boys and girls for choices, this difference leads to the long-term notion of gender roles in the minds of the children. Claire's article is trying to sensitize the general public against gender difference. She tries to be sentimental by pointing out that the gender war started long before we were born, thus having the presence of a gaunt definition of what is for girls and what is for boys.

A “critical gendered lens” refers to the ability to develop an understanding of gender by examining the stereotypes and assumptions that accompany gender and sex. A “critical gendered lens” means that a person is able to question why sex and gender identification are so important in society. The authors use the example of sex identification at birth to explain what it means to have a “critical gendered lens”. They question why it is so important for people to accurately identify the sex of a baby, to the point where it is commonplace for girls to be dressed in pink and boys to be dressed in blue. A “critical gendered lens” is useful to the study of gender in communication, because it examines the infinite number of ways that people can communicate their gender.

In “Why Boys Don’t Play With Dolls,” Pollitt writes about the differences between growing up as a boy growing up as a girl. She brings up the stereotypes that society naturally creates between genders in early ages, which leads to the lifestyle and path that boys and girls are raised in. Parents and feminist alike play a big part in establishing these sex roles. They raise their kids wanting them to be successful at what they are expected to be good at based on their gender and the trend that has been set before them.

In the excerpt titled “The Five Sexes, Revisited” Anne Fausto- Fausto Sterling dives into the genital ambiguity in newborns. Her suggestion was to introduce the five sex system to include those with genital ambiguity and make it a norm. She said that in addition to the males and females, there would be “herms”, “merms”, and “ferms”.

The scene starts with a medium shot with Charlie going through the newspaper that was thrown away in order to find what Uncle Charlie was hiding from the family. Her sister Ann, without looking up from her book, suggests going to the library. Charlie brushes off the idea and the camera follows her out the door with a medium shot. Serine music starts with Charlie sneaking out the back stairs and out the house. Tempo picks up as well as volume as she walks increasingly faster to the library.

Families and households played an important function as units of economic production. After the abolishment of serfdom in 11th and 12th centuries, city and town started to grow as population increased. As changes happened, rural laborers tried to find job and work in urban industries. Families and households in early modern Europe came to have new opportunities to work in urban areas and they sent their sons and daughters to work in the cities in order to survive under the uncertainties of dependence on agriculture. Also, families of urban women were formed as a large group(for example labor union) and worked together like weaving wool which was important source of income for their families and household.

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

Irwin Group topic: Ways to Stay Clean and Sober Today’s group was focused on learning steps to stay clean and sober. PO was present with a tired looking, and fell asleep at times, stated that he started to work at 5am. PO had a minimal participation in the group activity. PO stated “I keep myself busy and avoid getting into situations that may cause trouble for me”.

Children learn as early as age two what it means to be a “boy” or a “girl” (Aina & Cameron). This is described as gender identity, a person’s sense of self as male or female. Gender stereotyping emerges hand in hand with the development of gender identity in Early Childhood (Halim). Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes and activities of males and females. When babies are born they are either put in pink or blue, as they grow up they still maintain the same “gender” colors. As young children start to socialize, they are playing with either “girl” toys or “boy” toys. When they get older they