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Gender Is Cultural

            The traditional roles of a woman are far from that of traditional. Independence and liberalist attitudes are all relatively new trends for women and are the norm for most of the modern world. The commonalities of gender based expectations in other parts of the world greatly differ from those we hold in the United States. It may be a long time before total equality is achieved in genders across the world. Gender roles are cultural but gender itself is not.
             Our history plays a big part in the gender roles we are familiar with today. Many times it is our past that binds us. Old beliefs and expectations must be forgotten to move ahead. For example if a family is second generation American from another country it is likely the roles for each gender are still held to the norms of that culture. The more Americanized the family becomes the less these preconceived gender roles are enforced in the family's. .
             The gender role of the female domestic goddess is one that is held by many cultures; through personal experience especially Latin culture. The idea of a woman being barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen is one that appeals to many males, usually not American males. The idea has been outdated for us but many other countries instill these sexist concepts in their youth.
             The genders ideal is usually set forth by observational learning. What we see our mothers and fathers doing is a main influence in how development as men and women. Depending on the cultural background this varies greatly.
             In the United States women are very liberal. We are allowed to do, say, wear what we please. Our culture (although not completely ie. Glass ceiling) accepts women in the workplace. We are allowed to attend school and through all these liberties we find the makeup of our gender. Tradition is becoming less and less important in the U.S.
             In other countries such as China women are not held with such a high respect at all; especially when you take into consideration all of the horror stories we all have heard about the population rationing (how having a girl was considered useless; drowning girl children so the family can have a boy to carry on the name).


Essays Related to Gender Is Cultural

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The concept of gender performativity is "real only to the extent that it is performed" (Gender Trouble). ... "It would make no sense, then, to define gender as the cultural interpretation of sex, if sex itself is a gendered category... gender is not to culture as sex is to nature; gender is also the discursive/cultural means by which "sexed nature" or a "natural sex" is produced and established as "prediscursive", prior to culture, a politically neutral surface on which culture acts"(Butler). ... "Gender is always a doing, though not a doing by a subject who might be said t...

  • Word Count: 1458
  • Approx Pages: 6
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2. Gender

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  • Word Count: 480
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3. Cultural and Educational Inequalities

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  • Word Count: 603
  • Approx Pages: 2
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4. Gender Identity and Role Awareness in Infancy and Early Childhood

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  • Word Count: 625
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5. The Issue of Gender

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  • Word Count: 1157
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  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. Socialization - Behaviors and Cultural Norms

The most intensive period of socialisation happens within the family, it is in the family that by imitation babies learn to walk and talk, and to act like the mother or the father, by taking on the gender roles. ... Part of socialisation involves learning different gender roles in which women are more expressive and men are more instrumental. ... Garfinkel criticised the ways of looking at people as cultural dopes, as if they simply play the role given to them. ...

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7. Myths of Gender

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  • Grade Level: High School

8. Critical Psychology and Gender

Is gender innate in humans or is it a case of social constructionism? ... If sex and gender can be separated, then it may imply that gender is socially constructed. ... This notion of gender might seem quite unfounded, because if gender traits were innate, then there would be no need to learn how to behave, dress and think according to our gender. ... Thus, performativity of gender are formalized repetitions of acts, imitations of dominant conventions of gender. In 'Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex', Butler (1993, p.viii) states that "one who decides on its g...

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  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

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