Social Construction of Gender
BIBLOGRAPHY
1. “Night to His Day” – Judith Lorber
2. Wikipedia
3. Judith Butler
4. Yahoo
5. http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/ARTH200/
gender.html
In order to understand the answer of the above question, it is very
important to understand what exactly is “Gender” and what a “Social
Construct” means.
GENDER
In a layman’s language, Gender is simply the distinction between
male and female. However, if we look deeper in well, we will notice
the gender construction starts with the association of sex category
at the time of birth. Sex is the biological distinction between a man
and a woman and gender is based on sex. A sex category becomes
a gender status through naming, dress and the use of other gender
marks. The “normal” thing to do in this case would be for baby girls
to be dressed in pink and baby boys to be dressed in blue. The reason
for this is because society has made colors become a symbol to
distinguish boys from girls. Once a child’s gender is evident, people
treat those in one gender different from those in the other, and
therefore, the children respond to it accordingly. Sex doesn’t come
into play until puberty, but by that time sexual feelings have been
modified according to the gender expectations in children. I will
elaborate on the same in the latter part of this paper. Individuals are
born sexed but not gendered.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
Now, let us understand what a “Social Construct” means. Social
Construction is something you might not be aware of. Any norm
constructed by the society based on human judgment is a social
construct. The classic example of a social construct is money. Various
cultures utilize paper, gold, silver, or other items as a medium
for trade. To do this, we invest the object with value that we all
acknowledge (we act as if it has value), and this informs our practices
when it comes to money. But
1. “Night to His Day” – Judith Lorber
2. Wikipedia
3. Judith Butler
4. Yahoo
5. http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/ARTH200/
gender.html
In order to understand the answer of the above question, it is very
important to understand what exactly is “Gender” and what a “Social
Construct” means.
GENDER
In a layman’s language, Gender is simply the distinction between
male and female. However, if we look deeper in well, we will notice
the gender construction starts with the association of sex category
at the time of birth. Sex is the biological distinction between a man
and a woman and gender is based on sex. A sex category becomes
a gender status through naming, dress and the use of other gender
marks. The “normal” thing to do in this case would be for baby girls
to be dressed in pink and baby boys to be dressed in blue. The reason
for this is because society has made colors become a symbol to
distinguish boys from girls. Once a child’s gender is evident, people
treat those in one gender different from those in the other, and
therefore, the children respond to it accordingly. Sex doesn’t come
into play until puberty, but by that time sexual feelings have been
modified according to the gender expectations in children. I will
elaborate on the same in the latter part of this paper. Individuals are
born sexed but not gendered.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCT
Now, let us understand what a “Social Construct” means. Social
Construction is something you might not be aware of. Any norm
constructed by the society based on human judgment is a social
construct. The classic example of a social construct is money. Various
cultures utilize paper, gold, silver, or other items as a medium
for trade. To do this, we invest the object with value that we all
acknowledge (we act as if it has value), and this informs our practices
when it comes to money. But