Preview

Does Gender or Sexuality Affect a Young Person's Transition to Adulthood?

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2476 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Does Gender or Sexuality Affect a Young Person's Transition to Adulthood?
Does gender or sexuality affect a young person’s transition to adulthood? What is the theoretical background for your answer? Illustrate your position with examples.

In this essay there will be a discussion about whether or gender effects the transition to adulthood. There will be a brief definition of gender and transition. There has been great debate over gender but there has been little about masculinity and femininity and the transition to adulthood. It will look at the transitions that gender goes through in relation to that of the past and present day. Then which will be compared if they have changed or continuously stayed the same. There will be theoretical discussion of the psychoanalytic and biosocial theory and how this helps us to understand if gender effects the transitions to adulthood. Being in school and going into the workforce will be examples of how these theories can be applied and explain again if the transitions to adulthood are effect by gender. Then to finished there will be a conclusion.

When we think of gender we normal think of the sex of the person, so whether they are female or male. According to Mackenzie (2001:150) gender “relates to social divisions associated with notions of masculinity and femininity and such divisions vary according to changing contexts”. But is it as simple as this?! Gender is not just determined by whether you are male or female; it is a lot deeper than that as has a variety of aspects. These are gender assignment, gender role, gender identity and gender attribution. To become an adult there is considered to be five core transitions that a young person goes through. These are leaving home, completing school, entering the workforce, marriage and having children. This process is prolonged and varied compared to that of half a century ago. In comparison to then it takes longer for young adults to gain economic and psychological autonomy. According to Berlin et al (2010:20) “ experiences in early adulthood



Bibliography: Flood,M, Gardnier ,J Pease,b& Pringle ,K(2007) Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities. Routledge:oxon Goodwin, M Lowu,da (2007 ) human development. Cape town: kagiso tertairy Mackinnon, C marchbank,j & Letherby ms g (2007) Introduction to gender: social sciences perspectives. Pearson essex Renold Jones, P. (2009) Rethinking childhood. London: Continuum

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Identify the range of physical, social and emotional changes which occur for young people as they move into adult.…

    • 3081 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Not knowing the definition of terms has caused the creation of stigmas and stereotypes that reveal more than just the obvious logical fallacy in the mindset of the modern global society. Gender is a simple concept to understand if it is considered without previous influence from respective cultures. Gender is defined by The Gender Book as “Part of a person’s identity. Specific attributes can be gendered like behavior, voice, clothing, haircut, and social roles…We get messages about what it means to be masculine or feminine from our society. These change over…

    • 1679 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Psy 201 Week 6 Assignment

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages

    This article was full of information in the transition to adulthood. It begins with a history of becoming an adult. This article takes you through comparisons of the statistics from the past to now. This article gives you an idea on the difference between race and ethnic backgrounds. It also provides support for its findings. What I found interesting in this article is that back in the day, which young people viewed adulthood as a requirement at an early age. Nowadays young people are taking a lot longer to transition to adulthood, they are completing college and finding careers, I think is a great thing. Children need to focus on their education and the opposite sex. I think it is important for young men and women to have a plan of action about where their life is headed. I think today we are more thinkers then doers, I think we are looking into the long-term affect more now. This also gave me statics on when the kids become independent, the past versus present, male, female, and race. I choose this article because I have a step son in the military; this article gave me ideas on how fast they are required to step into adulthood. It was interesting to discover the difference between the age groups, races and what programs they are involved in. If I had to write a research paper this would be the article I would use. This is an interesting topic that I think I could take further. After reviewing this article I feel this is a creditable source, it has supporting facts and documentation to back up its findings, reads well the flow is right. This was definitely a very informative piece of work and you can tell the author spent their time and effort on this as well.…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Sex is the biological identity of a human being, “The criteria for classification can be genitalia at birth or chromosomal typing…” (West and Zimmerman, 2015). Sex category is determined through the sex criteria although, according to west and Zimmerman, a person may classify themselves in a specific sex category even though they do not have the sex criteria for that category. Gender is the agreed upon way one person should present themselves if they identify in a specific category (masculinity and femininity). Hegemonic masculinity is dictated through the three societal standards that are put in our heads as a baby. Whether it is the cars and trucks to the guns and swords little boys get; we see masculinity being something in which is taught at a young…

    • 1536 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    An analysis of representation of masculinity in music magazines, with particular reference to Kerrang and NME magazine…

    • 1705 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    essay #2

    • 1163 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout the decades, human beings from a small age start learning the characteristics of a male and female. Whether it is from media, clothing and to the way one is brought up, society has similar views of what it means to be a man or a women. Men are envisioned to be strong, aggressive, successful, and someone who avoids feminine characteristics. Women are perceived to be submissive, delicate, passive, dependent, vulnerable, having the ability to care for children and at times worthless. These views of gender identity have been engraved in humanities minds due to the amount of exposure to television, advertisements and the way one is raised in their households.…

    • 1163 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In this paper will be discussing how biological factors such as nature, i.e. genetics and other environmental influences factor in to our sexual orientation and gender identity. Next I will focus the discussion based upon my evaluation of the nature versus nurture agreement, and decide which one has a larger influence over gender identity be it nature or nurture. Lastly, the paper will talk about current arguments in biopsychology might be able to help with bringing about a resolution to this debate.…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Gender is a basic organizing structure in an individual’s life. Depending on the gender to which one ascribes, different expectations and scripts accompany this identity. These expectations and scripts are culturally constructed into gender role values, and it is up to the individual how closely they align with particular aspects of these scripts. This variation in the level of acceptance of gender role values has implications an on a variety of aspects of an individual’s life such as: behaviors, thoughts, motivations, relationships, and affect. During adolescence, youth are engaged in a core developmental task of exploring and developing their identity, one aspect of which is gender. This period of exploration and experimentation,…

    • 191 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are numerous influences that contribute to one’s gender identity. The way in which a person is raised, or nurture that one receives as a child can aid in the formation of gender identity. Parents typically vision their offspring as male or female, and as the boy or girl ages they tend to assume one or the other; masculine or feminine traits. Another possible important factor in the determination of gender identity is culture and the society in which one is a part of. Some may formulate their gender identity according to social norms and how they appear to…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender identity literature offers many variations on the same theme when defining the term “Gender Identity”. Hird argues that "‘sex’ referred to biological differences between women and men, whereas ‘gender’ signified the practices of femininity or masculinity in social relations" (Hird, 2000, p. 348). Due to the nature of gender identity and the…

    • 1504 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender starts in the womb as one develops. While the anatomy is most times simple to ell whom is female and male the mental area is different. “Gender is the psychological sense of being female or being male and the rules society ascribes to gender,” (Rathus, 2011). Gender identity is one’s own sense of their gender.…

    • 808 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gender, traditionally, is being categories only to male and female. People tend to identify male as a person that has a male sexual organ and vice versa for female. Usually, male is more masculine, strong, work and tends to stay out of home more; while female is more feminine, weak, taking care of the home and taking care of children and stay home more often than male. In the past there is a huge amount of stereotype towards both sexes. People usually are identified…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the biggest problems today’s society has is change. Society fears the oncoming storm of liberal ideas as well as the ever changing mass of people who aren’t afraid to speak up about topics like “gender”, which is arguably as broad and debatable as they come. The amount of people educated in this topic, however, is not so extensive. Many people only have knowledge of what a man and woman should be based on their society’s rules. Others understand and accept that “gender only exists as a comparative quality” and choose to not divide “certain types of behaviors … as masculine or feminine” (Scantlebury). The problem of gender stereotyping and normalization has become more recognized over the…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    How have gender identities changed in the last one hundred years. Discuss the processes that have made this transformation possible?…

    • 2120 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Gender Identity

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gender identity is an individual's personal, the sense of being male or female. Gender identity starts to begin in most children by the age of 3. Although most societies define gender as male and female, many cultures may define gender as neither male or female. Sex refers to biological differences between male and female. The same sex hormone occur in both male and female, but differ in amounts and in the effects that they have upon different parts of the body for example, chromosomes (female XX, male XY), hormones (oestrogen, testosterone). According to the social cognitive theory of gender, children's gender development occurs through being rewarded and punished for gender-appropriate and gender-inappropriate behaviors. From birth male and…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics