Does Social Construction Affect Gender Identity?

Gender and sex is arguably two separate ideas that determine how a person functions in society. Therefore, the expression of, gender is something we do and not someone that we are, has multiple arguments. For instance, sex is determined by our biological makeup of genetics and genitals, unlike gender, which focuses more on how person describes themselves in public. More specifically, sex breaks down between male or female, whereas, gender is a man or women, which does not correlate to their body make-up. Also, for people to understand which role a person belongs to between a man or a woman, they determine it off of a few socializing aspects, school, family, and mass media. A school is probably the most influential era for a person to grow up
into a specific gender, like when kids play on the playground. There are the boys playing soccer, football, tetherball, etc., and the girls are playing on the swings, and drawing with chalk, et. Also, the way a kid is supposed to dress during their growing up stages, plays a role as well to how fixate on a gender. If a boy does not play with boys or dress like them, and the girls do not play or dress like the other girl peers, they are looked as an outcast.
Family, adds an additional influence into one's life. They decide how to dress you as a young child, who to play around with and what kind of toys to play with, therefore, a person picks up on the cues of how to act a certain way, and fit the role, they were taught to do by their biological sex.
Lastly, mass media is huge in today’s society, because it strongly influences how a male or female should look, act, and feel. For example, when a female sees another female on the front page, looking soft and caring, women would get the idea they could only act and feel that way. Unlike, when a man sees another man in a magazine who is strong, lifts all the time, and very macho, the other man gets the feeling he should look and act that specific way.
Overall, toys reinforce the societal understanding of a young child, by separating aisles into girly colors and boy colors. Toy companies make their boxes more feminine looking for the girls, and more masculine looking for the males. All in all, when a child picks out a toy, right away, they are deciding on a fixed gender instead of a neutral color that could tie both genders together. Also, they have toys which are more pointed to one gender than the other, they have barbies, which are iconically known as a girl toy, and they have action figures, which are more iconically known as a boy toy, therefore, from the beginning a child does not have the option of picking something more neutral to remain away for a certain gender stereotype.
A gender identity describes how a personal experience ties in with one’s own gender.
An organization that someone attends to be around almost every day can affect how someone relates to their gender identity. In the Salzinger chapter which describes gender and factory work on the border between the United States and Mexico, a few things popped out the most. A person who is working in the factory and is female, may work in a more feminized area of expertise, like the sewing floor, instead of working in a more masculine area. This could affect gender identity because women are already characterized to fit the traditional women who knows how to work a sewing machine. Instead, some women are put on different floors, where a more men are stationed, and because of this, a women has the potential to act and feel more masculine. The would identify themselves as women, but more as a tomboy, than a stereotypical woman. However, a side thought, if someone was to surround themselves with the same number of males and females in a neutral work environment, a person would have a tougher time creating a gender identity in the workplace. Nonetheless, duality that allows genders to become accustomed into a new organization, much like the factories, works in one way. A factory that allows both men and women to work in the same area of work, and to not have it characterized into a gender, allows the idea that the workplace can be co-existing. This would leave the gender-identity for people to
be put in different groups, out of the picture, and could help with productivity, and capability because it wouldn’t influence women to only work in feminized jobs.
Going off of the factory jobs for both men and women, I think that stereotypical beliefs impact task performance for each gender.
For example, if a woman is told she can not fix a tire, let alone work as a car mechanic, she will have a tougher time completing the job thoroughly and correctly. This also works vice versa, if a man is told he can not take care of child at the right standard, then his actions towards the children will become more awkward and less substantial for the kids nurturing needs. Also, stereotypical beliefs impact the requirements used to oversee performance outcomes from genders. For instance, a woman who is going in to take a test, more specifically a math test, will not perform as well when asked their gender right before the test. Women feel inferior to their gender identification as they believe/know they have standards to meet.
In conclusion, gender identity, sex, and gender, are all different from each other in several ways. However, they impact the daily lives of others by performance, attitude, socializing, looks, and the way a person feels. All in all, a person may have certain biological characters, but that does not mean that have to fulfill that
role.