Essay On Social Construction Of Gender

Response paper to The Social Construction of Gender As a child I was associated as a “stereotypical” girl who loved to dress up and play Barbie Dolls. I also enjoyed going to dance lessons and learning how to bake with my mom. However what I enjoyed most as a child, was hanging out with my best friend, who also enjoyed the same activities as me. His name was Chris. Chris was different than most of the boys I met as a child. He did not enjoy getting dirty, nor did he want to play with monster trucks. He preferred to play dress up, or bake cookies, which I thought was perfectly fine. However in the public’s eye, Chris’s favorite childhood actives was not fine and or acceptable. Till this day I still remember the other children at school, calling Chris different names such as “girly” or “sissy”, making fun of him for not acting and or playing like a “real boy”. In fact matters got so out of hand Chris decided to trade in his Barbie dolls for a football leaving me without a
While gender is associating these social role norms into a set of certain characteristics, which is then given to an individual at birth. For example Author Judith Lorber wrote an article called The Social Construction of Gender, giving readers a new understand of gender roles and its effects on men and woman. Lorber first points out how gender construction of an individual starts directly at birth, by having the doctor assign sex of the baby based upon his or hers genitalia. Once sex is assign society will then take on the social role of gender and do what is “expected” for their baby boy and or girl by dressing, naming and even treating it a certain way. For example people who see a baby boy will automatically call him handsome or a “strong little man”, while a baby girl will be associated as a “pretty little