Gender Roles

Gender: Expectations, Roles and Behaviors In this chapter, we generally talk about the gender and sex. Gender is determined by your physical body. It decided by your gene. Sex can be adjusted as who you think you are. You can identify yourself as man or woman as you feel it is more comfortable. Before 20th century, the sex problems are barely heard from the public until George Jorgensen, who is the first transgender person and reported in the world-wide media. She opened the topic to the public and helped the transgender person to face the world. However, gender can be affected by naturally or nurture. Naturally, people may face the chromosome disorder. The development of gender identity is cause by biological factors. They will birth as female or male, but don’t have the sign of what they are. Or they are male or female, but they also have other genital which they should not have. Those are nature occurs and human cannot control it. The development of gender identity is also effected by environmental and experiential forces. While considering biological factors, congenial adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) causes the adrenal glands of effected individuals to produce large amounts of male hormones beginning before birth and continuing throughout their lives. Although boys who are affected by CAH normally develop usual patterns of se-typed behaviors as their peers, girls tend to be found with many sex-atypical behaviors. The environmental and experiential forces affect gender identity through the process known as socialization. As the society has certain expectation on people based on their sex, gender roles are created to satisfy those expectations. Children learn about gender roles by observing the attitudes and behaviors they see around then. Parents, peers, teachers, and the media greatly mold and shape their concepts of gender role. Since gender roles can differ from one's sexual anatomy, gender may not always be the right indicator of his or her sexual orientation. Regardless one's gender identity, male or female, this person can be heterosexual, homosexual, or bisexual. For example, a biological female might has a gender identity of female and be homosexual when she is sexually and romantically attracted to women. Thus, sexual orientation cannot be merely distinguished by one's biological sexual anatomy. Gender identity is critical when it comes to identify someone's sexual orientation. A transgender person is someone who may be a biological male who perceives herself as partially or fully female and the person is typically uncomfortable in various ways with her male sexual body and the society’s expectations on the way she “acts like a male”. vis versa a transgender male perceives that his female body and societal pressure is to “act like a female” is in conflict with his personal gender self-perceptions. These attitudes and feelings are referred to as gender identity disorder. the individuals that are diagnosed with gender dysphoria experience confusion, anxiety, or depression regarding their gender identity. Gender stereotypes is the disregard for the uniqueness of each individual and assume that all people who belong to a certain group shares certain characteristics. Gender stereotypes can be cultural or personal. Gender stereotypes develop in tandem with gender identity. It is learned by children through different stages of their childhood. Ultimately, for someone who has gender dysphoria, sexual reassignment surgery might be needed. There are two different ways where the idea of gender roles develops from. These two “sides” represent two theories, persay, where they may come from. The first idea of gender role develops from the theory of evolution. This argues that genders get their roles from genetic roots and biology. The other idea is derived from the Nurture side of the argument. This claims that people’s gender roles develop from their childhood and sociocultural background. Gender roles develop from how society in those certain countries think those genders should behave. When both sexes share behaviors from the opposite of sex, this is called androgymy. Males will behave mostly like traditional male gender roles, but share some behaviors from female, such as emotion, passion, and instinct. Females will behave similarly with some hints of male gender behavior. The Nature vs. Nurture debate has been around for quite sometimes.