In her article “True Womanhood Revisited”, published in 2002, Mary Louise Roberts describes her reading experience with Barbara Welter’s paper “The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820–1860”, published in 1970s. At the first glance, Roberts seems to devalue Welter’s article by identifying its flaws and praising the advancement of the contemporary research. At the second glance, however, it becomes evident that Roberts is not as critically disposed to the paper: she re-reads it, explains some seeming flaws of the article and mentions that the modern research is literally based on “The Cult”. Taking all above-mentioned into consideration, the author of this paper believes that the value of Barbara Welter’s article still prevails over its faults.…
Revolutionary by Alex Meyers is a historical fiction story about a brave and powerful woman named Deborah Sampson. Throughout history women have been pushed aside by men who believe women are enable of fighting in wars. Even though this is the case women throughout history have proved to men that they are stronger and more able than most to do the job men are supposed to do. In the revolutionary war, there are maybe a dozen known women including Deborah Sampson who are given glory to their part in the war. Even though there are only about a dozen women that are recognized for what they did, there were probably way more who had a part in America’s victory. This gender construction women have been faced with is something that has been hard for women to overcome even in society today. In Revolutionary, Alex Meyers depicts how women had to hide their identity just to have part in a war that determined their future. He shows throughout his book the gender construction that women faced back then, and it is still a problem in society today.…
In the Book of Ages, The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin, Jill Lapore argues that Jane Franklin faced challenges living according to gender roles imposed by the society of the day. In Jill Lapore’s, Book of Ages, Jill writes, “From our Infancy we are nurs’d up in Ignorance and Vanity,” Astell complained; girls’ “very Instructors are Froth and Emptiness.” Women were no better educated than the beasts: …” (Lapore, Book of Ages, 18). Jane Franklin could not go to public school because no public school in 18th century Boston admitted girls. Her brother Benjamin Franklin went to grammar school and studied Latin and Greek after a few years his dad pulled him out of school to help make Candles in the family business. Girls in the 18th century were…
Over the years, representation of gender has played a vital role in stabilizing the stereotypical family structure. By society assigning different “roles” to males and females, we categorize them into what they should and should not do based purely on their sex. Cloudstreet by acclaimed Perth-born author Tim Winton addresses these issues directly. Winton challenged the stereotypical gender roles of males and female in the 1940’s – 1960’s society of Western Australia by reflecting his characters upon his own family and the people in his life, and to relay to the reader his idea of what it means to be feminine and masculine as well as to make his characters more relatable with modern readers of today’s society.…
Many little girls these days dream of the societal idea of “successful”. Having the perfect husband, a beautiful home, a great job, being a great mom, and a whole lot of money. These ideas are also called “gender roles”. The gender role of a woman has to fit many standards. In the novella, The House on Mango street, Esperanza becomes more aware her role as a woman in society as she encounters situations of the gender role of a woman.…
While many have mixed emotions on gender and gender doing, it is quite obvious that many of us have learned that the relationship between biological and cultural processes predict how we label gender. In many cases people fail to distinguish between sex and gender, forbidding to come to the realization that gender is an achieved status that we constrict for ourselves. A very interesting discussion regarding Agnes experience on the article Doing Gender by West and Zimmerman really proves how society does expect specific sex to do gender as they think it is considered appropriate or “normal” for that sex. I’m sure that the transition of adopting a female identity was tough process for Agnes because of societal expectations, but at the same time…
Genderqueer, also termed non-binary, is a catch-all category for gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine—identities which are thus outside of the gender binary and cisnormativity. Genderqueer people may identify as one or more of the following:…
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell tells the story of Winston, a man who lives in a dystopian society in which everything is controlled by the Inner Party and everyone worships the enigmatic leader known as Big Brother. Within this society Orwell establishes a sexist undertone through the way in which women are portrayed. In the novel, women are seen as being less competent, sexual objectified, and morally reprehensible.…
For this week’s reading memo, I will be looking at The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber, and Getting Off and Getting Intimate: How Normative Institutional Arrangements Structure Black and White Fraternity Men’s Approaches toward Women by Rashawn Ray and Jason A. Rasow.…
Saldanha, C. J., & Silver, R. (2011). Hormones and Behavior. Society of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology , 304-312.…
In “Becoming Member of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” Aaron H. Devor emphasizes the point that the “patriarchal gender schema” is used by the standard of society to explain and teach gender (113). The patriarchal gender schema hypothesizes that a person’s gender identity is created by the way society defines it and the way one is expected to act as. Devor contrasts the roles a person can play in someone’s life, using the terms “generalized other” and “significant other” (111). His use of the word generalized other refers to any person seen that can have an impact on “the development of the self”; however, a significant other has more power in the influence they…
I always knew that I was a girl. Mainly because everyone was always telling me that. I never truly got what the difference between what made a guy and guy and what made a girl and girl until sex education in the fifth grade, which is a terrible thing to learn about that young. But, my first memory of the fact that I was female and that truly made a difference was when I was in the second grade. I was in a Christian school at the time and I was the top seller during one of our events we were doing. For being the top seller, I got to ride in a limonene and bring two of my friends along. Of course, I wanted to bring my two best friends along which was, a female, Stephanie and, a male, Justin. I was told, as that little…
I will argue that gender identity is a social construct, as gender roles, created by society, are used to build ones idea of their own 'gender identity'. According to Lorber (1994), there are more gender identities then just man and woman. One can identify as a transsexual (someone who has gone through surgery to alter their sex) or a transvestite (one who dresses to be seen as the opposite gender). These people conform to the expectations of the gender they'd like to be perceived as. In other words, they go against their biological gender and/or gender roles, and take on the gender roles of the sex they wish to be seen as. Lorber (1994) also suggests the way we assign gender is “legitimated by religion, law, science, and the society's entire…
Inside the human body there are hormones which are chemicals that release into the human body by cells or glands which have direct influence over other cells in the body. The system that regulates these hormones is called the endocrine system. Hormones play an integral part in the human body regulating many bodily functions from growth to the fight or flight reflex, puberty, hunger, sex drive, the immune system and, even human behavior. Two of the most commonly known hormones are estrogen in the female body and testosterone in the male body. The endocrine system in the human body is responsible for so much activity in the human body that if the endocrine system is not properly maintained it cause serious damage to…
References: Eliza, A. D., María, R. S., & Amy, L. S. (2011). Childhood gender identity . . . disorder? developmental, cultural, and diagnostic concerns. Journal of Counseling and Development : JCD, 89(3), 360-366. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/873035547?accountid=35812…