The Social Construction Of Gender: The Enduring Paradox

Gender a Discussion Gendering has become a way for sociologist to view the changing social structure in today’s society. With the sexual revolution of the sixties academics worked to develop a means to label the different attitudes of the new generation emerging. In the documentary Gender: The Enduring Paradox they interview the very young and old white male and female subjects, a noted African American female poet, and an Asian female writer/director. The interviews with the young have leading questions about gender roles and requirements. The elderly give an accurate account of what was taught to them for their generation. The poet infuriated me with her talk of no positive roll models for African Americans and that children raise in single parent home have identity crisis. The writer was the most honest for the stereo type for Asian was on the mark. Judith Lorber a noted sociologist in her essay “The Social Construction of Gender” puts to much stock in the belief that people are uneasy if they can not tell if a person or child is male or female. In both the documentary and essay they describe gendering as how children are dressed and taught. These may contribute to a person’s gender but biological factors have more results than a mother dressing a girl in dresses or pants.
The gendering of the next generation is altered by the few free thinking people of each previous generation.
In past generations it was not acceptable for women to work, through a few women, who were driven to change the status quo, things have changed. Their have been men and women through the years that have constantly strived to make difference. These differences include the blurring of the gender and race lines. Lorber in her essay constantly is describing the interaction of males and females as gendering. She makes these items out to be major contributors to how people feel. I think she puts to much stock in the idea that how we dress our children and ourselves dictates our
gender. In the documentary Wanda Coleman insinuates that the African American male children have no roll models due to the enslavement of Africans and the hardships after the Civil War for males of that race, putting the responsibilities for raising and supporting families on the females. Through those hardships the African American males have never been able to gain their masculinity back. This is just an excuse used for minorities. If people keep telling them it is not their fault, they will never strive to better themselves. It just infuriating that minorities are still blaming white’s for everything that is wrong in their lives. For on that comes from a very poor family who spent twenty one years in the military, doing a man’s job, and now getting an education to better myself it can be done, if you work for it. I watch the documentary and read the essay and they both just upset me. In how much time and money we put into the thought of how people live their lives. What is and is not expectable? Are these so called experts so above the rest of us that they can say it is social construction or natural evolution? Yes, there is still discrimination, but is it towards minorities or whites? The last thought to leave you with is: If social construction is how gendering happens then women would still be in the home and men would still be the bread winners.