Throughout the progress of understanding human development, the notion of gender has commonly been the topic of discussion and debate when attempting to understand its foundation. While it is argued to be a societal and cultural manifestation, others suggest it is a biological…
Gender roles have caused strain over decades to not only females, but recently males as well. There are many attributes that humans have associated with each gender, causing a divide between sexes not only with each other, but also separating the two into almost completely different species. Due to this categorizing which is placed on gender, there can be a declining value of a person or even a higher hand given to the one gender which is seen as more powerful to society.…
The biological explanation of gender development enforces the idea that the role of genes and hormones are the main contributors towards the development of a child's gender. Both of the parents pass down 50% of their genetic makeup to their off-spring, where the mother provides the X chromosome and the father providing X or Y chromosome. Therefore, it is the father who determines the sex of the off-spring. If the father passes on the X chromosome then the child will be female and if he passes on the Y chromosome the child will be male. The presence of the Y chromosome determines the development of testes. Testosterone is released and male characteristics develop, and this affects brain hemisphere and hypothalamus action. So, male tend to use mostly the right part of their brain. The biological approach does seem to be supported by the case study of David Reimer. Money (1975) case study of David was that he was brought up as a girl after an accident that his penis was castrated. They viewed gender as being neutral until around the age of three, and believed that any child could have their gender changed.…
In society, gender is a structure that divides work in the home and economic production which then creates those in authority and organizes sexuality (Lorber 1994). Even in societies where there are less defined gender boundaries there is still separation between genders. This spatial separation of men and women does reinforce the gendered difference, identity, and behavior (Lorber 1994). This spatial separation seems to have progressed throughout human evolution from chimpanzees to modern day humans where gender roles were clearly defined. This paper is to analyze the difference between men and women in terms of social behavior as not the result of biological variation but of cultural and environmental development from our ancestors.…
Biology alone determines whether a person is female or male, not culture, but cultural myths outline the roles women and men play in society. These cultural myths constitute to the lack of differentiation between sex and gender, imposing the idea of nature versus nurture. While one is born either female or male due to biology, one’s culture ultimately makes one into a woman or a man. Society has predisposed images of what it means to be feminine or masculine. These gender roles limit the individual’s potential, making humans into performers that must conform to their “appropriate” roles. Being a man should not rely on appearing dominant, aggressive, or never admitting to weaknesses, nor should a woman’s life depend on her reproductiveness…
In the article entitled, “Men Are From Earth, and So Are Women. It’s faulty”, by Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers, the differences between men and women are reexamined as well as challenged. According to Rivers and Barnett, there is really no innate difference between the sexes; there are only varying behaviors that are determined by the degree of power males and females hold in a given situation. Contrasting this with a completely different piece, Anne Fausto-Sterling’s “The Five Sexes: Why Men and Female are Not Enough”, is an erudite work which suggests that people come in bewildering sexual varieties. Testing medical values and social norms, this article delves into some of the biological and cultural issues regarding gender identity as Fausto-Sterling proposes that there are not two, but instead, five human genders. Throughout these readings, considering their differences, one thing has remained—gender is not always as it portrayed in society and the media. Despite this, an important question is raised. Exactly how different are men and women? Or are they?…
Just like all other living things evolved and adapted, and just like the rest of the human body and evolved, our “psychological mechanisms are evolved adaptations” therefore there is nothing ‘immaterial’ about human nature and we are therefore completely subject to the biological heritage of our evolution (Tooby & Cosmides, 2005, p. 9).…
• Essentialist theory on gender suggests that biological sex differences create the behavioral differences in men and women.…
In modern society, the idea of changing gender roles seem to be difficult not only woman or man do not have the skills for other one’s tasks but it also brings potentially risk to our society. In 1950s, the gender roles have been defined that man as breadwinner and woman as homemaker. As the society’s evolved, a woman becomes more active, ambitious and independent and a man becomes more emotional and involved in house tasks. According to Aaron H. Devor in his article, “Becoming members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of Gender,” “…society demands different gender performance from us and reward, tolerates, or punishes us differently for conformity to, or digression from social norm” (527). Thus, when the gender roles are defined in terms of social interaction, then social norms seem to play a key role with it. The social norms tell us how the male and female should behave, expecting people to have their own personal characteristic and act in a way appropriate to their gender. Even when the changing gender roles affect society, it still needs to consider and follow particularistic obligation of each gender roles.…
Men and women have been known to have about the same levels of happiness, however they differ greatly in respect to their experience of negative emotions. Women tend to express their negative emotions more than men and experience internalizing disorders. The disorders that women experience because of their negative emotions include mood disorders like depression and anxiety. Men on the other hand tend to externalize their emotions. These emotions are directed toward objects, situations, and people (Baumgardner & Crothers, p86). The externalizing disorders that men have include antisocial personality disorder, drug abuse, and other problems related to uncontrolled anger. Men show more physical aggression than women. Women’s aggression is more verbal and relational. Researchers explain these differences through several possible answers. Some researchers have found that women report higher levels of both pleasant and unpleasant emotions than men, that women are more likely than men to report being very unhappy, and that women’s greater emotional intensity occurs across many different ages (Baumgardner & Crothers,…
It was thought that men, governing the stronger physique were more intelligent, capable, determined and the sole breadwinners of the family. On the contrary women, the weaker sex, more guided by their emotions were expected to admit to such virtues as monogamy, purity, compassion, and fervor. These differences embroidered every segment of society, determining how women should act, what they shall and shall not do, the employment they were allowed, and much more. The hierarchical structure represented by the differences between men and women set the foundation for modern gender…
This journal article was about the four main differences among men and women. The differences that were examined were, “pervasive, affecting thoughts and feelings as well as behavior, and they characterize not only heterosexuals but lesbians and gay men as well” (Peplau, 2005, pg. 93). The four differences had to do with men’s desire for sexual activity versus women, the importance of a relationship amongst men and women, the link between aggression and sexuality, and how women’s sexuality can change. These four differences build the foundation for the rest of the journal article.…
When a man and a woman love each other very much, they split household tasks to keep a balanced workload. This fairness may satisfy the couple in terms of efficiency, but it may not satisfy them sexually. Kornrich explains that what arouses us is based on our societal expectations of gender, generally the masculine or feminine behaviors expressed through action (2013, p. 31). For example, it is a common belief that the women maintain the household while the men do the more physically demanding tasks. With this understood, one can also understand that if the roles were switched for a day, the opposite effect should happen: the men seem more immaculate and the women seem more masculine, which decreases…
What substances do you think would result in a positive or negative chemotactic response in fruit flies?…
this debate has been adamantly debated since the beginning of time. There is Nature, which states who we are is determined before birth, and there is Nurture which states that who we are is based on the environment in which we are raised. John Locke and british empiricists believed that all people were born with a tabula rasa and only experience could establish the behavorial traits of a person..B. F. Skinner also in a way saw every living animal as a blank slate. He knew that through science he could condition any animal to do anything through through certain stimuli and punishment and reward. With John Locke and BF Skinner on the nurture side of the debate, I would choose G.W. Liebniz and Noam Chomsky as heroes of the Nature side of the debate. G.W. Liebniz the german contemporary of John Locke, argued that the soul is the fountain of beliefs and…