Shimeng Zhao ! 14-12-4 ! ! Do you feel that our ideals of femininity and masculinity are learned or natural? Why? Give specific examples ! Femininity and masculinity or one’s gender identity refers to the degree to which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be a man or woman in society. Femininity and masculinity are rooted in the social rather than the biological. Societal members decide what being male or female means‚ and males will generally respond by
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"The Dangers of Femininity" by Lucy Gilbert and Paula Webster discusses gender roles in society‚ and Messages Men Hear: Constructing Masculinities by Ian Harris discusses specifically the gender roles of men. According to Gilbert and Webster‚ "the two-gender system mandates masculine and feminine beings who are unequal‚ giving one set social power and the other none." (41) These masculine and feminine qualities are not just determined by sex. They are defined by the certain characteristics that a
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The reading through this term had mention many types of discrimination and the ones that stood out the most to be was “Nellie” the short story from “One World Two” which showed us how sexism and masculinity plays a part in many people lives and how it affects them. Sexism by definition is discrimination by members of one sex against the other‚ especially by men against women‚ but we cannot overlook that in this day and age we have same sex relations and in those relations abuse sometimes happen
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Hegemonic masculinity describes the idea of the typical masculine man. In this definition‚ it defines men as the powerful dominant ones‚ and women as the subordinate. This idea can be seen is R.W. Connell’s text “The Social Organization of Masculinity”. “The concept of “hegemony”‚ deriving from Antonio Gramsci’s analysis of class relations‚ refers to the cultural dynamic by which a group claims and sustains a leading position in social life” (Connell 77). In order to be able to define the typical
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In Ernest Hemingway story‚ Hills Like White Elephants the American act according to the rigid of what is the definition of masculinity. At the beginning‚ he illustrates a man full of knowledge and enough experiences to always have everything under control. Also he acts as a careless unmanly man when he addresses her to have an “simple operation” as if it were nothing to her or even to the baby his/herself. (Hemingway 71). While him being so convincing that the girl is going to have the “operation”
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The movie Fight Club is a story of one man’s struggle to gain control over his life. His masculinity has become so repressed by his upbringing and society that the only way he can do this is to create an alternate personality. The Narrator’s alternate personality is Tyler Durden‚ the ultimate alpha-male. The Narrator is also interested in Marla Singer‚ who is going through the same type of struggle that he is except she has more confidence then he does and is a stronger character. The film is of
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I. Introduction: Living in a world that has gotten more and more sophisticated as time goes by‚ people seem to have overlooked their basic natures as organisms and how this greatly influences the choices that we make in our lives. As organisms‚ our main purpose in life is to reproduce and ensure that our species survive. When we put this in the context of our modern social structure‚ it seems as if the two existing sexes don’t want this to happen. Today we see females pushing for “equal rights”
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In Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray‚” he defines masculinity in tangible terms such as age‚ attractiveness‚ profession‚ and philosophy instead of decency and sincerity. Harry‚ Basil‚ and Dorian are members of the upper-class society and the most qualified among those in their professions. However‚ their expertise causes the men to struggle with their masculinity and question the masculine social norms. The men are codependent and immature‚ but Lord Henry is portrayed as unlikely to learn
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Masculinity is a topic that has been debated in our society extensively‚ through research as well as in informal settings. Many wonder what it means to be masculine‚ and if we can really assign a definition to such a subjective term. After all‚ shouldn’t one’s own perception be the determinant of what constitutes masculinity? This self-construction would be the ideal in our society‚ but unfortunately‚ it represents a false belief. Masculinity has certain characteristics assigned to it by our culture
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for men" because they are willing to reject the feminine qualities such as patience and forgiveness (III.i.93). The word "men" is associated with vengeance and retaliation is seen as a way to demonstrate masculinity. Shakespeare includes this passage to demonstrate how the need to prove masculinity can be used to provoke characters to murder. The characters’ belief in the inferiority of women is so strong‚ they are willing to murder in order to avoid appearing effeminate. Macbeth informs the murderers
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