Gender

This essay is about how gender negatively impacts society and how gender related issues were viewed back in the day compared to today's society. I also put forth my opinion on gender issues.

Gender

By: Sarah Brenner

According to the American Psychological Association, gender is “the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex” (Web). Before knowing the real definition of gender, some people probably thought it was just whether you were male or female. Now knowing the real definition, gender has negatively impacted many lives in society, including my own, because society forces us to become someone we might not want to be.

Gender negatively impacts life in society because it makes you act a certain way even if you do not want to be that way. An article titled “Understanding Gender” stated, “Accepted social gender roles and expectations are so entrenched in our culture that most people cannot imagine any other way. As a result, individuals fitting neatly into these expectations rarely if ever question what gender really means.” Both male and female have roles and stereotypes that society, unintentionally, bombards us with. For example, women did all of the housework back in the day because of the role that men were the providers for the family. Another example would be the way society expects how women and men should act. Women should be independent, confident, classy, loyal, loving, smart, and nurturing. Men should be hardworking, loyal, understanding, protective, tough, and have a good work ethic. All of these roles, characteristics, and stereotypes have made negative impacts on men’s and women’s lifestyles in today’s society because we are all expected to be something we are not.

          In today’s society, gender is a very touchy subject because we have individuals that are transgender and gender expansive. Back then this was not as big as a problem because most people stuck with society’s expectations. Today’s society is different because more and more people are becoming fed up with all of the rules to follow and just want to be themselves. The article titled “Understanding Gender” stated, “Practically everything in society is assigned a gender�"toys, colors, clothes and behaviors are just some of the more obvious examples.” They do not know which restroom to pick when they go out in public, what kind of clothes to buy, what box to check on a personal form, which sex to date, and even might have trouble communicating with others because they feel inferior or different. The list could go on. Simple, everyday tasks that we do are devastating for others, thus illustrating how gender negatively impacts a lot of lives within society.

          Even though back then did not have as many problems with gender as today’s society does, there were still problems. Gender created a negative impact on this girl’s life. The End of Summer, written by Kimberly Gorall, is about how girls have rules they have to follow according to traditional gender to become a woman. In the story, Gorall was playing baseball with her brother and father in the backyard with their shirts off while her mother and sister were in the kitchen. Her mother then called her in to talk to her. Gorall was told by her mother that she has to wear a shirt at all times. Gorall started crying and saying how unfair it is that boys have it better than woman. Gorall stated that “Girls couldn’t have footballs, slingshots or pitcher’s mitts. Boys didn’t have to cook or baby-sit or do the dishes. Girls couldn’t wear pants to school, even in the winter. Boys could be secret agents and astronauts.” I agree with Gorall because I believe everyone should choose to live how they want. Another example of gender negatively impacting life is the article titled, “Why Traditional Manhood is Killing Us” by Mark Greene. It is about men’s rights and how men are dying because they do not act like a traditional man. Greene wrote that “Gay and transgender people daily risk being murdered for daring to live outside the narrow rules of traditional American manhood.” Men are dying because of the expectations of society. If that is not a negative impact then I do not know what is.

Gender has negatively impacted my identity not because I am transgender or gender expansive but because I am a woman. When I worked at a Long John Silvers close to my home, all of the guy workers would take out my trash and pick up heavy things for me because my boss would tell them to. That negatively impacted me because I felt like I was not independent and always needed some sort of help when I did not need it. Therefore, from my personal experience and readings, gender has negatively impacted society more than it has positively impacted us.

 

Works Cited/Bibliography

"Definition of Terms: Sex, Gender, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation."

American Psychological Association. APA Council of Representatives, 18-20 Feb. 2011. Web. 6 April 2016.

Gorall, Kimberly. "The End of Summer." Literature and Gender. Ed. Elizabeth

Primamore and Dolores DeLuise. The Essential Literature Ser. Longman: Pearson Education, 2011. 51-52. Print.

Greene, Mark. "Why Traditional Manhood Is Killing Us -." The Good Men

 Project. 04 May 2015. Web. 6 April 2016.

"Understanding Gender." Gender Spectrum. Web. 6 April 2016.