~ ey bay Alvarez 1 Briana Alvarez Professor Ditch English 113A 12:30 29 September 2015 Stereotypes in gender ‘The definition of freedom is the quality or state of being free. The United States is known for providing Freedom in this country, so one would think théy ean be free in ‘whom they want to be. However, what restricts that is social control. In America people aren’t free to be themselves in today’s society. People are constantly being judged for being who they want to be. People also being stereotyped just by their sex and are automatically being put in a gender. A lot of people don’t understand that one’s sex had no relation to one’s gender. In relation to gender and stereotypes; Clarie Renzetti and Daniel Curran in From Women, Men and Society and Aaron f Devor’s, Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender, discuss these topics A together and sync them into one topic to educate the world on how stereotyping on gender roles |) / ‘ ly Corgi ve™ A affects natural rights and the infrastructure of one’s freedom. By having social construction in ‘American society, it makes it difficult for one to be the gender they want to be. This topic applies asa girl who grew with boys and was told to not be masculine ae AN to everyone and especially to me, because my sex has the expectation that I be feminine. As lad NOW CRB 1 Ws A, Male and females are expected a certain behavior from their sex in the American Society. mi — - Or ‘According to American society, one’s sex indicates one’s gender and they are supposed to | P “Gender is so persuasive that our society we assume itis brea" iho 157 ps Cure) (i pPAWans perform that way. Lorber says, wie oo Fauerding,j Alvarez 2 \ -\ into our genes” (p19). Se just because ‘one is female that doesn’t mean she has to feminine or because one is male, he doesnot have to be masculine, Tiss where stereotypes falnto play |S with sex and gender. Females are stereotyped to behave dependent, emotional, maternal, caring and sensitive, These labels that are attached to a women affect their personal lives because if they want job like a police officer, they would be less likely to be chosen for the job because woman are known to be labeled weak physically and emotionally. Whereas, men, they are expected to be independent, in control of everything, superior, and aggressive in society. Men are mostly stuck into their gender role more because of their labels. It wouldn’t be manly if'a man wanted to become a registered murse because it’s known as a woman's job. However, the “American society will suggest that it's okay for a little girl to be masculine and call her a “tomboy. y But, if it was a male who was feminine, the society would consider him a ? 7 ‘romosexual. In social control, when the people go against the norms of their society they are often baing punished by not belonging to a certain group or bullied. Furthermore, stereotypes begin before one’s born and who stereotypes first are the parents. Renzetti and Curran say “Even though American parents do not express a strong sex preference, research shows that \ parents do have different expectations of their babies and treat them differently, simply on the x basis of the sex” ('—j76). Boys are given less attention when they are crying and are often told to a » » stop crying and be a man. Rather than when a gil is crying she becomes the star ofatientionand =X AX its okay for her to cry and express her feelings. The boys are being taught and shaped to become independent and therefore displays that gitls are more dependent on people, because they aren’t being taught to become independent at a young age as boys are. Boys and girls are taught to Jean how, when, where and with whom they express their emotions to. So that displays theAN Alvarez 3 Al Y n ) results how children are being taught and are also be shaped into a gender on basis of their physiology Clothing and toys play an important role, when it comes to children and how they develop a sense of gender. Renzetti and Curran says, “First, as children become mobile, certain types of clothing encourage or discourage particular behaviors or activities ... “Second, by informing others about the sex of the child, clothing sends implicit messages about how the child should be treated” (pg.77). At birth children are put in color coded clothes; blue for boys and pink for girls. The first thing we look to identify one’s gender is simply by clothing. As toys are separated from male and female, most parents wouldn’t buy their son a git!’s toy, like a Barbie. Emily W. Kane explains that one might think a parent who is homosexual will be more understanding but however, they still won’t their son wear a pink shirt or paint their nails and explained to their son that it’s a girl thing not a boy thing (p.93). A lot of people believe that liking things that are made for the opposite sex can make a person homosexual and the parents, fear that their children will come out homosexual. However, it’s incorrect because not only does one physiological appearance does not determine one’s gender, but neither does one’s genders 7 \ preference determine one’s sexuality. Devor, explains that before children, begin school in their \ \ life they already know the dichotomies between male and female and by age of five and seven, they have an awareness of gender (p.37). They believe that their gender relies on their genitalia | ! and are convinced that they can no longer change the gender they were assigned by their parents and society.‘\ ny NT , X ae yw \ Alvarez 4 ec y Y N . Growing up with a house full of boys, it wasn’t hard for me to along with them. My \ AY ( brothers would let me play soccer or basketball with them, sometimes even wrestle them. ‘ However, as I started to grow up, my mom would tell not to play with anymore. My mom hada \ talk with me and told me that now that I am “big girl” I need to act asa big girl and nota boy. As |, a girl I’m supposed to be feminine and playing rough with the boys isn’t. I have no problem being feminine, but I just wished that I lived in a life where I wasn’t told how to behave on the basis of my sex. Growing up in the Mexican culture and society; it is slightly different than the American | culture and society. Being bom in the United States and being raised into the Mexican culture has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that I get a diversity experience and see the differences between the two and I can still be a member of either culture. However, the } | disadvantage is that sometimes the differences between the norms clash into each other. I come « | J from and old traditional family and so does my ex-boyfriend Daniel. In our culture the women t 4 are supposed to serve their husbands and treat them like Kings. In the American culture, men and \ y ‘women are growing to be independent from each other. Men can serve themselves, cook for themselves, clean, However in the Mexican culture, the norm still applies; to serve your husband or any man in your family. So when I use visit Daniel’s house, we would watch the television and his mom would be cooking and when she was cooking, she would call me to the kitchen to help her. I didn’t mind helping her but there were times were she would leave and tell Daniel, that if he was hungry, he can tell me to make sandwich for him and his dad, Men have the same 03.1 abilities 1 as women do; they can make their food themselves. I took it offensivd because I'm the we) oeAlvarez 5 uest of their home and just because I'm a woman, it doesn’t mean I can’t be superior like men /\(, Oo | \ and it doesn’t give her son the ability to tell me what to do. =o Ap nl x pe yl \ Therefore, I am not going to make the same mistakes my culture has done and have men become dominant over the women. When I go grow up, I will refuse to be belittled by men and I \_ will not raise my kids that boys are more in control than women and my girls aren’t. All my life, T’ve been told to behave as women and feminine, and I've chosen to stay like that, but however, S i T'll still be masculine, whenever I please. cw Y XX ‘As gender might not seem a complex topic just because we don’t put too much thought _< ito it, There is no law, saying a female can’t be masculine, but however they cant live » ; comfortably because society punishes people for disapproving the norms. It might seem hard to ‘ cchange society with norms, they had for years, but it can happen within time, it can change. The Western society should be more accepting and not try to fit the whole world in 2 categories; rather than they should get rid of labels in gender. \ Imagine a world without having stereotypes, would people be more accepting and treated \ ‘more equally? I believe so; I believe we can slowly change bias on gender with more gender neutral things. Instead of following old customs, we should improve them by changing society ‘way of thinking about gender and educate them common mistakes people think about gender.DNaNA, yop lint DMB! O YL A cee 7 uh fps Va “alen f fw het boul 6 1 ‘flip the LY8Y 16 cl O42 Bout. Cte Le 1 TAD Birds ti f CaO : ee EE: Guthoaio “4” as shed f Bis) yl UH Uys ‘AV We Oe v Jb bE Le ba ph oo ppel 7, Wd ye 6 OP v eee ae eee *p ferAlvarez 6 Works cited Devor,Aaron. “Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender.” Composing J Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Ed. Rachael Groner and John F. O°Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 35-45, Print. a) “Gender Stereotypes! Stereotyping.” Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Office \ | of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2015 Kane, Emily. “No Way My Boys Are Going To Be Like That”: Parents’ Responses to Children’s“ Gender Nonconformity. Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Ed. Rachael Groner and John F, O'Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 93. Print. Lober, Judith. “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender. .” Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Ed. Rachael Groner and John F. O’Hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014. 19. Print. Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 14 Sept. 2015 Renzi Clare and Daniell Cura, “From Women, Men, and Society." Composing Gender: A / Bedford Spotlight Reader. Ed, Rachael Groner and John F. O'Hara, Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014, 76-87. Print.z siaaenr id nat | tirana oseay. [Student anol lum in an essay. Student nat unin an essay. {ney datvattom the popes 'Susent ai not jon aes,