GENDER IDENTITY 1

Gender Identity

Nuewana Randolph

2/1/2015

PSY/265

Elizabeth Cole

University of Phoenix

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 GENDER IDENTITY 2

Gender Identity; State the factors that determine gender identity. Explain how a person’s
masculine and feminine traits can be described using the continuum of masculinity-
femininity. Describe three factors in your own life that have helped determine your gender
identity. Discuss the masculine and feminine traits that you attribute to yourself using the
continuum of masculinity-femininity.

One’s private sense of being a man, a woman, or another gender such as transgender,
consisting of acceptance or unacceptance as a member of a categorized group, is that of gender
identity. In all societies, there is a basic division between gender attributes that categorize males
from females, yet there are individuals who do not identify with some or all characteristics of
their biological sex.

Individuals that identify with the role they were assigned at birth as with a child being
male and carries out the attributes and feel as a male from child to adult, are called cisgender.
Those who do not identify with their gender assigned at birth such as boy who inwardly feels as
a girl, are called transgender. Typically, transgender individuals long for their outward
appearance to match their inward gender identity by having surgeries, dressing as the gender role
they identify with, such as males wanting to look female because they feel they relate to female
gender role, or females dressing as males to look as the gender they relate to inwardly.

It is believed that gender identity is formed between the ages of 3 and 6, yet transgender
characteristics are believed to be unable to embrace their gender identity until they are in their
teens or early 20’s, this is due to the social stigma that are associated with transgender
individuals and groups. Development of gender identity begins as a toddler and preschool aged
children by learning the defined physical appearances that are associated with gender. As
children reach the age of 5 and 6, gender identity becomes more firm, as they are taught what is
or isn’t acceptable for each gender. Once one becomes a teen these gender identifying issues
seem to relax and one becomes more set in their gender identity based on social standards.

Biological factors that can influence gender identity such as pre and post natal hormone
levels and genetic make-up of an individual. Society plays a role in gender identity based on the
ideas of what is or isn’t acceptable for males and/or females influenced by family, media,
authority figures, and those who are influential on an individual’s life. Language plays a role in
gender identity by using words based on masculine and feminine characteristics, teaching
children to adjust to the predetermined roles. Gender identity is influenced by social ideas and
categorizations based on observing and imitating like gender behavior and either being rewarded
for following such behavior or punished if one goes against the influenced idea of that
individuals identity.

From the moment sperm fertilized an ovum, our destiny to be a girl or a boy is chosen.
Usually at this point; 23 chromosomes from the male donor and 23 from the female come
together and combine to make a “zygote”. Starting about six weeks into the pregnancy, our

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 GENDER IDENTITY 3

bodies began to form and create into what they are meant to be, and after the seventh week, our
genetic code (XY or XX) begins to really assert itself. Gender identity is not always a term
referring to a person’s anatomic sex, “sex assignment” is now the correct term to ask a person
their anatomic sex that occurred at birth. It is said that by 36 months old, most children are said
to have a firm sense of their gender identity. Our genes play an important role in determining our
gender identity. The SRY gene (which is the gene that determines the Y male gene) will bind to
DNA and distort, and alter it, creating the testes. The gene called Sox 9 is the gene that regulates
the expression of SRY. If Sox 9 did not get to regulate the SRY gene; it would turn into a male
fetus. We without help from the SRY gene, female reproductive organs would form instead of
male organs. “Recent research suggests that as many as one in every hundred individuals may
have some intersex characteristics.” (Domurat,1998).

Some people do not believe that their gender identity corresponds with their biological
sex (mainly transgender people, but also including; transsexuals and inter-sexed individuals as
well.) Difficulties can begin because society maintains that a person must accept a manner of
social gender roles, which is based on their sex, and the person may feel that it is not consistent
with their gender identity. This is known as “gender identity disorder”, and by definition means
that the individual is uncomfortable with their anatomic gender, and presents themselves or act
like a member of the opposite sex.

Masculinity and femininity are terms that we hear every day in our lives. For example,
we hear that Shawn is so secure in his masculinity that he is comfortable being a house-husband
or that Wendy’s mastectomy is threatening her sense of femininity. Even though most people
think of masculinity and femininity on opposite ends of one continuum, it does not make it true.
Just because an individual may possess some traits of both categories does not make them too
masculine or feminine. Where a person should be placed on the masculinity and femininity
continuum, all depends on the degree to which the show or report specific gender-linked
qualities, and behaviors. The midpoint on this hypothetical continuum is known as the zero
point, and if a person has failed to develop gender-role identification, or they have transcended it,
then they would be placed at this point of the line. Those who show strong sex-role
identifications would go at either one end or the other of the hypothetical continuum.

One of the factors in my life that have helped determine my gender identity is; by nature I
am a female because I have the sexual reproduction system of a female. That is not what makes
me a female though. What makes me a female is how I carry myself in everyday life. I am secure
in my womanhood, and have never felt like I should have been a male instead. I like to dress like
a woman, talk like a woman, and even use manners that are considered “womanly”. I chose to
keep long, pretty, unpolished fingernails, and I wear make-up on special occasions, but since I do
not wear it all the time that does not make me masculine. I was raised in an environment that my
parents, teachers, and any other important figures in my life treated me like a female; therefore, I
act like a typical societal female. I even grew up with toys that were specifically designed for
female use like; dolls and make-up, and cooking toys.

The masculine and feminine traits that I attribute to myself using the hypothetical
continuum are of both traits, male and female. I can identify with both regarding females and

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 GENDER IDENTITY 4

males. I was taught how to do things that are considered a man’s job. My father taught me
activities that were considered men’s work because he believes that women should be
independent and if a man can do it then a woman can as well. If I should ever be in a situation
where there were no men around to help me or perform a task, I could be self-reliant and perform
those tasks myself. I also have had the role of mother and father to my children and in turn have
taught my boys and girls to wrestle, play football, cut wood, fish, hunt, automotive work, clean,
do laundry, cook, shave, clean, dance, both attributes of male and female activities.

In conclusion, gender identity and gender roles can cause some conflicts in some people
within their daily lives. These disputes can be lessened when the individual is able to develop a
secure masculine or feminine gender identity about how they perceive themselves. There are
rites of passages that help young female into womanhood, or a young male into manhood,
depending on the culture around you as to what the rite of passage may include. Once an
individual has figured out what identifies them as either masculine or feminine, they will be able
to progress their own positive feelings about masculinity and femininity.

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References

Domurat, A. D. (1998). Hermaphrodites and the medical invention of sex. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press.
Rathus, S. A., Nevid, J. S., & Rathus, L. F. (2005). Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity (6th
ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

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