Constructed Gender Norms

Words: 1694
Pages: 7

Intro: Individuals identify themselves based on their external and internal characteristics. At a very young age a child may begin to develop a general sense of his or her identity, especially in regards to sexuality. Unfortunately, many individuals, of all ages, tend to confuse sex with gender or believe that they are one and the same. One’s sex is explicitly clear because it reflects the biological identity of an individual as one either has a penis or vagina thus determining that individual’s sex. On the other hand, gender refers to the learned behaviors and expectations which society places upon individuals according to which sex they embody. How a person mentally makes sense of his or her own masculinity or femininity by following the …show more content…
These learning environments are setup such that one’s gender identity must fit to the status quo, as deviation from the norm will result in ridicule. Children begin to learn from their peers the correct way to behave in regard to their own sex and gender. In school, a teacher who is gender aware seems to feel as though there should be special attention towards how he or she is teaching both male and female students because society seem to value girls differently than it value boys which has drastic consequences on their learning (UNESCO, 2015). Promoting specific constructed gender norms within a learning environment is the key to forcing children to conform to the status quo of gender identity which correlates to their biological sex, regardless of how they may internally feel. Young children begin to accept and grow with these ideas that are projected onto them as they are unaware of any other way of thinking. As they grow older more constructed stereotypical ideas regarding each gender become ingrained in their thinking, thus continuing to leave them in this “blue” or “pink” reality. Because of these ingrained stereotypes, children decide to portray certain behaviors due to the rewards tied to these “gender appropriate” behaviors. This goes along with Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory on mental development. By responding to these, so called, positive behaviors, they …show more content…
Television , music, and social media are constantly overwhelming children and are aggressively yet implicitly influencing the gender identity of all children subject to these various forms of media. For TV we usually see the same repetitive archetypes within each show. There is usually a male role model seen as the “hero” who is faced with the conflict of saving a helpless and weak female character. By exploiting this damsel in distress, large percentages of young women grow up not wanting to be in high positions or start accepting this position of inferiority. This gives women the sense that they cannot compete with men at a very young age which ultimately hinders them from striving to achieve their goals and becoming the best possible women they can become all due to the media's misrepresentation of women. In Where Are You Going, Where Have Been?, Connie’s behavior is a result of the influence pop culture instils within her. At home she is seen as her “real self” but limits her behavior because she doesn’t want her family seeing how she acts out side of the home. Connie is the typical rebellious teenage girl who is portrayed as being incredibly naive, reflective of the naivety portrayed by the damsel-in-distress archetype. Her mother constantly compares her to her sister, who