Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Gender Norms vs Biology
In Learning to Be Gendered by Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet the authors suggest that gender is not something we are essentially born with but that we are taught how to be gendered. In the text the authors mention that a long time ago in Britain typical female names were male names such as “Evelyn’ and “Whitney”. Frankly, I think it is a good that this has changed, I believe gender norms exist for the purpose that they serve, to distinct men from women. Typically being a woman means you are more fragile and a caregiver while being a man means you are strong and the care taker. Without certain distinctions we would be confused as to what purpose we are supposed to serve on this earth. I don’t believe that we are only taught to act in our gender but that it is nature. From ancient times men and women have served certain purposes and roles simply because of the way we are biologically composed. In today’s society every day we see men and women acting/dressing as if they are of the opposite gender and we look down on them most of the time because we are not biologically made to do things that the opposite sex does, in which we say that the person is confused. Gender norms exist to reduce confusion, now does this mean I will not be a successful woman or care giver for my family? No, as a society we tend not to think of biology but just gender stereotypes and this is where gender norms become a conflict because we cannot understand or acknowledge the difference. The size of my body or my ability to have children does not make me inadequate be business savvy or strong willed. Quite frankly I believe gender norm gives men and woman a reason to prove ourselves to the world, showing that there is more to us than what is expected.
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To start, I wanted to say that I enjoyed reading your article and I personally agree with you on many of the topics presented in your blog. I too like the fact that our society has " rules" or " identifiers" set in place that easily distinguish a boy from a girl. I think it is a necessity that boys be easily identified from girls and visa versa. However, I disagree with you as to why we have these certain distinctions. Not that women aren't "more fragile and a caregiver while being a man means you are strong and the care taker", but I believe it to be more basic than this. For example, I simply think we have these standards because frankly that is just the way it is. Society is constantly changing and evolving, and the way we identify our "children" has been passed down to us for generations. The reasons boy wear " overalls with trucks on them" is simply because boys are generally like trucks and women prefer things like flowers. Gender norms exist solely to separate men from women and ( not to offend anyone) but when people have gender dysphoria it kind of messes up the way things should be. The fact that society embraces a medical condition and treat them as " heroes" is beyond my comprehension, but thats just me. I would like to finish by stating that gender norms help stabilize society and when people break these norms it throws the equilibrium off and society must adjust to the change.
ReplyDeletei would have to agree with you Jade on all of the things you said in your blog. i also feel that it is good that society has these certain gender norms for both women and men, because without them how else would young children be able to follow in the right footsteps according to their certain gender. But when there are those who don't follow these certain norms it can kind mess up the roles and purposes from both men and women causing confusion. Now I'm not saying that women can't do some things that men do, and vice versa, all I'm saying is that men and women are naturally made for certain things. Now one thing i must say is that i thought it was hurtful to hear from Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet article, " Learning to be Genered" that adults judge a 24-hour baby as bigger if they believed it to be a boy, and finer-featured if they believed it to be a girl (Rubin et al.1974)". And from these judgements it depicts how people will handle infants. i feel that even though a baby is a boy it shouldn't be cared for any differently than a baby girl is because at the end of the day they're both still babies who both deserve and need all of the care and love that they can get.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that biologically, men and women are fundamentally important, and that nature intended for men and women to be two halves of one whole. While it's true that not all men and women fit the usual societal norms, it makes sense to me that between the two, all essential qualities of life can be met. In this way, humans are naturally built for one thing or another. Now like I said, I could care less which gender fills which role, but in a strictly biological sense men and women are able to fill the roles you described and that the authors described. As for society itself, that is where I think the authors make a good point. Society pushes for genders to do certain things specifically and we learn what those things are as we grow up. Since I see a natural equality and completion between men and women, it only makes sense to me that when men and women fill these rolls on their own accord it makes a more efficient and complete society. I think that is in part the majority of what the social norms work to achieve, but there will always be people out there who want to fight the tide. I do not condemn such actions. If that is what someone wants to do then they can do it, but I think they should also be ready to face the consequences and challenges that come with forging their own path.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that it's completely ok to have gender norms. I hate when people try to say that boys and girls are equal and the same because we are not and we are both good at certain things while the other gender is good at other certain things. It's totally acceptable for boys to wear baby blue overalls with trucks and it should be frowned upon if a mother would dress her daughter that way too. It would be crazy if every single baby weared that same type of clothing! People who are confused with their gender try so hard to go against society to seem edgy and it just messed up everything. Society has gender norms to make everything organized; it is nothing personal. Boys are boys and girls are girls. If anything, people who do that should not be praised like the Jack White said above me since it does mess up society. I am not saying just because you dress like the opposite gender will make you less successfull in life ( big chance it will), but it terms of society; it will just mess up the balance of things. Those are just my 2 cents.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog and I agree with you that gender norms are helpful to society because they serve a purpose to distinct men from women. However I also don’t think that every person is born in the right gender, meaning for example being born with male parts but feeling biologically like a woman. I think that naturally things like this can happen but I don’t think people should make everything gender neutral because of it, although people should be open-minded to people who don’t fit the gender norms. I liked the very last sentence a lot when you said “gender norms I believe gives men and woman a reason to prove ourselves to the world, showing that there is more to us than what is expected.” I really liked this because it opened my mind to a new way to look at gender norms and their purpose. I think more people should view gender norms this way because people would be a lot more open to seeing things that are outside of the gender norms and not make such a big deal out of it or considering anyone any less of a man/woman. Overall I believe that gender norms serve a helpful purpose to society, but being outside of these norms shouldn’t change anything about how someone sees you.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jade for writing that article, I think you truly hit the nail on the head. I agree that having these gender norms is a good thing as it gives people a baseline to follow. And it is not like these gender norms popped up out of nowhere, they have been established for centuries. Men and Women are different biologically and I believe that is to complete each other to be what the other person may not be. But that doesn’t mean people absolutely have to follow them. Just like everyone has different political and social views people do not have to fit the norm. Like a norm would be men serve on the front lines of battle, but now women also have the opportunity to do that. And how there are more and more stay at home dads which has primary been the mother’s job throughout history. So my wrap up is that it is ok to have gender norms and it is ok to sway them if it makes you happy. But gender norms are norms for a reason. They didn’t pop up from nowhere. We live in a changing world where people are sensitive and hate to be put under a microscope.
ReplyDeleteJade, I really enjoyed reading your article and I agree with you on many points that you made in your article. I completely understand where you’re coming from when you talked about how as men and women we serve different purposes and excel in performing different tasks throughout the world. I also agree with the point you made about how gender norms limit the amount of confusion in the world. For example, a young child growing up is more likely to be less confused on the difference between men and women if we acted strictly in our gender norms instead of intertwining them. It goes back to how the author explains that we’re taught to be gendered. When your born your parents are most likely going to raise you in the gender norms based on what genitalia you were born with. If they have a boy then they’re going to raise him to be strong and responsible and that when he is older he is going to have to be the financial support and head of the household of a family one day. If they have a girl they’ll raise her to learn how to cook and clean and be respectful because that’s what is in the gender norms.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with the author of Learning to be Gendered, Penelope Eckert, that we are given gender roles at birth and we do not have much control of them; however, in our society, I feel like gender roles are becoming less relevant as genders are becoming more equal and we now have the technology that supports changing gender. While we are subjected to gender as newborns, and even before birth in a lot of cases, times are changing and changing your gender if you do not feel as though you are comfortable in the specific gender that has been placed upon you, it is less of a taboo to change your gender. While being transgender is not an extremely common thing, society is becoming more and more accepting of this lifestyle. Due to people such as Caitlin Jenner, people are becoming more aware of how being placed in a specific gender can be misguided, it is not impossible to change your situation. Due to the fact that infants have merely no control of the gender roles being placed upon them, it does not strike me as abnormal that people may want to change the way society views them regarding their gender.
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