Author: Ligia

Theories of gender and sex refers to the sex of female and male and how gender is studied. We live in a society were certain expectations have been placed regarding how a women and men should behave and act.

After reading, I question so many things and mainly why we pay so much mind into people’s opinion regarding gender and who we want to be. Now seeing how much people judge different opinions and how much critical things they have to say it is hard not to ignore and be affected by their comments/opinions. Gender can be viewed through different perspectives but the one that caught my attention in this reading which is very important is the psychological perspective because it is said that gender identity is not naturally set at birth  but instead developed through childhood. There are of course different approaches as to how this happens. One being social learning meaning that behavior is mimicked while cognitive development referring to how children adopt gender identification and then perform certain behaviors. To certain extend I agree with this but I also believe that gender identification happens because their body is not the one that they truly are, like it is sometimes said they are born in the wrong body but they truly know who they really are. The example given of a boy deciding not to play with dolls because they know better a way how society sets expectations on genders. A boy playing with dolls is seen as wrong but this action does not necessarily mean that a boy will change their gender.

“Ten responses to phrase ‘man up” is a very beautiful video with a great and powerful message. This being that genders are always in pressure since society sets expectations for genders like I mentioned before, but these expectations cant always be met since genders aren’t chosen, instead they are who we want to be and who we truly feel like.

Understanding gender binary is very important, when talking about gender binary it is reffered to the classification of gender into two different, opposite forms of masculine and feminine. When we are born we are either female or male and right away there are ideas and norms of how each gender shoud act or do. Although society has influenced in how women and man should act or do, religion and family have also played a huge role in inputting these norms.

We live in a society where in most cases men are supposed to have control, meanwhile women are supposed look up to men. Feminism is a huge problem because there is no rights for other genres other than male or female, and even woman are seen as less powerful than man. A very interesting thing I read in this book is the beachfront test. I found this very interesting because it is a great way of seeing how men in most cases are in a way always crucial in every aspect. This test consists of having films where women are included and women talk to each other but not about men, which most films failed this test. Going back to women always being, “It was not uncommon for college students student’s to complete entire courses reading only the work of white men in their fields”. This was very important because there have been plenty of successful women whose work have been overlooked. Everyone should have the same rights and there is no right answer when it comes to what is to be a woman or a man, a man portraying womanly actions and woman portraying manly action are considered shameful yet society supports a man being aggressive in some cases and even accepts racism but being gay or bisexual is seen as unforgivable. Everyone’s experiences are shaped by different circumstances such as political, economically and even cultural. Eventually everyone will realize that women are not less than man and that every genre has equal rights no matter if they chose to change their sex or their sexual preferences.

This chapter of gender stories allows us to see and explore different gender identities. We are born in a society that puts gender into categories. We are either categorized as male, female, gay, straight, masculine, or feminine. There are three different concepts regarding gender. The first is gender as equivalent to sex, meaning that who you are based on the anatomy and physiology of your body, in other words, you are born a girl and stay that way without physically or mentally changing that or doubting that. Now gender as separate from sex, here sex is what you are physically born with either testicle and a penis or a vagina, uterus, and ovaries and your gender are what you become over time after interacting with people. I believe this is very important because nobody really knows what they will become or who they really until they truly find themselves and interact with others. Some people even explore in a certain way in order to really know either their identity or sexual preferences. The third concept refers to gender as the assignment of meaning to bodies. This refers to more social and cultural labeling. You can be a male and have any gender or be a woman and have any gender. ” Sex is what you are born with and gender is what you become through interacting” is something I strongly agree and by changing your gender it doesn’t change the personality you have and I believe that that’s what people fail to realize. Religiously speaking intimacy only happens between a woman and a man and same goes with marriage but not everyone agrees with this in fact they believe gay and lesbian people should have the same rights and this is a debate that has been around for a while.

I personally believe that people are entitled to become who they want to be and who they are more comfortable being. From personal experience, I have noticed that if a woman sometimes gets the task of a man done they are automatically are called out to be too masculine, this is where binary theory comes in which basically puts people into categories forcing them into those standards and if the opposite as to what you should be doing or acting then you are automatically classified as the opposite category. Another example is if a girl is not girly enough then someone might automatically label them as being lesbian.