I hope everyone had a fun, restful, and relaxing break! I can't wait to hear all about it (and I will tell you about my lava-filled volcano hike).
Your duties for Monday night:
1.) Finish your paper. Make sure you proofread and check my expectations (guidelines are posted on this site if you lost them!)
2.) Post your comments on the question below:
WHY DO WE CARE ABOUT GENDER?
Obviously, this is a really broad question. Think our class discussion and about the expectations, behaviors, stereotypes, and roles that are associated with each gender.
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I think we care about gender because it is an easy way to classify people. It also serves as a way that we can identify with a group of people. There are so many expectations with each gender and I think it is hard for people to overcome the preconceived notions that they have. Based on your gender you are expected to behave a certain way but that does not apply to all people. Especially now the roles of genders have changed. It used to be expected that a woman cleans and cooks and her husband comes home from work and provides financially for the family. Now, in many cases the roles have reversed and I think that it is difficult for people to adapt to these changes which bring up some more stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteI think that we care about gender because it is something that our society as associated behaviors, actions, appearances, etc. with for a long time. People feel like they need to identify with these things in order to associate with a group of people that are the same gender as they are. Our rules and/or expectations of gender has changed vastly over hundreds of years in our society, and gender roles are continuing to change as well. Because of preconceptions about genders, a lot of people have a hard time or are unwilling to accept the changes that our society has made to their roles.
ReplyDeleteHuman society probably cares about gender today because it has cared about gender since the origins of human society. Human history just seems to have always held a notion of gender. Gender gave order to ancient ways of life, particularly through the implementation of gender roles in early hunter-gatherer societies. At that time, gender roles were vital to ensuring a people's survival. Raising children, building shelter, hunting, gathering, and collecting resources, were all common, but vital roles dominated by one gender or the other.
ReplyDeleteAs a longstanding legacy of such societies, we still care about gender today. Although gender originally had this practical set of roles and behaviors, those facets of gender have long since changed and intricate stereotypes have developed. Today, gender is much less about its original practicality than it is about a source of social identity. Without to burden of practicality, gender today is a much more fluid concept where it is easier for individuals to challenge traditional views and take on new or opposite gender roles, activities, and behaviors. Societies today especially care about gender because on a larger scale, gender's fluid nature serves as both a source of conflict, and as a social construct to better manage, organize, and understand how our society works.
I think that gender is so important in our society because it is easy for us to identify with other people and identify with who we are. Our gender is one way to make us who we are. I don’t think people would be the same person if they had grown up the opposite gender. I think that since there are stereotypes of gender in our society it is easy for people to mold themselves to fit into society. Most people don’t fit into the stereotypes so they pick and choose which ones fit their identity. Our media showcases many gender stereotypes that people believe and use to prejudge people. Our society uses the stereotypes to feel comfortable with gender by prejudging people. I don’t think anyone should prejudge based on stereotypes but gender stereotypes are used in everyday life and not given a second thought.
ReplyDeleteI think we care about gender because it's a way to identify with people and with ourselves. Gender is part of your identity, and part of who you are as a person. In this society, we always classify people into different groups, sometimes it can be bad, and sometime it's good. I think it's good that we care about gender because it's good to be different, have your own identity, and be your own person, and gender is just one of the many things that makes you, you. I know that sounds cheesey, but I think it helps that we care so much about gender and identity.
ReplyDeleteI think that we care so much about gender because it allows us to classify people very easily. When people choose to test the boundaries, the rules that previously defined gender no longer exist. People say that gender is a way of expressing yourself or some might say that it is just how you were born. To many, gender determines who you can or cannot be in life. And as a function of that choose to live their lives differently that they were born to. Gender is a fine line that is often crossed voluntairly or simply by happensatnce. When the line is crossed, people get upset. Because things are not the way they were intended or to some it just isn't right. The fuss is what makes it so interesting that that is why people care so much about gender.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender because, for one, gender gives structure to family life, and the family (to quote some source that I've now forgotten) is the basic unit of human society.
ReplyDeleteIt's something we grow up with, something we are taught even before we understand what it is, so that often it seems ingrained, indelible. A fact of life. The product of nature, rather than nurture.
Now, I'm not saying that there are no biological differences between females and males--becuase there are, as science tells us. Perhaps not conclusively, but the evidence is there. Connections between the hemispheres of the brain. Sensitivity and fine motor skills. Aggression. Hormones. Whatever.
However, the majority of what we know as "gender" is defined by society. Taught to us by our parents. Re-affirmed by friends and teachers and mass media. Things we see everyday. On the flip side of that same point, then, certain traits or attitudes that one culture classifies as "male", for example, might not be recognized the same way in another.
In an increasingly globalized world, gender roles (among other cultural expectations) ought to be taken into account, recognized as the largely social constructs that they are. And on a smaller scale, in our own lives, gender helps us define who we are--but understanding "gender" can also help us escape the narrow definitions with which others would seek to label us. Gender roles give us structure in our lives, but we are so much more than these expectations and stereotypes, and should not be confined by them.
[Aaaaaaaand I feel like I should add a disclaimer now: Opinions expressed above are only my opinions. No offense meant to anyone who might believe strongly otherwise.]
Gender is important because it is a part of our every day lives. Gender does affect who we are, and we care about gender because it’s a major part of a person’s identity. Everyone faces gender roles or expectations. Meeting these expectations, or not meeting them is a part of a person’s life, and weather a person had a positive or a negative experience with gender expectations those experiences influence the rest of their life just like the other events in their lives do. But as traditional gender roles change, it is important for each person to figure out which stereotypes they fit into and what stereotypes they would like to challenge. Gender is more interesting to study than it has been in the past because gender roles are becoming more fluid. And as that happens we can start to wonder what aspects of a person are actually gender related and which aren't. And if we can figure this out, we can dispel stereotypes that aren't true.
ReplyDeleteI feel that gender as seen as important because our gender is apart of our identity. A persons gender tends to shape how they act, and who they hang out with. And the stereotypes that go with gender also shape who a person is. Unconscious rules on what we should do and how we should act are implanted into our minds at a young age. Family, the media, friends, and religion can all shape young children's minds on how both men and women would be. A child growing up watching the Brady Bunch for may think that a mother should stay at home while the father works versus a child who grew up watching Full House may have a completely opposite view.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender so much because it is the easiest way we can classify people and make assumptions about the certain person. Humans can easily (for the most part) determine the biological gender of someone upon a short and distant glance. Once we have determined whether someone is male or female, we can make inferences that effect the way we will act towards the person. (Age is one of the only other traits that works this way-pretty easily detectable, and very telling). Although the inferences we make may have come to be stereotypical, they did not stem from falsities.
ReplyDeleteDespite what was mentioned during class, I do believe that there is a difference between the brains of males and females. As June said, at least the make up of hormones and chemicals are different, so there must be some effect created by these differences.
Some people may try to look past gender, and this is fine in most circumstances, but it is impossible to totally ignore the differences-at least the biological ones. Ideally, equality between males and females is great and the US is getting closer at achieving such equality. However, there are never going to be men who will give birth to a child and there will be no procreation without recognizing at least the differences between males and females.... But, as I said before, I do believe the brains of each gender are different and therefore generalizations can and have been made. It is unfortunate that they have turned into stereotypes. But the gender stereotypes are not as offensive as other stereotypes because for the most part, people are accepting of all genders because both genders are everywhere, whereas someone can go through life knowing only one race. (Although, as a side note, I will mention that in China, parents prefer male children--but both males and females live together in society).
So gender matters so much because it is something that, as humans, we use to pre-judge an individual. And I do not think that this is a bad thing unless individuals are not willing to understand that generalizations are, well, general and do not apply to everyone.
I think society always needs ways to group people, whether by race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity there will always exist subdivisions in the human race. Furthermore, as complicated as the definition of gender is (at least to me) it is a part of who every one is. It is something that can define everyone. I think even though the majority of people associate with either male or female, there are many behaviors that tend to mix. I picture it being like testosterone and estrogen; Males have more testosterone and females have estrogen but each one also has a little of the other. Although I am female (both mentally and physically) I have things that would be considered male about me like my wide shoulders from hockey and inability to stop cussing
ReplyDeleteI agree with what has been said before me. The idea of gender roles is ingrained in our society. It goes back to the hunter-gatherers who had specific roles for each gender. Most religions also seem to define gender roles. The story of Adam and Eve and the idea that women are weaker and more prone to temptation than men has stopped gender equality in Christian societies for a long time. [Although, what I do find interesting is that I think in the Koran, Adam and Eve are both equally responsible from their fall from paradise (I’m not sure this is right, please correct me if it’s wrong). It’s kinda ironic that Christian countries, where the religion is essentially based on the inequality of women, are gradually moving towards gender equality and in some Muslim countries, where their beliefs uphold the equality of women, women are subjected to harsh, restrictive laws.]
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender so much because it's an easy way to identify oneself. Usually, we are either male or female and people can be classified that way. Gender is what someone mentally and physically believes their sex is, and pretty much everyone has a sense of what they are. Gender is a way to identify that. Also, society and the meda has a tendency to classify, or group people together, almost catagorizing them. From race to status to groups in school to sexual orientation and right back to gender.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, gender is important on first sight, obviously, because of sexual orientation. That's how many people first judge others. Because of that, people change the way they act around others, based on what they first thought about them.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, there's always the physical aspect that requires bathrooms to be separate. It would just be creepy to share bathrooms, no matter what gender a person identifies as.
Finally, our genders effect what we're expected to/allowed to do, and our decisions on how we want to be seen.
Just like the race, we care so much about gender because of identity. It is another way to distinguish people, to "separate" these people and to classify these people.
ReplyDeleteAnd it creates these stereotype of females and males as a way to just define these separation. As stated earlier in our class today, there are just these "gender rules" or "the code" which does not allow the gender to cross the barrier or else they will be accused of being another gender. However, within relatively recent years, more and more people are disgarding this "code."
However the human nature/tendency to separate and classify is still a dominant part and will still continue to separate and define the gender beyond a biological sense.
We care about gender because society is obsessed with classifying groups and defining people. But the truth is, there is no clear definition or set of rules that applies to everyone. So by classifying people into certain groups and standards, society is really creating differences and stereotypes, as well as promoting discrimination.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Sammy Woodward said about society needing to group people by gender, sexual orientation, or race.
ReplyDeleteI think gender is just a part of who we are. We associate ourselves with it. I get what we said in class today, in elementary school, the boys and girls don't usually sit together. We are taught about gender differences first hand, but we don't know what it really is, until we actually sit down and have a talk about what gender really is.
I think even though people are born a boy or girl, there are times where they might do things that others might associate it with what boys or girls do. For example, there are girls who play sports, but that is usually a boy thing. There are boys who are shy and quiet, which may be thought of as a "girl trait". In my opinion, I know I am contradicting what I said in class, but I don't think there should be a "boy trait" or "girl trait". Mabye girls do something that boys do (sports), and boys might have a girl trait (being shy, reading as opposed to sports), but that doesn't, or shouldn't, classify them as "behaving like a girl" or "behaving like a boy"
Also, on another note, what's with the "be a man" statement?
I agree with what everyone has said about gender being a way to identify people. Gender is a way for other people to classify people and to separate people into two groups. Gender creates a set of rules that people are expected to follow based on which gender they are biologically and which gender they identify with. Often, it is very easy for people to classify people by gender, but sometimes people transcend genders and identify with a gender other than their biological gender. In addition, gender shapes our actions because of the rules we are expected to follow. The views of others are changed based on which gender we identify with because of the way we are expected to act by being a certain gender. When people transcend gender, others change their views of the person who transcended gender because the expectations of being male and female are different.
ReplyDeleteI think we care about gender because it provides an easy to way to categorize ourselves. By placing someone as a certain gender, we can make assumptions about that person without actually talking to him/her. Instead of facing a total stranger who is a complete enigma, we are given a vague image based upon their physical appearance, and I think it may comfort us to identify ourselves even just a little bit with someone else.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender because it is forced on us from the moment we are born (the answer to why this is i have no idea). Weeks before we are even born when our parents find out the sex of their babies they immediately go out and purchase a variety of blankets toys and clothes in either pink if its a girl or blue if its a boy. After that as babies turn into toddlers their toys also play a huge part in their gender. Boys generally play with toy cars and trucks or action figures while girls' toys mostly consist of dolls and accessory kits. When we get even older still girls stores like limited too usually tend to overproduce pinks and purples while boys clothing stores have more red, blue and duller browns and grays. Boys are usually encouraged to play sports like soccer little league baseball and peewee football and while some girls play soccer and little league softball also, most girls have taken part in horse back riding, dance, or figure skating at some part in their lives. When we get older still girls are supposed to enjoy shopping and boys are supposed to hate shopping and play sports. There are also stereotypes of girls being the weaker sex. Everyone has heard "you ___ like a girl" at some time in their life. Even later in life men are supposed to be the strong ones, never show emotion and support the family. Women are supposed to keep the kids in line and are usually not expected to bring home the money.
ReplyDeleteI think we care about gender because for most people, it is a simple way to identify yourself. It is also a solid starting point for determining and characterizing the rest of your identity. For most people, being born as a boy or being born as a girl is one piece of yourself and your character that will stay with you forever, and as you are exposed to the media and other things that will influence how a certain gender "should" or "should not" act, you see new aspects to build on to your character or change about your character.
ReplyDeleteHuman beings are creatures of habit and the habit of gender has happened since the beginning of time. It is our way to categorize what society thinks we are.
ReplyDeleteFor people not to long ago, gender was also a survival instinct. It was a simple way to designate tasks to different people. You are born a women so therefore you run the household, bare children and take care of those children. You are born a man so you gave you family food, shelter, and maybe even power, depending on your rank in your society.
Gender was an easy way to separate the masses. You are a women so go in the tent, you are a man go to the forest. Like many others have said, gender was a means for an easy answer when someone asked who are you. It was your identity and you were stuck with what you got. But as we were discussing in class, with all the surgeries that are now availible, it is a fisable idea that maybe we weren't meant to be stuck with the gender we were born with. This turns gender into something much more flexible, something that can be bent if the person feels like theirs is the wrong sex.
We care about gender because like other forms of social categorizing, defining people by their gender is a natural way that people assess the people around them; how to treat them, what to expect from them, and how to react towards them. Identification is a natural part of the learning process, people learn to identify similarities between situations (or people) they encounter, so that they can act, react, and understand the new person or situation in a socially acceptable way, and to the best of their ability without knowing much about the particular person beforehand.
ReplyDeleteI think that especially for us, because we're born and raised into a society in which the differences among the genders are manifested so clearly, it just becomes another part of our life. At a young age, we don't even realize that we're judging other people by what we believe their gender should be, which is where the "typical" boy and girl characteristics come in. As we grow older, the media in particular (among other influential people/things) enforces these so-called defining characteristics of the genders into our lives so much, that once again, it just becomes another part of our life. Most of the time, we don't really even think about how much gender plays a role in our life in terms of defining who we are and what we're supposed to live up to.
ReplyDeleteGender is important because it helps indentify people. People who form relationships want to know because they might have a preference of dating males or females or both. Gender is also puts people in different groups. I agree with Stephanie, gender is important because its how we think about someone, treat them, expect from them, and react to them.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender because it represents normality in our society. People tend to prefer organization to chaos. By having a defined category for what gender is, it makes people calmer. I think that some people think that when others are allowed to choose what gender they are then soon they will be choosing other aspects of their life that would not normally be a choice. Also, some people don’t know where the line should be drawn for what a person can choose. If a person can choose to be in a relationship with another person of the same gender then what stops them from being in a relationship with an animal. Gender keeps things in order and set categories so that complete randomness does not break out.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender because it helps us organize what roles people are supposed to be in; it leaves out the guesswork in our identity. Like race, age, and other classification, gender generally separates males from females and assigns each a role to play. Males brings the money for the family and is the 'head' of the family, while females raise kids and keeps the house. Though the gender lines are being broken by current media and society, the conventional gender lines still stand, engraved by long tradition.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender because it is a way to classify people. People use gender to identify themselves and throughout history men and women have been given different roles, that people of that gender try to fit themselves into. More "traditional" gender roles or older stereotypes about gender keep being broken. Although I think gender will always be something people define themselves with, eventually gender roles and stereotypes won't be as common.
ReplyDeletespeaking of gender--it seems as if only a handful (or one) of our males in the class responded. what is up with that?
ReplyDeleteI think we care about gender because it defines a tremendous part of who we are. The gender one chooses determines almost everything about them, such as their appearance, their actions, their choices, and sometimes even their personality. It also effects one's relationships with other people, such as friends and romantic partners. Among other things, our lives depend on gender a lot. It also effects the way one is treated by others.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the only reason people care about gender and the stereotypes that are built around gender because poeple just set that standard down one day and it never changed. Girls dont have to neccisarly play with barbies and wear pink and wear dresses but they are born and there parents buy these things for them becuase the media makes it seem if they dont have that they wont be girly. So they dress there little girls up in pink and buy them barbie cars and most of the girls think thats what they want becuase when your that young you have no idea what your favorite color is or what you like to wear or your favorite toy you just take what they are given. They form these ideas about how they are supposed to act being of a certian gender.
ReplyDeleteGenders are not bad, but they are not good either. they are just there. The problem is that hand in hand with genders there go expectations, stereotypes and classifications which are not really beneficial at all. i mean, for some people they are, like for example the advertising companies that try to aim for the kids' desires, but at the same time these stereotypes put roles on kids, force them to act in specific ways to ensure that they are what they are "supposed to be".
ReplyDeletebasically the idea of genders make sense, because it somehow happens to be that some of the stereotypes are true, but at the same time the problem with the stereotyping is that many people dont expect alterations and think that a kid is weird if it doesnt act how it should. therefore a stereotyping could be helpful in order to show young parents what to do with a little boy/girl, but it is dangerous if they are taken too seriously or for granted, always. thats basically the same with every stereotype, i mean, they are there for a reason, the problem is that it is hard to believe if they are proven wrong.
We care about gender as a society because it is the largest classifications we sort individuals out with. On seeing a person our minds first catalogue them as male or female, then continue on to age, race, etc. But sex is the original marker of people we meet. It determines our approach towards them (subject matter that will be discussed, or types of interaction we will employ) and our relationships with them. Gender defines a large piece of who we are wether we want it to or not, just because of the natural response of identifying others as male or female.
ReplyDeleteI think it is important to care about gender because it is something, a choice that we make, that we deal with in all parts of our lives. Every day your gender identifies you in one way or another. There is always the necessity of identifying whether you are a male or female, even if this is not biological for you. The decision to follow certain 'gender roles' lies in each person's hands, and these characteristics make each of us who we are as an individual.
ReplyDeleteGender is the easiest method we have of classifying people. It is something that we are all born with, and is something we cannot change. It identifies (for better or for worse) how people will talk to each other, and often how they will react to different things. It is very important in the bonds and friendships that people have.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender because it is a difference. Difference seems to scare or fascinate humans. People are always pointing out differences. It is also what makes us individual. Gender differences most likely were first made a big deal of because the two play very different roles in the life cycle. from this probably seemed roles in the community and expectations from each. Now it is mostly important because people identify with genders.
ReplyDeleteWe care about gender just as we care about other defining topics, such as race or religion. It is another thing that we can use to differentiate between one another. Although we all try to find society's perfected "normal", all we really do is discover and define every little detail as to how we are everything but "normal". And gender is a very definite, thought to be easily-defining, difference between individuals.
ReplyDelete