As you said, the transgenders in the movie, Paris is Burning, show that there is no such thing as a real man or real woman. Those people denied to follow the structured binary gender system and found their real identities as well as the way to express themselves. Because they have different gender identities from what are expected in the society, they were expelled by their parents, friends, and community and became subjects of discrimination. They are the example of the social construction of gender. As written in Wikipedia “Social construction of gender,” because people learned the appropriated gender behavior from the early age of their lives, the behaviors which are off from the social expectations are seen as “abnormal” and rejected.
As citizens of the United States of America, we are often blind to not only the current traditions of foreign nations, but also the historical traditions of early civilizations. For instance, many have heard of the Greek city-state Sparta; however, do they truly understand the impact of Spartan civilization in history? Sparta is quite unique in its structure and development, and its history offers valuable insight to early Greek civilization. In his novel Gates of Fire, Steven Pressfield works diligently to uncover the realities of life in Sparta during the Persian Wars. Though the novel is a work of fiction, Gates of Fire is astoundingly accurate in its historical detail, and offers readers the opportunity to have a greater comprehension and
Through his novel, author Marcel Theroux creates a dystopian era revolving around war, and man’s need to control and dominate over others. Through the life of one particular character, the audience is able to experience this world through the eyes of a woman. Makepeace, the protagonist, takes the reader on a journey through her past to reveal how these men demonstrate such characteristics. In contrast to her fellow characters, Makepeace manages hold on to humanity and continues to see the beauty around her. In the novel, Far North, I believe the protagonist’s desires were driven by her female gender, and the author used Makepeace to portray the differences between men and women.
The news article I studied is from March 12th 2014 and found in the Fashion and Style section of The New York Times. Its title is “In their Own Terms- the growing transgender presence in Pop culture.” This article outlines the culture surrounding transgender and transgender situations in the United States, whilst following the lives and transformations of some known citizens of pop culture.
The article “What Makes a Woman” focuses on how transgender should not define a woman because they have not lived their whole lives as a women, have not gone through the struggles, complications and life experiences that women go through. The author also brings in the idea of women and men having different brains to support her argument. The author, Elinor Burkett, effectively uses the three appeals of logos, ethos and pathos to get across her message. The first appeal is ethos that mentions other people’s opinions. The second is pathos by showing Burkett’s emotions. And finally, the third appeal is logos, which includes data statistics.
“When trannies were growing up and coming of age-there was no place for us. We were kinda put on the fringes of society...the real safe space for us was out there on the streets” (Trans Views). OR “Gender is a universe and we are all stars” (Lacey Roop). Transgenderism can be best described as moving away from the gender assigned at birth. This can mean wearing the clothes, taking on the roles, and assuming the pronouns of a gender designated at birth, or rejecting gender entirely . Gender variance and transgenderism, although seen commonly throughout human history, are seen as unnatural and an insult to the sex that God “gave”. Many believe that sex and gender is the same thing, and therefore assume that one that is biologically female is a woman, and one that is biologically male is a man. There is a common misunderstanding that transgenderism is an expression of homosexuality, assuming that the trans person is straight. Sometimes, transgender is seen as a gender of its own, excluding transmen and transwomen from their own gender.
In society, people have an issue with things that are different. Individuals want to know who a person is and what they are all about. When human beings cannot figure out what a person is they become confused and often times angry. If a person does not fit into any gender category that someone is familiar with that person becomes an outcast. Being a part of a group is essential in society and those who do not are made to commit societal suicide. If a person is not part of society it is extremely difficult for that person to be able reap the important benefits of society. These individuals are forced to belong to a group that shares the same experiences and lifestyle choices. In this essay, I will be discussing this idea in the form of a documentary called Southern Comfort. It is based on transgendered living in a rural area in Georgia. I will discuss summary, main points, and the importance of cohesion of gender.
The eye opening article utilized for this analysis is titled, “Trans Women at Smith: The Complexities of Checking ‘Female’” ,written by contributing writer, Sarah Fraas on August 24, 2014 (pg 683-685). Fraas starts off by introducing the audience with a school that accepts trans women, Mills College, and talks about how glorious this decision is. The author then begins to talk about other schools not as accepting as Mills, especially Smiths College. She spews many facts and analysis on the issues trans women face today throughout the article including how transgender women are not gaining enough support to succeed, most transgendered women are neglected in school, and the fact that many have been accused of being a woman for the “wrong” reason. She also mindfully includes the image of a woman of color holding up a sign saying, “Support your sisters, not just your CIS-ters!”. The author utilizes this image to show people that we are all one whether we
In “Gender as a Social Structure: Theory Wrestling with Activism”, the author Barbara Risman explains her theory to readers about how gender should be thought of as a social structure. Thinking of it as such would allow people to examine how gender is ingrained in almost every part of society, thus putting gender on an equal level of importance with economics and politics. In society, gender dictates many of the opportunities and limitations that an individual may face in his or her lifetime. Barbara Risman points out the three aspects of the gender structure that happen at an individual, interactional, and institutional level (Risman, pg. 446). First, gender contributes to how a person will develop themselves in life. This is the “individual level”. At an interactional level, men and women face different expectations that are set by society. The individual and interactional level are linked because sometimes, changes to one level can affect the other. The third level, the institutional level, notes that gender is affected by laws, rules, and organizational practices that dictate what
In the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning, viewers are confronted with man themes including gender, race, class, sexuality, health polices and more. The director and producer, Jennie Livingston, received harsh criticism surrounding her filming style. Without getting into too much of my own criticism, I believe that she filmed in a way that upheld and celebrated whiteness. A scene that stuck with me was during a few interviews, there were clips of white people shown while the interviewers were talking about dreams and goals of wanting to be famous. Despite this skewed lens we watched this documentary through during class, we were still given a chance to see a glimpse of ball culture in the 90’s.
Walking down the busy streets of Tempe, I found myself at the local CVS located on University and Mills Ave. As soon as I entered the store, I immediately began my search for the aisle that haunted my childhood set the social construction of gender within my pre-adolescent mind. It took me a while to locate the aisle, due to the simple fact that I am not fond of asking for assistance, for that is something men do not do. I could not help but notice the bright florescent light that guided my vision to a purple sign which encrypted “TOYS”. While looking at this adequately small assortment of toys, I unconsciously started to pace back and forth and eventually found myself sitting on the floor. I was stumped. I kept thinking, “What is this lady talking about? What gender binary? I am so confused!”. This particular assignment not only puzzled
According to Brenda Cooper, the most basic understanding of heteronormativity is that gender is ‘natally ascribed, natural, and immutable’. The literature surrounding gender identity initially defines two categories, male or female and is something that is resistant to change. However, the transgendered identity problematises this assumption within the response from popular culture and in particular, film. With the contradictory ideas addressed in the films Boys Don’t Cry and The Crying Game , gender identity is certainly a complex notion. This essay will explore ways in which these texts conform to, or are in denial of, the transgender identity through discussion of stereotypical masculine and feminine identities, transgender as performance, the complex nature of sexuality and the revelation of biological sex.
As Lorber explores in her essay “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender, “most people find it hard to believe that gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and is the texture and order of that social life” (Lorber 1). This article was very intriguing because I thought of my gender as my sex but they are not the same. Lorber has tried to prove that gender has a different meaning that what is usually perceived of through ordinary connotation. Gender is the “role” we are given, or the role we give to ourselves. Throughout the article it is obvious that we are to act appropriately according to the norms and society has power over us to make us conform. As a member of a gender an individual is pushed to conform to social expectations of his/her group.
Gender is such a ubiquitous notion that humans assume gender is biological. However, gender is a notion that is made up in order to organize human life. It is created and recreated giving power to the dominant gender, creating an inferior gender and producing gender roles. There are many questionable perspectives such as how two genders are learned, how humans learn their own gender and others genders, how they learn to appropriately perform their gender and how gender roles are produced. In order to understand these perspectives, we must view gender as a social institution. Society bases gender on sex and applies a sex category to people in daily life by recognizing gender markers. Sex is the foundation to which gender is created. We must understand the difference between anatomical sex and gender in order to grasp the development of gender. First, I will be assessing existing perspectives on the social construction of gender. Next, I will analyze three case studies and explain how gender construction is applied in order to provide a clearer understanding of gender construction. Lastly, I will develop my own case study by analyzing the movie Mrs. Doubtfire and apply gender construction.
Social Construction of Gender Today’s society plays a very important role in the construction of gender. Gender is a type of issue that has raised many questions over the years in defining and debating if both male and female are equal. Today, gender is constructed in four different ways. The The first way gender is defined is by the family in which a child is raised.
Society has stamped an image into the minds of people of how the role of each gender should be played out. There are two recognized types of gender, a man and a woman, however there are many types of gender roles a man or a woman may assume or be placed into by society. The ideas of how one should act and behave are often times ascribed by their gender by society, but these ascribed statuses and roles are sometimes un-welcomed, and people will assume who they want to be as individuals by going against the stereotypes set forth by society. This paper will examine these roles in terms of how society sees men and women stereotypically, and how men and women view themselves and each other in terms of stereotypes that are typically ascribed, as well as their own opinions with a survey administered to ten individuals. What I hope to prove is that despite stereotypes playing a predominant role within our society, and thus influencing what people believe about each other in terms of their same and opposite genders, people within our society are able to go against these ascribed stereotypes and be who they want and it be okay. Through use of the survey and my own personal history dealing with gender stereotyping I think I can give a clear idea as to how stereotypes envelope our society, and how people and breaking free from those stereotypes to be more individualistic.