Analysis Of Aaron H. Devor's Essay Becoming Members Of Society

Aaron H. Devor argues in his essay “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” the gender roles casted by society help shape the definition of gender and that society’s norms aren’t necessarily correct. In America, the two traditional categories for gender are male and female (109). He claims that gender is taught through their culture’s social definitions of gender; children see themselves in terms they have learned from the people around them (110). To support this claim, he introduces the “I”, “me” and “self”; the “I” forms a self-image to oneself as distinctive while the “me” allows one to fit into social norms (111). Together, they form the “self” that allows one to oversee and remove any behavior that is unacceptable

to society (111). Devor reveals that children interpret gender as gender roles rather than anatomy (111). Moreover, he begins to explain that gender can be masculine or feminine. Masculinity is used to classify people as males because they are characterized as “dominant and aggressive” (112). Femininity is used to label people as females as they are depicted as “submissive and passive” (112). Devor then begins to be attentive in how feminine traits are perceived to have the roles of breastfeeding and have the duty of childbearing (113). Not only are women obligated to execute the roles of femininity, they are also forced to be masculine in order to protect a child and work since femininity is not practical in the workforce and motherhood (114). In his thesis, he declares that gender roles are conceived through the gender discrimination in society (116). This entire essay substantiates the contradiction when society proclaims that gender is based on anatomy but gender is also taught (110).