The piece, “From Ways of Seeing” by John Berger, describes how a man’s actions are perceived and always focused on showing power. However a woman’s presence is opposite and that everything she does determines how people see her. Her choices and actions are what we go by to determine who the woman is. Whereas men want to be seen but women just want to be accepted (4). Aaron H. Devor in, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” argues that men and women both strive to obtain power (112). Devor shows how the means of how they obtain said power are vastly different and mirror the statements that Berger claims (114). Devor helps further our understanding of how we come to act the specific ways that are customary by divulging the ongoing thought process toward gender of children (109). Berger as well as Devor seem to agree on the topic of how the members of a gender act in society, the motive behind these actions are where differences between the writers …show more content…
However Devor provides insight into how this is taught and processed though the mind of various stages of childhood. He demonstrates how children begin to observe the community around them and notice similarities in groups which they come to associate with gender characteristics (109). Devor theorizes that children do not see gender in the anatomical sense but in features such as the presence or absence of hair, clothes and makeup (111). This categorization based off others appearance is what leads the child to start grouping themselves into a specific gender identity. Devor explains that all children use an “I”, “Me” and “Self” technique to assimilate into a gender identity. Meaning that they see themselves, the “I”, while they also look at how others treat them which causes them to obtain the, “Me”, which produces the overall outlook that the child has of themselves called the, “Self”
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
The creation of an identity involves the child's understanding of the public disposition of the gender normalities, and the certain gender categories that
Aaron Devor’s argument reflects completely on the concept that society is the major development of how each gender should act placing them in two categories that configures which is which. A male is assigned as masculine due to their aggressive and tough appearance while a female is known to be gentle and passive allowing them to be repres...
In the essay “Ways of Seeing” written by John Berger, Mr. Berger makes his attempt to inform an audience with an academic background that there is a subjective way that we see things all around us every day and based on our previous experiences, knowledge, and other things that occur in our lives, no two people may see or interpret something in the same way. In the essay Mr. Berger uses art as his platform to discuss that we should be careful about how people look at things. Mr. Berger uses rhetorical strategies such as ethos, pathos, and logos. These rhetorical strategies can really help an author of any novel, essay, or any literature to truly get the information they desire across to the audience in a clear and concise manner.
His work also sheds light on why different gender roles are hard for people to accept, due to the way they were brought up, and the culture they are surrounded by (Devor 8). With the belief that gender role behaviors are concrete, teenage boys believe that they must act according to their gender.
Gould explains that a life without the pressure of gender norms essentially frees a person to develop and mature with a lack of limitations. It is suggested that the idea that an individual’s sex should not matter until one might decide how they want to portray themselves. She recognizes that people may not understand or accept this life choice, but if one can live ignoring constant ridicule and criticism brought on by a society who value gender norms, they will ultimately be more well-rounded in all aspects of their life. (Gould, 1972) Richardson does not necessarily oppose Gould’s view, but rather focuses on how women specifically are negatively influenced by gender stereotyping. It is brought up that “Linguistic practice perpetuates in men their feelings of dominance over and responsibility for women.” (Richardson, 1981) While females are seen in society as dependent, incompetent, immature objects who are defined in terms of their relation to men, males are autonomous, independent beings who are defined primarily to the world of work. (Richardson, 1981) In Richardson’s view, gender stereotyping not only perpetuates hate and sexism towards women but also forces men to behave a certain way in order to uphold the patriarchy. This idea is so engrained in modern society that it would be difficult to raise a child in the idealistic way Gould
Fresh from the womb we enter the world as tiny, blank slates with an eagerness to learn and blossom. Oblivious to the dark influences of culture, pre-adult life is filled with a misconception about freedom of choice. The most primitive and predominant concept that suppresses this idea of free choice involve sex and gender; specifically, the correlation between internal and external sex anatomy with gender identity. Meaning, those with male organs possess masculine identities, which involve personality traits, behavior, etcetera, and the opposite for females. Manipulating individuals to adopt and conform to gender identities, and those respective roles, has a damaging, life-long, effect on their development and reflection of self through prolonged suppression. This essay will attempt to exploit the problems associated with forced gender conformity through an exploration of personal experiences.
This article was written to bring attention to the way men and women act because of how they were thought to think of themselves. Shaw and Lee explain how biology determines what sex a person is but a persons cultures determines how that person should act according to their gender(Shaw, Lee 124). The article brings up the point that, “a persons gender is something that a person performs daily, it is what we do rather than what we have” (Shaw, Lee 126). They ...
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.
In the stage of gender stability children are able to indicate that a gender remains the same throughout time and therefore, children start to realise that they will be male or female for the rest of their lives. Nevertheless, their understanding of gender i...
This work (repeat the teaching) could make the kids realize and know their genders. The second step, in ages 3-5, when the kids know exactly what their gender, the parents want to let them do activity together. In this step, it is very hard to do that for boys particularly because their stereotypes about the gender are very stronger than the girls. This is back to the learning that they (boys) got from their previous step. In the third phase, we find that Kohlberg believes that children age 6 to 10 years begin to comprehend the gender differences between them. We find that kids at this stage, they begin to develop their skills on this basis. At this stage may not happen without any intervention of the parents, but the children get some confusion; for example, a child who has a tendency to carry out activities of gender, we find the parents are suffering at this stage because the child 's return to its own stereotypes. Also, at this stage, we find that the competition between the sexes is increasing somewhat, so that we see the kids are trying to prove gender personality. We can now say that the stereotype of children throughout
John Berger writes about how females behave and the status they hold in a male dominant society in chapter 3 of “Ways of Seeing.” He says that in a patriarchal society men symbolize power and control whereas women represent weakness, they are under the control of men, they obey him and do whatever they can to satisfy their needs. Berger further says that a woman is a symbol of beauty and because of this she is always looked at and surveyed by men. She displays herself in front of men and thus, “she
It is not an easy task for a child to understand the obligations that accompany their assigned gender, yet while they encounter difficulties processing these thoughts they are also achieving a greater sense of identity. Different stages of life consist of social rules that encode how one is to behave, however, it is not clearly defined when the transition should occur from young girl to young woman. It is not surprising that learning about gender roles and their associated responsibilities is not an easy part of a young child’s maturation and is often the result of a very emotionally charged collection of experiences.
The body politic stands in the norm of society. Women feel slighted because “it’s a man’s world” and women are just standing in their stead to serve them. This, the historical view of womanhood, stands in stark contrast to what most of the modern ideals about what it is to be a woman are. Looking at the changes found in the gendering, especially in America, one can find the concept of womanhood peeking out of the darkness and slowly coming into the light.
Second is the society in which a child interacts; makes friends and enemies. The third is our school system and our board of education. And the last but not least is our own self-consciousness. Each of the above four ways has a unique way of molding and helping an individual define his/her gender. Lets take the first one in perspective.