Connell's 'O' Connell Gender

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Cultural expectations and societal norms are the decisive influences that shape our behaviour in terms of gender and gender roles. Through exploration of Connell’s (2009) theory that gender is not a, “fixed dichotomy in human life” but rather, “a pattern in our social arrangements” [Connell: 2009: 10], this essay will address and discuss the notion that sex and gender are not synonymous. The two examples that will highlight this idea are American singer/song-writer Chris Brown’s 2014 song ‘Fine China’, and the unspoken custom of men covering all financial expenses on a date. Both of these examples display the standard cultural behaviour that men and women have been conditioned to abide by, which corresponds with Connell’s aforementioned theory that gender is socially constructed and unrelated to human biology. …show more content…

Gender is not a binary system based on the sex organs that we possess; gender is a human creation intended to segregate males from females and identify ‘abnormal’ people in society. It is a social construct in which we define and organise people into categories based off of socialisation and cultural stereotypes. Connell’s theory discusses the idea that gender is, “a pattern in our social arrangements” [Connell: 2009: 10]; the gender of any particular person is determined by the physical traits that we display that either depict masculinity or femininity. However, these displays of physical traits are independent to the genitals that we hold. Human biology does not dictate the choices we make that determine our femininity and masculinity; this notion supports Connell’s theory because these choices are made by everyone, every single day. It is a pattern in society and does not represent a, “dichotomy in human life” [Connell: 2009:

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