Essay On Gender Conformity

Cultural evolution in a society is the responsibility of humanity. Individuals who contribute to a culturally progressing society have two things in common, open-mindfulness and acceptance. The ability to be open-minded and accept an opinion or behavior that is different from the norm is a defining quality of an evolving society. However, acceptance isn’t always the case for men and women who deviate from gender expectations imposed by society. Gender nonconformity is often frowned upon and can be detrimental to the person challenging these boundaries. As a society, gender variance is more challenged, opposed to accepted because of the gender expectations perceived as social normality. Gender-specific marketing is one of the biggest flaws today on how gender roles are perceived. For example, toy companies, home improvement businesses, and the cosmetic industry market their products

“The antipathy to marriage by a same-sex couple is deeply embedded in a history of gender roles and sex stereotypes,” argued a Commissioner of the E.E.O.C Chai Feldblum (Feldblum, “Existing Law Often Applies to Discrimination Against Gays”). Gender-role perceptions such as which female takes on the male role and which male takes on the female role again reiterates the emphasis of gender labeling. Thus, the stereotype of gender expectations is a universal stigma. As a society, the gender identity of a stranger seems to cause an inimical response if it does not conform to the cultural norm. Moreover, those who identify as transgender experience backlash for a multitude of reasons. As if struggling with one’s own gender identity and its misalignment to their encoded sex isn’t hard enough, the vigorous stereotypes on gender variance receives punitive judgement from society. This judgment creates the need to remain a “closet case” and perceive “gender history as war stories”, describes Julia Serano (Serano