Gender And Sexual Identity

2103 Words5 Pages

Gender and sexual identity is an important topic in our world today. Especially with more people becoming part of the LBGQT community. There is a lot of controversy over gender identity, and how we truly learn to identity ourselves as a male or female. I think it is important to study and address how gender identity is formed, and how that is related to how we behave sexually. I will be going over different theories and concepts on gender identity and will also be discussing how our gender roles influence our sexual behavior.
There are many different viewpoints when it comes to how we identify as a boy or girl. In fact, there is three main theoretical perspectives that address this issue; the Freudians theory, the social learning theory, and …show more content…

That is, learning through media what behaviors are sexually acceptable and what are not. Also, simple exposure to pornography plays a big role in how we chose to behave sexually. The media is always exposing us to sexual behaviors and gender roles. Children will often idolize the people that are famous or in the media and will start to believe that they are expected to act like them. In fact, according to the Center of Media and Health (2018), it stated, “… can lead children to use media as a “sexual super peer” that may encourage them to be sexually active, take risks, and/or adopt these beliefs as their own.” Especially at younger ages, what is seen in the media is portrayed as real. Children will often use the people they see in magazines, television, or movies as role models to follow and imitate in identifying their gender roles. Now days everything seems to more sexual, so that could be playing a big role in how people associate their gender with their sexual …show more content…

According to Ellemer (2018), we are always making sense of our world based on our societal stereotypes. She even says, “Stereotypes generally form a very strong and powerful filter through which we process objective information about men and women.” (pg. 281). Stereotypes tend to be the most persuasive and consistent the longer that they have existed. And due to that reason, changing those stereotypes is very difficult and often forgotten. (Ellemer, 2018). I think that is why even with lots of movements and people trying to change gender stereotypes, there is still stereotypes that exist today. These stereotypes have been determining how different genders are supposed to behave for years now, so it’s not a surprise that it’s a slow and steady process trying to alter those societal gender norms and

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