Gender Roles In Judith Lorber's Night To His Day

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Through the title of the essay, “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender”, it’s already possible to verify that the author, Judith Lorber, claims that gender was created by the society in order to separate the two sexes, and, in some ways, make them complementary or dependent on each other. She believes that gendering is ingrained in every culture, and is one of the main ways of stratifying a society, besides age. Although, unlike age, it does not rely on abilities, such as motor skill and cognitive development; it relies mainly on perpetrated gender roles that do not reflect the true strengths and weaknesses of each people. Gendering is done so naturally that people only notice it when it goes against the usual binary pattern – male and female. The problem is how to stop this from happening, which Lorber doesn’t exactly discuss. It is very unlikely that society will undergo any drastic changes in this current generation, still it is possible to imagine some actions that could be implemented early in the process of child development to generate a solution for future generations. …show more content…

Everybody does gender, even without the intention to do it, and we might completely fail to notice it, unless it goes against the binary pattern somehow. Gender roles are designed based on what the genitalia looks like at birth, but they are not genetic. Adults and children are influenced by the implicit rules of gender roles, which define most daily interactions, and influence friendship, study and career choices. Lorber refers to this difference as unequal counterparts in a patriarchal society, especially in the Western society, where women are considered as passive, or “Not-A”; men as dominant, or “A”

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