Gender Studies

Gender is socially constructed and emphasized on different factors such as media, family, peers, schools, religions and the list keeps going. There is race, class and sexuality that interact with gender. People always emphasize two types of gender, which is masculinity and femininity. Usually is based on the person sex. Society will not accept anyone whose sex is male and gender is feminine. Sex is what is in between the legs and gender is between the ears. Femininity or masculinity, manhood or womanhood, when gender is given, the social construct order and holds that the individual must go the gendered norms and expectations. It is a binary, which we either male or female, but not both; Hegemonic masculinity is what the West based their masculine on. The ideal masculinity is that men need to strive to achieve. In North America, hegemonic masculinity is traits of aggressiveness, control, strength, drive, ambition and fear and not valuing women. It is the opposite of feminine. Usually, hegemonic masculinity is associated with a white male, heterosexuality and middle class. There is a notion that masculinity or manhood requires men to be capable, reliable, and successful and this helps men maintain their power over women and other men. Men have power over other men who are not the typical hegemonic masculinity.

Masculinities are not identities that given, but men try for size. Different masculinities can be hierarchal and related with another such as hegemonic masculinity supports gender inequality, complicit masculinity is men who benefit from hegemonic masculinity, subordinated masculinity is oppressed by definition of hegemonic masculinity and marginalized masculinity is gender power but not terns of race/class. Kane (2013) explains that boys in particular balance an effort with producing masculinity and hegemonic ideals. This act is evident to parents regardless