An Uncommon Solider
A common mistake individuals make is that they describe sex and gender as the one in the same. Sex is assigned at birth and is based on a person’s genital appearance. Gender is a social construction; it reflects a culture meaning associated with a performance of femininity or masculinity. Sarah Rosetta Wakeman was born with the sex of female but as she grew older she would be seen associate with the gender of male. Wakeman was a simple farm girl from central New York and was the oldest of seven children. She left home and began dressing as a man and later joined the service into the 153rd regiment for the Union. She used the alias’ Private Lyons Wakeman and Edwin R. Wakeman. Wakeman ability to pass as a man in the Civil
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She was strong and willing to do manual labor. This seemed to be a strain on the family dynamic. The strain on the family can be shown in some of Wakemen’s letters. In one letter home Wakemen write, “I want you should forgive me of everything that I ever done, and I will forgive you all the same” (21) Her abnormal attributes for a woman of her time caused some kind of rift in her family. With her father always needing her help and her mothers want for her to perform womanly tasks Wakeman was pulled in different gender directions. In addition they must have been a tremendous amount of sibling rivalry. In another letter Wakeman writes to her sister Lois,“I want you to write me as soon as you can. I forgive you of every thing that you ever done to me and I want you to do the same” (29) There was some kind of conflict between Wakeman and her sister Lois. Wakeman’s family problems could be a possible attribute to why she left home and began dressing as a …show more content…
She was able to obtain a job on the Chenango Canal as a boatman. The profession of a boatman was not an easy task. Even though her time was short as a boatman she performed masculinity successfully there. She had the strength to perform the manual task and did not complain or show women attributes. While she was a boatman the she became interested in bounties offered to those who enrolled on August 30,1862. She then joined the 153rd regiment on October 17 and departed the next day. She was able to pass as a man to perform boatman and now service
Great people often arise from unlikely places. During the civil war women were barred from serving in the army; however, women did sometimes disguise themselves as men and enlisted in both the Confederate and Union armies. During the Civil War years of 1861 to 18-65, soldiers under arms mailed countless letters home from the front. There are multiple accounts of women serving in military units during the Civil War, but a majority of these incidents are extremely hard to verify. Nevertheless, there is the one well-documented incident of the female Civil War soldier by the name of Sarah Rosetta Wakeman.
What defines gender? The sex of a person refers to their physical anatomy, their sexual orientation refers to whom they are attracted to. The gender identity of a person, however, is their internal sense of being male, female, neither or both. The way in which they manifest their masculinity and/or femininity is their gender expression. Society has no right to dictate a person’s gender identity or manifestation, nor does it have the right to confine them to any one of these. Too often does the public deem someone’s gender and expression the same as their sex, and treat them as such without consulting the individual. The play Down from Heaven by Colleen Wagner and the novel Annabel by Kathleen Winter depict the ongoing battle that society faces
As Virginia Wolfe once stated, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman” ( ). The word female has had countless meanings throughout its lifespan. Females can be seen as lowly and cheap, regal and sophisticated, or weak and underutilized. It has only been in the last 70 years that women have gained a foothold in society, to gain the rights they deserve. In the late 1800’s a new writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman questioned society’s views on the idea of being female and tried to make them understand that females are a force to be reckoned with and not a doormat for men to step on. She would not stand to be labeled anonymous.
During the Civil War, Harriet Tubman became very prominent. She became a nurse, a scout, and a spy for the Union forces. As a nurse, Harriet found a root that helped cure the dysentery. Once again the soldiers began to call her Moses because she had saved many of their lives (Petry 220-224). While being involved in the Civil War, Harriet freed another seven hundred slaves. Harriet was said to be a well respected throughout the war. She received official commendations from many Union Army officials. Even though Harriet contributed a lot of time and hard work in the war efforts, she never received veterans’ benefits for any of of her painstaking work (Harriet par 3).
The article was published on February 6, 1943 in the midst of World War II. Women had become an asset to the war effort and were then considered "At Home Soldiers" or "Riveters". They worked in the factories constructing submarines for the Navy, planes for the Air Force, and became medics.
Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts Dec. 17, 1760. She was very poor growing up soon her father deserted their family to go out to sea then she found out he died in a ship wreck. She was an indentured servant for over six years before she became a teacher. Later in her life she became a teacher she did not like how woman were being treated so she dressed up like a man and joined the army she was in the 4th Massachusetts regiment in 1782. She hid her leg wound so doctors could not discover she was a woman and take her out of the army. Then later on she was discovered about being a woman to the other part of her army after she was wounded in a meet with the British soldiers near Tarrytown, N.Y then she was discharged from the army in 1783. Assuming the name of Robert Shurtleff and wearing men clothes she joined the 4th Massachusetts regiment in 1782. The day she arrived in Bellingham the place where they recruit soldiers Sampson went straight to the recruiting office. She was also under the command of General Paterson her general had the first name of her brother who shortly died after her birth in the war. Deborah must have been a good soldier because after only two weeks she was in charge of a special unit of soldiers called rangers. They were in charge of looking out for activity on the outskirts of the British base and report back to the general. Her first assignment was a twelve-day march to West Point New York where they hiked until they got there she had for gotten but this is where she was born. At West Point she and her soldiers had to divide in half and meet again in Tarrytown the next day. Her division arrived the next morning then from out of the distance a bunch of bullets flew into the soldier...
In her article “But What Do You Mean” Deborah Tannen, claims that there is a huge difference in the style of communicating between men and women. Tannen breaks these down into seven different categories; apologies, criticism, thank-yous, fighting, praise, complaints, and jokes. With each of these she compares men to women by explaining the common misconceptions that each of the genders do. The different style of communication can cause some problems at the workplace and even affect the environment. The different styles of communication has been around forever and almost becomes a “ritual”(299). Tannen is effective with mainly women and not men. She is primarily successful with women due to the fact that her tone targets women, also the organization
In this paper I will talk about some information that I have obtained from reading Mary Piphers, Reviving Ophelia, Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls and give my view on some of her main points and arguments. I also will discuss why I feel Mary Pipher’s views on the toxic influence of media are accurate, and that it does affect adolescent girls. This paper will also point out the importance of Mary Pipher’s studies on the problems that today’s female teens are facing and why I feel they are important and cannot be ignored.
Gender is not about the biological differences between men and women but rather the behavioral, cultural and psychological traits typically associated with one sex. Gender is socially constructed meaning it 's culturally specific, it 's learned and shared through gender socialization. What it means to be a woman or man is going to differ based on the culture, geographical location, and time. What it meant to be a woman in the US in the 19th century is different than what it means to be a woman in the 21st century. As cultures evolve over time so are the ideals of what it means to be man or woman.
Edgar Allan Poe’s 1849 poem, “Annabel Lee”, explores the common themes of romance and death found in many of Poe’s works. The poem tells the story of a beautiful young maiden named Annabel Lee who resides by the sea. The maiden and the narrator of the poem are deeply in love, however the maiden falls ill and dies, leaving the narrator without his beloved Annabel Lee. Contrary to what many might expect from a poem by Poe and yet still depressing, the poem ends with the narrator accepting Annabel’s death and remains confident that they will forever be together despite her parting.
In order to grasp the concept of social construction of gender, it is essential to understand the difference between sex and gender. Biologically, there are only two reproductive genital organs that are determinants of sex: the vagina and the penis. Sex is established solely through biological structures; in other words, genitalia are the basis of sex. Once a sex category is determined, gender, a human categorization socially attached to sex, is assigned based on anatomy. Gender typically references social or cultural differen...
According to Joan Scott, “sex” and “gender” have two separate meanings. Scott’s definition of gender is “a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences…and is a primary way of signifying relationships of power.” A person’s gender varies based on their cultural, social, traditional and religious backgrounds. Many historians are riveted by the term “gender” and are vying to research it in depth to determine its actual meaning. In addition, each person will express
Society has planted a representation into people’s minds on how each gender is supposed to be constructed. When one thinks of the word gender, the initial responses are male and female but gender may be represented in many additional terms. As defined, “Gender refers to the social expectations that surround these biological categories.” (Steckley, 2017, pg.256) Gender is something that is ascribed,
Sex and gender are terms that are mixed up from day to day and seen as similarities rather than differences. Sex is what distinguishes people from being either male or female. It is the natural or biological variations between males and females (Browne, 1998). Some of these variations are genitals, body hair and internal and external organs. It is the make-up of chromosomes, men have one X and one Y chromosome and women have two X chromosomes, these are responsible for primary characteristics (Fulcher and Scott, 2003). Gender on the other hand refers to the sociological differences between male and female. This is teaching males and females to behave in various ways due to socialisation (Browne, 1998). Example: masculinity and femininity. Girls are supposed to show their femininity by being non-competitive, sensitive, dependent, attractive and placid. If and when some girls don’t succeed in keeping this image they will be referred to as a tomboy. On the other hand, boys show their masculinity through aggression, physical strength...
Different sociologists have given different definitions for gender. However, in its simplest term, gender refers to the socially expected roles and relation between men and women. For example, boys are expected to be the strong ones, aggressive and competitive and girls are to be sweet, caring, and gentle and handled with care. These characteristics, amongst others, are what the society actually expects from individuals based on their sex, but it does not mean that it is imperative for a girl to be feminine or a boy to be masculine which implies that gender is independent of sex. Robert Stoller, an American psychoanalyst, is the first person to have made this observation. While gender is closely linked to sex, they do not have the same meaning. Stoller differentiated between sex and gender by stating that the physical characteristics of a being makes him either a male or a female contrary to gender which makes an individual either masculine or feminine. In other words, it means that sex is what we are born with; either a male or a female and is difficult to change, whereas gender is the character given to us by the society.