Social Construction Of Gender Analysis

Social Construction of Gender

In the beginning, individuals used the role of women and men in religion to determine how men and women should treat one another and their roles in society. In the late 1800s, scientific advancements began causing individuals to rely more on science to understand the different behaviors between men and women. Since then there has been a significant increase of individuals wanting to know if the differences in the brains of men and women were the reason for behavioral differences throughout the sex. Today there are many different outlooks on what causes the differences in behavior between the sexes. The socialization theory states that an individual’s gender behavior is based on their interactions with the environment

around them. The biological theories of the brain state that individuals behave differently because in utero they are “hardwired” to be a certain way. Both theories intertwine with one another to explain the behavior of male and females. No one theory in this situation overpowers the other. Although genes and hormones do play a role in an individual’s sex, it is not the overruling decision of an individual’s gender.
Often individuals confuse the definitions of the words “sex” and “gender”, which are two completely separate concepts. In her article “Gender and Social Construction: Who? What? When? Where? How?” Sally Haslanger states “If one allows the categories of sex and gender to interact and interchange then some men are women and some females are men because one is a female by virtue of some set of anatomical features and one is woman by virtue of one’s position within a social and economic system” (Haslanger). According to Merriam-Webster dictionary, Gender is defined as “the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones). Sex is defined as either of the two main categories (male and female) into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of the reproductive functions. Therefore gender is determined by an individual’s behavior and what they decide to identify themselves as and a person’s sex is chosen through the amount of X&Y chromosomes they possess. Although genes do play a role when it comes to sex differences it is not the only factor that affects gender and it is impossible to not include interactive explanations when describing sex differences.
The socialization theory is an idea that many feminist today are using to describe the gender and behavioral differences between the sexes. There have been many studies completed by feminist to explain how the socialization theory works and why it makes more sense than the idea that individuals are biologically “hardwired” to behave in a certain manner. One experiment addressed the fact that prior to a child being born they are already gendered and socialized by their environment. For example, today “gender reveal” parties are a big deal, the parents are usually notified of their child’s sex by the reveal of the colors pink or blue. These colors are just the beginning of crafting a child’s gender. This is followed by sex-themed baby showers with the corresponding colors based on the babies sex. This type of socialization happens throughout the individual’s entire life with the type of clothes they wear, toys, their environment, media, books, and more.
Everyday individuals are affected by social construction and are unaware that they are being affected. The type types of jobs that people have, the appliances used in a household, and
people’s ideas are all results of social construction. Author Sally Haslanger in her article breaks down the social construction of gender into two separate categories: The Construction of Ideas and Concepts and The Construction of Objects. In the subsection titled “The Construction of Ideas and Concepts” Haslanger focuses on the concept of “ordinary view”. Haslanger introduces this idea by stating “It would seem to be a matter of common sense that concepts are taught to us by our parents through our language; different cultures have different concepts: and concepts evolve over time as a result of historical changes, science, technological advances, etc.” Here the author is describing that ideas and concepts are social constructions that are passed down to us by our parents and through our culture. History is something that repeats itself, therefore, these ideas are something that has been passed down through generations. Science and technology are advancing every day, but only with the help of products that have come before what is being created.
Haslanger concludes this section by making her audience consider the social constructions of mental disorder, specifically ones that affect Women. She pulls from an article written by Andrea Westlund in 1999, that further examined how “[b]attered women’s “abnormalities” have been described and redescribed within the psychiatric literature of the twentieth century, characterized as everything from hysteria to masochistic or self-defeating personality disorder (SDPD) to codependency” (Westlund 1999). This section was especially interesting because when one hears those disorders it is easy to instantly consider women. Not often to people associate men with a mental disorder such as the ones Westlund listed. Disorders have become more of a social construct because there is minimal evidence to back up the existence of the disorder that is usually being stated. When judging whether or not something is socially constructed one should always consider: Is the situation only benefitting the privilege? Who is being targeted in this situation? Is the source legitimate?
Next, Haslanger breaks down The Construction of Objects.

In this subsection, the reader must reconsider what they believe as objects. The author wants us to think as objects as “anything that is not an idea”. Similar to the first section the term to remember in this section is “discursive construction”. Haslanger describes discursive construction as different ways of classifying and describing objects for specific intentions and the results of these classifications. An example would be how individuals categorize and treat other people based on their physical characteristics. The way that people are treated can push them in a specific direction in regards to their gender. The way that society interacts with one another influences the way that children grow up and how they will become members of a society. When an individual grows up seeing certain genders complying with certain gender roles they will believe that is how things are supposed to work and continue that tradition and pass it down to their own children. A race is also something that is a part of social construction according to Haslanger. A race constructionist would argue that an individual is categorized to a certain race based off more than their physical appearance, but also their level of social class and social relations. This goes to show that social construction effects more than just gender, but more of who you are overall as a human

being.
In conclusion of this subjection, Haslanger argues that is social conditions altered for the better that there would be no separate categories of men or women and races.

She ends this section by using biconditional statements to describe what a makes a man a man and what makes a woman a woman. For example, S is a woman if and only if “i. S is regularly and for the most part, observed or imagined to have certain bodily features presumed to be evidence of a female’s biological role in reproduction. S is a man if and only if S is regularly and for the most part observed or imagined to have certain bodily feature presumed to be evidence of a male’s biological role in reproduction” (Haslanger). These statements are not to be used as the concrete definition to what defines a male and a female, but more so as an outlook on the construction of gender.

Personally, I agree with every statement in this article because I am a product of being socially constructed. The way that I chose to carry myself is something that I was taught by being raised by my parents and having only eight brothers to use as an example of who I should be. As I grew older I was constructed into thinking that I must enhance my physical features and take a less argumentative mindset to be considered feminine or even female. After realizing that my life had been socially constructed I began to break out of that and create my own views and

ideas.
To conclude, Haslanger’s article covers how social construction effects our ideas, concepts, and view on objects. Social constructions effect on a societies ideas and concept is common sense when considering that all of our thoughts are a result of what we as individuals have been taught by the environment around us. Objects as a social construct are more complicated than ideas as to where ideas are common sense Objects requires a person to think more logically about how things are classified. In this article, Haslanger has given valid points to prove that biological makeup is not the cause of gender. Biological makeup assigns a person their sex but does not play a role in their gender selection.