Social Construction Of Gender Essay

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Recommended: Gender and its social construction

The videos that were displayed in class accurately depicts how our understanding of the social construction of gender is changing. Within the patriarchal system, males and females are constantly enforced to act as their intended roles. They have a strict set of rules and guidelines that they have to follow, or else, they will be punished for it. In other words, if they don’t perform as the gender that they are supposed to be, then they will face heavy criticism from those who “enforce” gender norms. Gender norms are the expectations of what your gender entails, meaning that there is certain way you are supposed to go about with your gender. For instance, if you are a girl, you are expected to act and behave like a girl. Playing with dolls, cleaning, being nice, or wearing the color pink are some of the things that are associated with …show more content…

If girls are not doing these things, then they are looked down upon, and are criticized for not performing their role correctly. The same goes for a male as well. If they aren’t correctly displaying their masculinity, then they are punished by the patriarchal system, even though females are punished more than males when it comes to gender. This is the basis of what gender socialization is. We are taught to act like our perspective gender, whether it’s by parents or friends. These activities that males and females must conform to are what are deemed to be socially acceptable. When I think of gender norms, I think of activities that we do that define us as male or female. For example, I used to play with dolls when I was younger, and I also used to play video games. Video games are considered to be male activity. Playing with dolls is considered feminine, and video games are considered masculine. But my parents never “punished” me for playing video games, even though it is a masculine activity. So I feel as though it has a lot to do with how you are brought up, which is why parents are a huge factor in

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