Throughout this Psychology of Gender course we have discussed many aspects that go into understanding gender identity and how these components play a major role in an individual’s life. Recent advancements in psychology have shown that there is a difference between biological sex, gender and gender identity and that understanding gender is a lot more complex then it seems. The media has also played a significant role in shifting attention towards a greater visibility of gender expression, with coverage of celebrity’s such as Rupaul, Laverne Cox and Caitlin Jenner who do not fit traditional ideas of gender. By understanding how biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and sexual attraction correlate with one’s …show more content…
This group of people have been disregarded partly because of their lack of visibility in society compared to cisgender people and because of our unwillingness to let go of traditional societal norms in regards to gender. The term genderqueer came into popular use through the late 1990s and early 2000s in the United States. The term had its development in the mid-1990s and only implemented earlier concepts of non-binary identity and expression such as androgyny. Sandy Stone’s The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto (1987), Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble (1990), Leslie Feinberg Transgender Liberation: A Movement Whose Time Has Come (1992) and Kate Bornstein Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us (1994) are some transgender and feminist writings that challenged and expanded upon the concept of gender and helped to lay the foundation for the development of a genderqueer community. By the mid-1990s, a more articulated non-binary community began to emerge with a name: genderqueer. Riki Anne Wilchins, activist and founder of GenderPAC (Gender Public Advocacy Coalition), frequently used the term genderqueer, and had been associated with it, due to her editorship of the anthology GenderQueer: Voices Beyond the Sexual Binary …show more content…
Meaning that it should be taken into consideration how race and age shape gender identity and expression. Genderqueer individuals also faced distinct patterns of gender identity based discrimination and violence. In some circumstances, genderqueer individuals experienced higher rates of police harassment and physical assault compared to their transgender counterparts. Genderqueer participants also reported being harassed in elementary and high school settings at a frightening 83% rate and 16% reported being sexually assaulted at
The definition of gender has become way more revolutionary and expressive compared to the twentieth century. Gender used to be similar to sex where someone would be identified as a male or female based on their biological genitals however, this day in age it is way more complex. Someone can be born a male but mentally they feel like a male. In “Sisterhood is complicated” Ruth Padawer explains the journey of different transgender males and the obstacles they face while attending Wellesley college. Wellesley is a women’s college that has been around for a very long time and is in the process of the battling the conflict of whether they should admit transgender students. Ariel Levy author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs” tackles the stereotypes and
The film “Think like a Man” directed by Tim Story, centres around four best friends whose lives are shaken up when the women they are pursuing buy the book “Act like a Lady, Think like a Man”, written by Steve Harvey, and start taking his advice to heart. When the men find out about the book, they conspire to use its information in order to turn the tables against the women (Rotten Tomatoes , 2012). While watching this film, I noticed that it continuously emphasised gender inequality, in relationships and in an economic sense, as a discourse of human nature. Throughout the film, the viewer is exposed to scenes where, for a woman, stating that you have a successful career and earn six figures is a turn off as opposed to the fact that if it were a man, it would be considered a good thing. Other scenes are of how men and women differ in how they perceive relationships to be. For example, when the main female character believes she is starting a relationship with a man, the man actually sees it as a one night stand. In this essay, it is important to understand that human nature is a set of assumptions about motives, in an emotional and mental capacity, and psychic mechanisms which are considered as universal traits and characteristics possessed by all individuals living in human societies, whether they are civilized or primitive, modern or ancient (Wrong, 1963). In other words, by human nature, I refer to traits and characteristics expressed by individuals which are purely natural to humanity in any given context (Turnbull, 1973). How this became human nature, gender inequality, can be explained through examining how gender differences and stereotyping was formed, through biological phenomenon, as well as external, cultural, factors. ...
With the release of JJ Abrams’ Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens in late 2016 recording a staggering domestic gross of over $936 million (Box Office Mojo 2016), the Star Wars series continues to be one of the biggest pop culture icons of the 21st century. However, for a film targeted towards all ages and demographics, with women making up 52% of all movie goers in North America (Motion Picture Association of America **), there is a startling lack of female representation within the series. Furthermore, with the growing prevalence of media in our daily lives combined with media’s role in the development of beliefs and ideas in its viewers, the messages delivered by mass media texts are partly responsible for the for the
The movie Rebel Without a Cause represents both gender theory and queer theory. Gender theory is how you present yourself, how do you move, small behaviors is more of a performance. The production code was in forced and forbade any mention of homosexuality. They were able to insert restrained references to Plato's homosexuality and attraction to Jim, by including the pinup photo of Alan Ladd on Plato's locker door, and Plato's adoring looks at Jim. Rebel Without a Cause is the story of a troubled new kid in town (Jim) caught in an escalating spiral of violence.
In this article, Shaw and Lee describe how the action of labels on being “feminine” or “masculine” affect society. Shaw and Lee describe how gender is, “the social organization of sexual difference” (124). In biology gender is what sex a person is and in culture gender is how a person should act and portray themselves. They mention how gender is what we were taught to do in our daily lives from a young age so that it can become natural(Shaw, Lee 126). They speak on the process of gender socialization that teaches us how to act and think in accordance to what sex a person is. Shaw and Lee state that many people identify themselves as being transgendered, which involves a person, “resisting the social construction of gender into two distinct, categories, masculinity and femininity and working to break down these constraining and polarized categories” ( 129). They write about how in mainstream America masculinity and femininity are described with the masculine trait being the more dominant of the two. They define how this contributes to putting a higher value of one gender over the other gender called gender ranking (Shaw, Lee 137). They also speak about how in order for femininity to be viewed that other systems of inequality also need to be looked at first(Shaw,Lee 139).
Gender refers to psychological and emotional characteristics that cause people to assume, masculine, feminine or androgynous (having a combination of both feminine and masculine traits) roles. Your gender is learned and socially reinforced by others, as well as by your life experiences and g...
American Filmmaker, Robert Evans states that “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.” This stands true when looking at Cold War propaganda posters. The Cold War was a large-scale political battle, between two powerhouses, America and the Soviet Union, going head to head, each nation holding opposing values. Americans want freedom, democracy, and individual liberties for everyone, everywhere. Yet the Soviets were intent on spreading communism worldwide, largely for ideological reasons.
For many individuals, sexual and gender identity is a highly controversial topic to discuss. Those who have inconsistency with their internal or mental sense of gender compared to their physical gender is now described as a psychological disorder and is found amongst adults and adolescents. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders gender dysphoria also known as gender identity disorder refers to the stresses that accompany with the variances between one’s physical gender they were assigned at birth and one’s expressed or emotional gender (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Gender dysphoria can be contributed to many different stressors determined by ones social interactions. Throughout the years the diagnosis of gender dysphoria has evolved due to the progression of medicine and new treatment discoveries to help limit further mental issues that come with sexual identity disorders.
Gender identity has been a delicate issue when it comes to determining if a person's gender is set at birth or develops and changes as a person ages. A person’s gender is not as simple as being classified as either male or female. There’s a considerable amount of external factors that can influence someone's identity. Although society has a major role in gender identity, sex assignment at birth is not final; furthermore, a person's gender can be influenced by psychological, physiological differences and undergoing changes to the human body.
As a child grows and conforms to the world around them they go through various stages, one of the most important and detrimental stages in childhood development is gender identity. The development of the meaning of a child’s sex and gender can form the whole future of that child’s identity as a person. This decision whether accidental or genetic can effect that child’s life style views and social interactions for the rest of their lives. Ranging from making friends in school all the way to intimate relationships later on in life, gender identity can become an important aspect to ones future endeavors.
There are many different diagnosed disorders known to society, each disorder, with the many symptoms and side effects, serious in its own effect. Many disorders have symptoms that impact numerous areas of a person’s life and cause distress for the one suffering from these symptoms. All disorders are something that people are naturally born with and must learn to manage during life. Among these disorders is Gender Identity Disorder. Gender is a term used in discussing the different roles, identities, and expectations that our society associates with males and females. Gender identity shapes how we think and influences our behaviors. Most people identify their gender with the biological sex determined by genitalia; however, some experience discrepancy between biological sex and the feeling of being born as the wrong gender. According to American Accreditation Health Care Commission, gender identity disorder is a conflict between a person's physical gender and the gender he or she identifies with (Health Central). In “Gender Identity Disorder : A Misunderstood, Diagnosis” Kristopher J. Cook says, “Gender identity disorder denotes a strong and persistent desire to be of the other sex (or the insistence that one is of the other sex), together with persistent discomfort about one’s own sex or a sense of inappropriateness in the role assigned to one’s own sex.” (DOCUMENT) As with any disorder, there are many hardships for those that are struggling with Gender Identity Disorder, also known as GID. Many who have this disorder often find themselves battling depression due to insecurities with who they are and the unacceptance from society. This depression will often lead to suicide attempts and some, unfortunately, succeed. A Truth ma...
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,
From the youngest age I can remember, everything I had seen in the media, altered my perception on gender - what it was, what it meant, and what society saw as fit. Gender has often been confused with having to do with biology, when in fact, gender is a social construct. In today’s society, gender has mixed up the construction of masculinity and femininity. This plays an important role in many individuals lives because they define themselves through gender over other identities such as sexual, ethnic, or social class. Identity is shaped by everyday communications, such as what we see through the media, therefore as society continues to evolve, so does the way we perceive identities and select our own.
Identities are an important part of the human experience. One of the many identities that creates a person is gender. Society, being the entity establishing social norms and social roles, plays a part in effecting the individual’s gender, and how they choose to express themself. The underlying or overlying identities also have the same effect. Gender is not only an identity, it is a lifestyle inside and out. Gender, like race, class, and sexuality; is not limited to the binary scale, and that is normal, natural, and human. The concept of gender is man-made, but it forces one’s hand to analyze the thought processes behind an individual's perception on gender through self, through society, or through the dichotomy and/or correspondence of the
In order to discuss the biology of gender identity and sexual orientation, it is necessary to first examine the differences between multiple definitions that are often mistakenly interchanged: sex, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. Sexual orientation is defined by LeVay (2011) as “the trait that predisposes us to experience sexual attraction to people of the same sex as ourselves, to persons of the other sex, or to both sexes” (p. 1). The typical categories of sexual orientation are homosexual, heterosexual and bisexual. Vrangalova and Savin-Williams (2012) found that most people identify as heterosexual, but there are also groups of people that identify as mostly heterosexual and mostly gay within the three traditional categories (p. 89). This is to say that there are not three concrete groups, but sexual orientation is a continuum and one can even fluctuate on it over time. LeVay (2011) also defines gender as “the ...