Preceived Genders
Uploaded by hwolfpack on Nov 17, 2015
Gender roles are learned mainly through social interaction rather than your biological interaction with others. When people are born, you endowed with very little concept of gender and what it actually means. You learn correct behavior through social interactions and through relationships with your families and other peers around you. Gender identity is constructed through the communication experienced through the media, parents, peers at school, at work, and even at home. There is a difference in how children are raised in a society, which ends up reflecting on how they act, as they grow older. Society changes the attitudes and views on life of people, much more than their biological make-up will ever do.
At a young age, children are also influenced to act in specific ways by their peers. A child can be made fun of when doing things considered not typical of their gender. For example, peers can tease a boy if he likes to play in the kitchen or play with dolls. Society influences children only to play with certain toys that are meant for their gender. Advertisements on TV show specific toys for each gender and show only girls or boys playing with them. Typically, girls are less athletically inclined than boys, because of their genetic make-up. Because of this, parents often do not treat girls and boys in the same way when it comes to sports. Boys are taught to be more aggressive because it is expected that boys should be more athletic than girls. Girls also are encouraged to express their feelings and to cry openly. Boys are influenced to never cry or complain, but to “tough it out,” or “be a man.” Because of this societal influence, girls and boys act the way they do into adulthood, especially in the work force, where adults are expected to act in prescribed ways. Men are still very dominant in high position jobs, because the social prescription indicates that men can handle tough jobs better than women can. These value differences are reflected in gender roles established by different cultures. When people begin to date, specific behaviors are expected by each gender because of social influence, custom and usage. Men often used to be expected to pay for the date, drive on the date, ask the girl out, and a number of other outdated manners. Women too are...