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Laura Perez Cortez


Professor Beadle
English 115
8 December 2016
We Are a Creation of Society
Everyone has at least heard once be yourself from someone else in their life. They say
this will make us happy and our lives will most likely be more successful. For some people to be
yourself means to do what they want, ignoring what others think. Everyone has their own
definition of be yourself. This same belief should be applied when it comes to choosing ones
gender. Gender is the concept of being masculine or feminine, and it applies to everyone. In the
articles by Judith Lorber, Aaron Devor, and Ruth Hubbard in Composing Gender we see that
society influences people when it comes to demonstrating their gender. They wrote about this
idea because society considers many demeanors as natural but this isn't necessarily true. For
example, I am a girl but my favorite color is not pink. Gender is taught by parents starting at a
young age, and is constructed with stereotypes created by society.
Society considers that every human being is born with their gender. They think that
gender identity should be in yourself, because for them everyone is born with it. The search for
gender identity starts at a young age, By the age of two, children usually understand that they
are members of their gender (Devor 35). By this age, kids come closer to people they
understand are part of their gender group. When kids become closer with people of their group,
they learn body postures and demeanor. For society People appear feminine when they keep
their arms closer to their bodies, their legs closer together, and their torsos and heads less vertical

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than do masculine-looking individuals (Devor 41). This stereotypes of how feminine and
masculine people act cause kids to imitate them. It's with the help of these stereotypes about how
genders act different that society establishes that men have high status, are aggressive, violent,
tough, and dominant; on the other hand, women represent no threat, are subordinate, smile more,
and use polite language as Devor explained. Society expects kids to fit these these stereotypes,
but for some people, starting at a young age, to be born a boy or a girl does not mean they will
act masculine or feminine.
Parents play a key role in the gender of their children. Parents start to gender their kids
even before they are born. This starts when they start to buy clothes, and decorating the room of
the baby they are expecting. Clothes are used as cue by parents, to prevent confusion from other
people. When I was a little girl my parents dressed me very girly. They dressed me with dresses,
that were usually pink. As a newborn I did not have the knowledge that this was caused by the
importance society give to differentiate me from boys and to avoid confusion from strangers as
Lorber explained in her article. As I grew up, my toys were mostly dolls, but I remember that I
loved to play with the toys that were for my brother and that my favorite color was blue. I
usually preferred to play soccer than to play with the dolls. My mother did not like this, because
as everybody else thought, soccer was just meant to be played by boys. I also noticed how the
relationship I had with my mom was different than the one she had with my brother. My brother
had more freedom, he could go anywhere he wanted. On the other hand, I had to be where my
mom was, because I was a girl and I was supposed to be where other women were. We often
become what we learned from those we look up to, who in my case was my mother, who learned
from society as the author's from the articles explain. The author's wanted to point out that this is

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important because if we do not stop this, future generation will continue to do the same because
they will learn from us.
The construction of gender by society is done with stereotypes created by them. Society
considers that is important to gender others, to do this they look for signs to determine the gender
of others around them. Unless someone does something out of the norm, society notices the
different stereotypes placed on men and women. Lorber gave this example Everyone was doing
gender the men who were changing the role of fathers and the other passengers, who were
applauding them silently (19). Others were applauding silently because men do not usually
take care of kids. It should not be like this because both parents have responsibilities with the
child. Stereotypes by our society say that women should be the ones taking care of kids, and men
should work and provide for the families. Now, this gender roles are changing but not
completely. Men are still place above women, and we see this when men and women do the
same job but often the tasks are given different job titles such as executive secretary and
administrative assistant (Lorber 26). When we compare secretary with assistance, obviously
assistant has a higher position. This shows how men have higher positions in our society. This
stereotype is also noticeable when society calls work anything men do, but much of what
women do has been interpreted as a natural manifestation of our biology (Hubbard 50). It's this
belief that underestimates women, who after working outside home, come home to clean and
cook for their family. Women are not predisposed to do all of this, they were not born with this
responsibility. It's society who has determined that any work women do at home should not be
consider work as itself. These stereotypes are what future generations learn.

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Next time we hear someone tell us be yourself we should start by ignoring what society
has taught us. We are not alone when we practiced what others have established as good or bad
for us, or how we should act. To act masculine or feminine, to dress as one or other should be
personal. We are not born to satisfy what society expects from us. Gender is a personal decision.
After this decision is made, one will truly be happy. Just imagine a world free of gender norms
and stereotypes. Our world would improve, because we would have equality. Equality is what
we need because this would open new doors for a better future. Equality would allow us to work
together as humans, and not separate us as men and women.

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Works Cited
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meaning Of Gender. Composing
Gender, edited by Rachel Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford Spotlight Reader, 2014,
pp. 35-43.
Hubbard, Ruth. Rethinking Womens Biology. Composing Gender, edited by Rachel Groner
and John F. OHara, Bedford Spotlight Reader, 2014, pp.46-52.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender,
edited by Rachel Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford Spotlight Reader, 2014, pp.19-30.

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