Akena Duerod Duerod 1

Mr. Beadle

English 114A

15 February 2017

Progression I Essay

Different cultures have a different perspective of what goes under the categories

male and female. Society places males and females into certain categories. Therefore

,majority of the male population think that women are supposed to stay home and tend to

the house chores and do womanly duties and men go to work and make all of the money

for his family and are basically the money makers of the house. Today in society people

are expected to identify as male or female, and nothing else because the definition of

gender is the social or cultural state of being male or female and it really does not expand

past that, but an individual can identify as no gender or so forth. In Night to His Day

by Judith Lorber, she basically explains two very important points about gender, it starts

with how children find their gender identity, then how some parents dress their child as

their assigned gender without giving the child time to find themselves and basic gender

roles and how there are different norms for different religions and cultures. Aaron

Devors article Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender also

shares the same views on gender as the previous article by Judith Lorber, they both talk

about flexibility in gender roles. A persons gender is not based on what they come out as

gender is everywhere, gender does not have to be conformed to ones beliefs. Gender is

not taught people are what they choose to be, society makes people want to hide their true

self because of judgmental thoughts that come from individuals, and society makes kids

scared to change .
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Gender is based on what people feel inside and what best pertains to them as a child and

what they want to be as an adult. Some parents around six months of pregnancy know

what gender their child is going to be. The parents also know the name of their child and

they know what colors are associated with their gendered child, for example girls go

with pink and boys with blue. From the start parents dress their child to certain gender

beliefs For human beings there is no essential femaleness or maleness, femininity or

masculinity, womanhood or manhood, but once gender is ascribed, the social order

constructs and holds individuals to strongly gendered norms and expectations. (Judith

Lober, 25). Once a person is labeled as male or female society holds them to that gender

unless they drastically changed. If a person tries to become the opposite gender or

something that doesnt uphold to the gender norms they are seen as different to people

who dont know or dont understand. Children and adults shouldnt have to fight to be

what they want to be because society doesnt except it or because it isnt normal.

Some people dont feel comfortable with the gender that they were assigned with at

birth and as a result they might change their gender or they might become transgender,

which is a transition from one gender to another. In some cases society doesnt except the

concept of a male becoming a female or vice versa People believed to be unable to

change genders without sex change surgery, and those who do change se are considered

to be both disturbed and exceedingly rare(Aaron Devor, 36). In todays society a male is

a male and a female is female and there is nothing in between because it wasnt the way

they were born. When a female or a male gets gender reassignment surgery thats when a

female can become a male and a male can become a female in everyones eyes . People

still call males, him and he when in reality the person wants to be addressed as her
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and she and so forth. Society has its own way of putting things into perspective when it

comes to individuals that want to stray away from the rules that society has, if it does not

make sense then society will not except new ideas or new things that come into play.

Devor shines light on the topic that the individuals that do not get a sex change are

viewed differently, than the individuals that do get the sex change. People shouldnt be

afraid of how society views them.

Whether someone wants to be different or not it shouldnt be a problem at the end of

the day because everyones life is different. A child should play with whatever toy they

want to play with without the parents forcing the child to be in a gender category they do

not want to be in. A grown man or women should not be judged on how they dress or

how they present themselves because at the end of the day we are all humans. People

should not be forced to hide who they are or what they want to become because people

cant except change or something different than the norm. Individuals should do what fits

them and what makes them happy and radiant.