Verified Document

Gender As A Role Term Paper

Gender as a Role The first stage of analysis as to whether gender plays a role in society and to what degree it does so begins with the classification and distinguishing of the terms "sex," "sexual category," and finally "gender." One may be in a sex category even if the sexual characteristics are lacking. Gender activities are thus a furthering of and derived from "sexual categories." Therefore, the emphasis is not so much on the chromosomes of the individual but the set of actions that humans involve themselves in during social interactions.

Since society is categorized by physiological differentiation, gender can dictate relationships in the sense that gender speaks to who you are and so in essence results in being an identifier to those who wish to bear responsibility for their actions. Here the authors argue that gender is not an accurate...

Gender is not limited to playing a few fundamental roles. As a result the authors argue that it is erroneous to rely so much on gender.
Because gender is so versatile, it is by definition adaptable and shifts frequently to accommodate new meanings in new situations. Therefore, when gender roles are emphasized too long by too many people as a fundamental guiding system of interpreting or judging another person, we as a society, give in to the simpler solution of not having to think or act in response to ever changing roles. This is what ultimately leads to the subordination of woman to man in a larger sense that gender roles that are used to make decisions, and act in certain predetermined ways preclude inventive social modification that would…

Sources used in this document:
Only reconditioning of our basic assumptions will remedy the failure of "doing genders."

Works Summarily Cited

West and Zimmerman, Do. 1987. "Doing Gender." Gender and Society 1:125-51
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Gender Roles
Words: 2056 Length: 6 Document Type: Essay

Gender Roles In the world today, the most common way in which human beings probably distinguish themselves is by their gender. All human beings, or at least the vast majority, are born as clearly male or female. Perhaps this is also why this distinction has, since ancient times, served as a factor in human relationships and indeed vast-scale human oppression and even slavery. Indeed, to this day many women suffer indignities

Gender Roles
Words: 1079 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Gender Roles Sex is a biological given. Some animal species have one sex, some have two, and some have more than two. This is interesting to scientists perhaps, in terms of its physical construction. However, gender is what culture 'does' with these distinctions of physiology. Gender is how culture interprets the apparent biological differences between particular human bodies of different sexual anatomy. What does it mean, for instance, that a certain

Gender Role Analysis How Gender Is Shaped
Words: 2342 Length: 7 Document Type: Essay

Gender Role Analysis How Gender is Shaped by Education How Gender is Shaped by Public Policy How Gender is Shaped in the Workplace This report discusses the role played by social institutions such as schools, workplaces and policy making institutions in the shaping of gender roles and norms in society. These institutions hold control over desired resources such as information, wealth and social progress. They control the distribution of these resources by making it

Gender Roles in Family TV Shows
Words: 780 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Gender Roles in Everybody Loves Raymond Even with the fact that society as a whole has experienced significant progress during recent years, it seems difficult for the media to stop using stereotypes when relating to particular groups. Philip Rosenthal's television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond is a perfect example concerning gender roles and how the media tends to use them with the purpose of shaping particular characters. In spite of its humor,

Gender Messages Gender Roles Are the Behaviors
Words: 753 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Gender Messages Gender roles are the behaviors and traits and expectations that are linked to women and men through socialization, according to Janice Lee and Amie Ashcraft (2005). In fact gender roles define what it means to be a feminine or masculine person. During one's lifetime there is an enormous amount of social pressure to "conform to these gender roles" (Lee, 2005). This paper examines the gender roles learned from family,

Gender Role Theory & Male
Words: 1548 Length: 4 Document Type: Research Proposal

References Anderson, I. (2007). What is a typical rape? Effects of victim and participant gender in female and male rape perception. The British Psychological Society, 46, 3225-245. Anderson, I. & Lyons, a. (2005). The Effect of Victims Social Support on Attribution of Blame in Female and Male Rape. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35(7), 1400-1417. Davies, M. & McCartney S. (2003). Effects of Gender and Sexuality on Judgments of Victim Blame and Rape

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now