Matt
1.What is the difference between biological sex and gender? Biological sex is the make up of chromosomes and various sex characteristics and gender is defined as the way cultures define and society reinforce masculinity and feminine (Ardel Haefele, 2019). Society classifies males as masculine and females as feminine. According World Health Organization (WHO), gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women and sex refers to biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. (Admin, 2014)
2.What are some of the “single stories” (Aidichie, 2009) that people in the US have about men and women? In other words, what are the stereotypical gender roles in the US? Lia Thomas, formerly Will Thomas, broke the 200 and 500 meter free style swim (Kearns, 2021). This led to speculation or “single story” that in order for Lia to win, she would have to compete against woman vs. men. This single story only portrays ones thoughts and not the actual thoughts and motivation that Lia may have. This is similar to the story of “A Legend Burned at the Stake” where Jeanne D’arc, known as Joan of Arc was captured by English sympathizers, returned to England, only to be executed to refuse wearing woman’s attire(Murray, n.d.),these example provide that individuals are not able to express themselves freely.
3.How did you learn how to be the gender that you are? Provide at least 3 examples. (1) Culture – Back in the 70’s boys were boys and girls were girls. Even though, at times woman dressed in men’s clothes and the slang term for this was “Tom Boys”, they were still considered woman. (2) Social interaction – it was assumed (3) Family – Growing up with siblings (1) brother and (1) sister , I mirrored my brothers interactions vs. sister. Until recent, I never heard of many of these terms described today. Growing up. I’m guessing the way society was, sex and gender usually portrayed or referred together as male / female.
- How do people in the US treat people who don’t “fit in” to gender roles? How might this relate to the treatment of transgender, non-binary, genderqueer, and other individuals? Unfortunately some people don’t like or approve of social change or simply don’t understand it, many grow up with certain values that were instilled into them growing up as there social status. For these reasons, treatments such as bias towards individuals or simply hate could be a treatment. The US was built on the fundamental of fair and equal towards all citizens regardless of diversity, although social trends doesn’t
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