Gender Identity
Gender identity is a social and cultural identity in which notions masculinity and femininity. You can also say it is an identity in which what is means to be a man or a woman. It goes beyond biological sex or sexual identity. Culture and our society greatly influence our gender identity. From the time we are born we adopt a gender identity. Biologically, you may be a male or female, but with gender identity you are considered either a boy or a girl. Along with this, baby gifts may be blue to signify it's a boy and pink signifying it's a girl. As we get older our gender identity may become more prevalent. Culture and society may project that some activities are more masculine or more feminine. Some examples are hunting, watching football, and riding a motorcycle (which would be more masculine) and sewing, cooking, and watching soap operas (which would be more feminine). Masculinity and femininity change continuously and my be different between different cultures. For example there is a trend in the U.S. for woman to have very full lips but in Japan this is not considered attractive. Not all women have naturally full lips either, but we have the option to get fuller lips by injections or surgery. Thus, gender identity also gives us a sense of who we want to be and not only who we think we are. Culture and society gives us many images and definitions of what masculinity and femininity is supposed to be or what it is supposed to look like. Although we all don't seek to be the same, we do communicate our gender identity as part of who we are.
I am going to use myself as an example for this identity. I would identify myself with femininity mostly because I am a girl. When I was born, my mother smothered me in pink. As I grew older, I started to sew which would be considered more feminine. I did other activities associating myself with femininity like cooking, piercing my ears, and playing with girl dollies because they were more like me. I also avoided specific activities because I thought they were more for boys. I never played football, never went hunting, and never rode a skateboard because they were more masculine. I also have seen how society can affect and change gender identity. As I grew older, I played football a few times without changing my mind about my gender identity. I started to see boys with their ears pierced and it was socially acceptable. There are many examples throughout my life in which associate to gender identity and I could go on and on about them, but those are a few to give you an idea of how gender identity have been in my life.
The concept of gender identity has made me think of how it's influenced my life in the past and how it applies to my life now. It also made me think of how gender identity has changed and stayed the same throughout generations and decades. I also realize that gender identities have been affected and still will be affected by culture and society in the future. This concept has changed my mind in which we are more than just a biological sex. We are more than just male or female and gender identity affects us in more ways than I had assumed.
I like how you used an example from our own life. It helps me relate more to you also I do because I am a girl too. I like the part where you talk about influenced in your past, so true.
ReplyDeleteI guess everything is social constructed. Girls would always be associated with pink while boys with blue. Until today, the color of my door back in my hometown is still in pink while my brothers' room is in blue. However, because I have strong boyish side of me when I was little, I grew up with more blue stuffs compared to my feminine sister. This gender identity really forcing someone to become what socially accepted than what a person want to be. Just like you said, you don;t play football because it is more for boys, but what if the girl is as strong as boy to play football?
ReplyDeleteGender identity is something that is important to our society. We've come a long ways to gain gender equality among men and women. I like how you describe the things that a typical boy would do and enjoy and the things that a typical girl would do and enjoy. Those comparisons are still in effect to this day, it all starts out when a new mother to be picks out the color for her baby's room. From that point on, it depicts the the way that baby will be associated with its own gender.
ReplyDeleteI do think gender identity is influenced by culture and the social environment. Because we were influenced by the external environment, our value and how we treat ourselves can be highly related. People usually thnk pink is for girl and blue is for boy. They also think police officer is belonging to man and nurse is belogning to woman. But the fact is we do find more and more men and women doing their jobs whether they are belong to the traditional jobs or not. That's the social's development and I do support this change.
ReplyDeleteI like how you used yourself as an example. I too have had similar experiences, but from a male perspective. One of my closest friends as a young boy was a girl that lived down the street from me. However, we never participated in any masculine or feminine dominated activities.
ReplyDeleteThe comparisons that you made on the differences between a boy and a girl was a big point in your post I think. It allows one to sit back and realize that these specific activities identify who you are in terms of how you should be perceived as in gender. I also like your personal example starting from how your mom identified your gender and helped you understand it by 'smothering you in pink'. I can relate to your experience because as a kid I always avoided the more "feminine" activities such as sewing, playing with dolls, etc.
ReplyDeleteI too appreciate that you used yourself as an example. Maybe you could explore gender identity in terms of your cultural reporter project?
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