Gender

This essay made me wonder how we relate masculinity to men, and how much of it we look for in them. From my own personal experience, I know that a very masculine man is not usually attractive to a girl when she is looking for a relationship. I think the author of this piece was very clear in defining masculinity, but was pushed the label of masculine too harshly onto the male gender. The author is a transexual, and it seems as though he has a negative feeling toward these roles. He uses words like discriminate to give gender roles a negative connotation.

It is fascinating how he thinks that understanding your gender role is a prerequisite for becoming a full member of society. I would agree with that. I enjoyed reading about the different ages and how you understand gender differently at certain stages while you are a child. Since most researches see these gender roles as being binary and permanent, it would be interesting to see society if this was not the case.

The author describes gender roles as an important part of developing a concept of themselves as individuals. He goes on to explain that the tension created by the personal I and the social me is the creature known as the self. Gender plays a huge role in identifying these two part, whether you fit your gender mold or not.3 I realized that gender is something that we don’t generally think of when we are trying to define ourselves because it is such a given we just pass right over it. Gender is a huge part of our identity, even if our brains are wiped out we still have our gender.

My favorite part of the essay was learning about the different attributes of masculinity and femininity. Although I do not agree that these attributes are always true, I would agree that they are part of our primal instincts. The author describes masculinity as being characterized by dominance and aggression, and femininity as being passive and submissive. It seems insulting to be placed into that catagorie because of my gender, but the author did not say how feminine women generally are. I feel like people are watered down versions of these concentrated ideas. Although it bothers me to read some of the parts about women, I think about it and realize that they are general truths. For example when he write about “the social position of females is biologically mandated to be intertwined with the care of children and a natural dependency on men for the maintenance of mother child-units”. I don’t like how he is saying that women have a natural dependency on men, however his evidence, and my experience with it proves it to be true.