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English 102
July 4, 2014.
What is Gender?
Gender is a notion in our mind that is socially constructed of what it means to be a female
or a male. Various cultures define gender in their various ways. We start to identify ourselves in a
society with the establishment of gender identity. Our society and culture create gender roles and
expect us to behave in ideal and appropriate way in order to be counted in a specific gender.
Gender roles also deal with the difference in the behavioral pattern between male and female. We
do not learn to identify gender at the time of our birth, but we develop it as we go on in our lives.
Culture acts an architect to build gender. When we are young, we identify gender by referencing
to what clothes people are wearing, their hairstyle, body gestures and physique. As we grow
young we are at a stage where we identify gender by biological changes in male and female.
While considering gender, one should be aware that it is a combination of society, culture and
biological phenomenon.
Holly Devor, the author of the article “Becoming Members of society: Learning the
Social Meanings of Gender” talks about the most transparent aspect of social categories- Gender.
She says that, “The clusters of social definitions used to identify persons by gender are
collectively known as femininity and masculinity (417). People generally use the concept of
femininity and masculinity to communicate with their chosen group of sex or gender. Femininity
is usually characterized by passivity and submission. They are calm, patient, light-hearted, soft,
and gracious. On the other hand, Masculinity is more of a dominant term. Whenever Devor
mentioned masculinity in her article, I thought of terms like dominant, less emotional, superior,
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and arrogant. Masculine is referred to those men who maintain their postures, speech patterns,
dressing style, dominance, arrogance and toughness.
She introduces a concept called “patriarchal gender schema.” What she means by this
concept is, that it leads us to believe that the way male and female behave results to a concept
called patriarchal gender schema. It means that men are considered to be superior to women in
all aspects. She explains by giving an example of females who want to have children, but they
are helpless and need to be dependent on men. Thus, men gets higher position and consider
themselves as superiors. It is true that women are not physically as strong as men, but it also true
that they are not behind in any field than men.
She further tells us about how women are the victims of this gender difference. Where
Devor talks about the physicality of men and women, Kilbourne in the article, “two ways a
