What is Masculine or Feminine Traits?
It is not easy to look at oneself from outside and reflect on one’s traits and patterns of behavior. However, this is an attitude that helps an individual to learn some important things about his or her personality, understand how to communicate with other people in a more effective way, and, probably, consciously improve one’s character. Gender is one of the most important aspects and characteristics of the personality, which influences the individual’s worldview, formation, behavior, first as a child and then as an adult, and in this way shapes and directs the person’s entire life. People live in a world that practices “standardly assigning [a person] to a lifetime as a male or as a female” (Eckert and McConnel 347). The question of what a family, school, community and society do to make gender equality real has multiple answers. The modern world undergoing rapid transformations still has many stereotypes restricting gender roles and making them conform to the outdated concepts and views that have been upheld by previous generations of thousands of years. My personal experience makes me feel that “being a girl or being a boy is not a stable state but an ongoing accomplishment, something that is actively done both by the individual... and by those... in the various communities to which it belongs” (Eckert and McConnel 349). I believe my personality integrates what would have been traditionally defined as feminine and masculine traits in the way that will help me to have a fulfilling life. My first memories of realizing that I am a girl date back to my early years and are happy ones, which had an impact on how I have felt in my gender role ever after. …show more content…
These are the recollections of how I liked a beautiful dress that I was wearing on holidays at the age of four and five. My perception of the color and fabric could have been defined as feminine, and it was a source of child’s delight, just touching the soft stuff and enjoying the rich colors, their combination and matching the color and style of my clothes. Would it have been looked upon as strange if a boy was doing that kind of thing? Probably, yes; however, I believe such “feminine” traits with boys are not a problem; rather, they are the indication of one’s unique individuality and should not be shunned. Other feminine traits, which can be classified as doing “girly things” include my being keen on cooking and dressing up. Cleaning is also the thing that I take easy can do well. These traits have been trained and developed in my family setting, with my mother and grandmother cooking well and all the family members appreciating their work. The thing I believe to be important here is sharing and helping, not just making a woman a cooking and cleaning “agent”. The family experience is the basic thing; it has always helped me to have my own way of maturing, whether it meant accepting the social standards of gender roles or challenging them. I also remember the traits that prompted me to play with boys of my age as their fast games had a special appeal to me. I liked running and climbing trees and I am grateful to my family for not discouraging me by saying that these were not the right things to the girl to do. My “masculine” habits are yet another natural and integral part of me; they help me to be more self-confident and sustain my self-esteem. I am not afraid of changing my car oil myself or moving the furniture, if I can do it. I am convinced that such an attitude does not make me less feminine. I am sure that there are many things in life that can be regarded as “if a man can do it so can I”. This is one of the ways of achieving gender equality, which I see primarily as a less rigorous, more diverse perception of an individual’s character, not restricted by traditional notions of gender. Not only individuals’ but communities’ and society’s standards on gender roles are being reviewed at present, with same-sex marriages and other issues making an approach to gender different and often controversial. Some of the traditional ideas of gender roles are redefined, for example, in
It is not easy to look at oneself from outside and reflect on one’s traits and patterns of behavior. However, this is an attitude that helps an individual to learn some important things about his or her personality, understand how to communicate with other people in a more effective way, and, probably, consciously improve one’s character. Gender is one of the most important aspects and characteristics of the personality, which influences the individual’s worldview, formation, behavior, first as a child and then as an adult, and in this way shapes and directs the person’s entire life. People live in a world that practices “standardly assigning [a person] to a lifetime as a male or as a female” (Eckert and McConnel 347). The question of what a family, school, community and society do to make gender equality real has multiple answers. The modern world undergoing rapid transformations still has many stereotypes restricting gender roles and making them conform to the outdated concepts and views that have been upheld by previous generations of thousands of years. My personal experience makes me feel that “being a girl or being a boy is not a stable state but an ongoing accomplishment, something that is actively done both by the individual... and by those... in the various communities to which it belongs” (Eckert and McConnel 349). I believe my personality integrates what would have been traditionally defined as feminine and masculine traits in the way that will help me to have a fulfilling life. My first memories of realizing that I am a girl date back to my early years and are happy ones, which had an impact on how I have felt in my gender role ever after. …show more content…
These are the recollections of how I liked a beautiful dress that I was wearing on holidays at the age of four and five. My perception of the color and fabric could have been defined as feminine, and it was a source of child’s delight, just touching the soft stuff and enjoying the rich colors, their combination and matching the color and style of my clothes. Would it have been looked upon as strange if a boy was doing that kind of thing? Probably, yes; however, I believe such “feminine” traits with boys are not a problem; rather, they are the indication of one’s unique individuality and should not be shunned. Other feminine traits, which can be classified as doing “girly things” include my being keen on cooking and dressing up. Cleaning is also the thing that I take easy can do well. These traits have been trained and developed in my family setting, with my mother and grandmother cooking well and all the family members appreciating their work. The thing I believe to be important here is sharing and helping, not just making a woman a cooking and cleaning “agent”. The family experience is the basic thing; it has always helped me to have my own way of maturing, whether it meant accepting the social standards of gender roles or challenging them. I also remember the traits that prompted me to play with boys of my age as their fast games had a special appeal to me. I liked running and climbing trees and I am grateful to my family for not discouraging me by saying that these were not the right things to the girl to do. My “masculine” habits are yet another natural and integral part of me; they help me to be more self-confident and sustain my self-esteem. I am not afraid of changing my car oil myself or moving the furniture, if I can do it. I am convinced that such an attitude does not make me less feminine. I am sure that there are many things in life that can be regarded as “if a man can do it so can I”. This is one of the ways of achieving gender equality, which I see primarily as a less rigorous, more diverse perception of an individual’s character, not restricted by traditional notions of gender. Not only individuals’ but communities’ and society’s standards on gender roles are being reviewed at present, with same-sex marriages and other issues making an approach to gender different and often controversial. Some of the traditional ideas of gender roles are redefined, for example, in