Gender Identity Throughout the Decades
When thinking about gender, most people only see two genders. The definition of gender is “the characteristics that a society of culture delineates as masculine or feminine”. Gender differs from sex in that sex is biological; it involves your sex chromosomes, hormones, reproductive organs. There are 3 sexes, male, females and intersex. Intersex is having both male and female reproductive organs.
Gender matters in society by how one acts or portrays themselves “to communicate…within a given culture.” Different cultures have different meanings as to what it means to be feminine and masculine. Regardless, gender has always mattered in how people see and address you. It’s a way of classifying people so they can adhere to that specific role. The idea /perception of gender has changed throughout the decades- starting from 1950. In Western societies, discussions of it have changed throughout the years. In the 1950s gender roles were very specific and you had to be either masculine if you were a male or feminine if you were a female. Women were domestic and expected to be compliant towards their husbands (Women were expected to marry a man especially). The feminine image was wearing skirts and dresses, heels, makeup and the color pink. Women were expected to be docile towards men. If a woman wasn’t like this then she was considered deviant. Society would most likely label her as manly. In the 1950s, the men were the sole providers in the household and men in general were expected to be aggressive, dominant and strong. If males weren’t this way, they were considered effeminate and/or gay. In the 1960s, crossdressing and transsexuality was considered deviant and an illness. Doctors would perform aversion therapy, castration or electroshock on those who didn’t conform to the typical gender behavior. In 1970s, the term “transgender” was coined by Virginia Prince. Society used it to describe heterosexual men who wished to live as women. The meaning of transgender was changed by Prince to mean people who “desired to …show more content…
Today, young people are looking at gender as a social construct, meaning that it is a societal role assigned to females and males. They don’t see gender as binary meaning that there are only two genders: male and female. Non-binary gender identity falls under the transgender umbrella.
Under the transgender umbrella are identities such as: genderqueer which is a gender identity used by people who don’t want to “express their gender within the gender binary”, bigender which is a gender identity where a person has two genders, there is an agender identity meaning a person has no gender and genderfluid which is a gender identity that frequently changes to and fro genders. There are gender preferred pronouns that express neutrality such as, (f)ae, e/ey, per, they, ve, xe/xie, as well as he and she.
There are plenty of discussions as to what makes a person a real woman or a real man. Is it having male or female reproductive system? It is being secure in your gender identity and not caring if society views you as another gender? A recent article by Dale Kuehne quoted a high schooler who made a good point by saying, “Why does our school demand that we figure out if we are male or female or some variation? How could we figure it out even if we cared about gender? Can you tell me what it feels like to be woman? Can you tell me what it feels like to be a man? Of course not. No one
When thinking about gender, most people only see two genders. The definition of gender is “the characteristics that a society of culture delineates as masculine or feminine”. Gender differs from sex in that sex is biological; it involves your sex chromosomes, hormones, reproductive organs. There are 3 sexes, male, females and intersex. Intersex is having both male and female reproductive organs.
Gender matters in society by how one acts or portrays themselves “to communicate…within a given culture.” Different cultures have different meanings as to what it means to be feminine and masculine. Regardless, gender has always mattered in how people see and address you. It’s a way of classifying people so they can adhere to that specific role. The idea /perception of gender has changed throughout the decades- starting from 1950. In Western societies, discussions of it have changed throughout the years. In the 1950s gender roles were very specific and you had to be either masculine if you were a male or feminine if you were a female. Women were domestic and expected to be compliant towards their husbands (Women were expected to marry a man especially). The feminine image was wearing skirts and dresses, heels, makeup and the color pink. Women were expected to be docile towards men. If a woman wasn’t like this then she was considered deviant. Society would most likely label her as manly. In the 1950s, the men were the sole providers in the household and men in general were expected to be aggressive, dominant and strong. If males weren’t this way, they were considered effeminate and/or gay. In the 1960s, crossdressing and transsexuality was considered deviant and an illness. Doctors would perform aversion therapy, castration or electroshock on those who didn’t conform to the typical gender behavior. In 1970s, the term “transgender” was coined by Virginia Prince. Society used it to describe heterosexual men who wished to live as women. The meaning of transgender was changed by Prince to mean people who “desired to …show more content…
Today, young people are looking at gender as a social construct, meaning that it is a societal role assigned to females and males. They don’t see gender as binary meaning that there are only two genders: male and female. Non-binary gender identity falls under the transgender umbrella.
Under the transgender umbrella are identities such as: genderqueer which is a gender identity used by people who don’t want to “express their gender within the gender binary”, bigender which is a gender identity where a person has two genders, there is an agender identity meaning a person has no gender and genderfluid which is a gender identity that frequently changes to and fro genders. There are gender preferred pronouns that express neutrality such as, (f)ae, e/ey, per, they, ve, xe/xie, as well as he and she.
There are plenty of discussions as to what makes a person a real woman or a real man. Is it having male or female reproductive system? It is being secure in your gender identity and not caring if society views you as another gender? A recent article by Dale Kuehne quoted a high schooler who made a good point by saying, “Why does our school demand that we figure out if we are male or female or some variation? How could we figure it out even if we cared about gender? Can you tell me what it feels like to be woman? Can you tell me what it feels like to be a man? Of course not. No one