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Ezabella Daldumyan
Professor Beadle
English 115
25 September 2016
The Hows and Whys of Who We Are
Have you ever wondered why each gender acts the way it does? Some may say that its
due to the physiology of males and females or that we are just programmed to act a certain
way based on our gender. Whether or not you think these ideas are right or wrong is up to you,
but almost everyone can agree that there is a higher influence that affects the way genders
behave. It might seem absurd that one factor can influence people for generations and no one; up
until recently, decided that it doesnt have to be that way. Society decides what gender is and
gender is constructed in a way to benefit what society wants. There are many ways that society
has controlled gender, but Im going to focus on three; how society turned gender into a social
construct, how society divided the characteristics between the two genders, and how society has
surrounded us with role models that we look up to and try to become. All these points are
made in multiple articles, such as Judith Lorbers Night to His Day, Ruth Hubbards
Rethinking Womens Biology, Claire Renzetti and Daniel Currans Women, Men and
Society, and Aaron Devors Becoming Members of Society. This idea doesnt seem so
ridiculous now and its true; society has defined how and what each gender should be.
As a society, we first need to understand the difference between sex and gender. Sex is
what a person is born as, the biology part, and gender is what the person identifies as. Gender is

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socially constructed and because of that society gets to make the rules and tells you what is
right or wrong. In Judith Lorbers article; Night to His Day, she talks about the
building blocks of gender are socially constructed statuses (Lorber, 22). This just means the
society has the power to say what each gender should act or be like. In a very few cases if
someone doesnt want to follow the gender norms, they are ignored by society; this is one of the
powers society has over everyone. Lorber goes on saying that gendering is based on religion,
science, the values formed by society, and many other factors (Lorber,29). In another article;
Rethinking Womens Biology, written by Ruth Hubbard focuses on the role of women in
society. She wrote that the description for women came from wealthy, educated men and they
based this description on what seemed to be more natural and what would benefit them
(Hubbard, 46). These two women wrote articles talking about the idea of how society
constructed gender to show everyone all the power one group has over how a person act and
behaves. Society is controlling how we live our lives. You might think that since we know about
this, we can change it, but that seems so much easier said than done. Growing up I had to follow
the rules society laid out for me; like how I have to dress or how I have to talk softer and gentler
compared to boys.
All of our lives we are influenced by everything/everyone and based on this influence we
get to choose who we look up to. In the article Becoming Members of Society; written by
Aaron Devor, it talks about how at a young age, children learn the rules of membership in
society, they come to see themselves in terms they have learned from the people around them
(Devor, 35). Children learn by watching others, so growing up, children see how their parents act
and they decide that the way they are acting is normal. Due to this, childrens individuality is
shaped into what society finds acceptable and on how the people around them act. Everywhere

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you look, you see advertisements that portray each gender differently; women are feminine and
men as masculine, these types of ads are what young people see and think that it is the correct
way to be and act. Devor wrote about this to maybe convince younger people to not fall into the
trap society has formed. Also to maybe show how much influence anyone can have when it
comes to gender and that people should be careful on how they act.
Advertisements portray each gender differently; femininity and masculinity, but do we
really know where this differentiation came from and why it exists. The answer is yes we do.
According to Devor, society has femininity and masculinity to claim and communicate their
membership in their assigned sex or gender (Devor, 38). What this means is that we have this
distinction to show that we belong in either one of the sexes or genders. With this distinction,
there are certain characteristics that describe each of the sexes. The two groups are commonly
known to balance each other out; with masculinity being the one with all the dominance and
femininity being the one that is more submissive. These characteristics were developed years ago
based on what seemed the most natural for each gender. In Women, Men, and Society
written by Claire Renzetti and Daniel Curran, it talks about how influential parents are when it
comes to expressing the difference between the genders. In this article, it shows how much
parents of young children go out of their way to make it clear that their child is either a boy or a
girl. Due to this, children learn that if Im a girl I need to do this or Im a boy so I need to act
like this and they continue these patterns for the rest of their lives. When I was really young I
got my ears pierced and I didnt think much about it at the time, only that it was pretty cool
because the earring was a dolphin, but as I got older I started to think about why I got my ears
pierced. I now know the reason behind my piercings was to show that I was a girl and so other

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people wouldnt confuse me for a boy; if the piercings didnt do, the pink dresses probably did.
These were only a few ways my parents and society helped me learn how act and behave.
As a society, we enjoy categorizing people or objects into smaller groups and labeling
them. The same concept applies to gender; society divided up the sexes and put a label on each.
Society made all the rules for gender and basically constructed it to work in a way that makes
everyone comply to the rules. First society decided what gender is and created the rules for each
gender. If you dont follow these rules, everyone pretends that you dont exist because you
decided to do what you wanted to do. Society also divided each of the characteristics of both
genders so it can be easier to label each other and much easier to see how a person should act and
what attributes a person should have. Lastly, society surrounded us with role models that
showed how we should carry ourselves and what we should aspire to be like. There are many
articles; like Judith Lorbers Night to His Day, Ruth Hubbards Rethinking Womens
Biology, Claire Renzetti and Daniel Currans Women, Men and Society, and Aaron Devors
Becoming Members of Society that go into more depth about how society and gender are
connected. Society has so much power over gender and it is very good at making everyone
comply with the rules that it has laid out. With this power society helped form me and everyone
else into the person they are today. Maybe in the future the world might be different if society
changes its idea of gender and everyone can be whatever they want.

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Work Cited
Devor, Aaron. Becoming Members of Society. Composing Gender, edited by Rachael Groner
and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, pp.35-45
Hubbard, Ruth. Rethinking Womens Biology. Composing Gender, edited by Rachael Groner
and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, pp.46-52
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Composing Gender,
edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, pp.19-34
Renzetti, Claire and Curran, Daniel. From Women, Men, and Society. Composing Gender,
edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara, Bedford/St. Martins, 2014, pp.76-87

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