Is Gender Identity Acquired or Ascribed - Report Example

Gender Identity By Lecturer’s and Is Gender Identity Acquired or Ascribed? Biology defines gender asthe part of the natural sex concerned of the dichotomy of a certain sex group. With such an idea in our heads, we may define gender as the characteristics or behaviours adopted and practiced by people of the same sex. Others have gone further and defined gender as the social construct seen within members of the same sex. However, it should be noted that the fact that gender has been defined as the social contract does not mean that, were it not for the difference in cultures, women and men would be exactly the same. The main differences between women and men could be pointed out in terms of masculinity and femininity of these two groups of individuals. If we were to go with the western culture, we would see a difference in the definition of sex where sex is treated as the natural bodies that may be differentiated to different categories of sexes without necessarily involving the specific culture of an individual (MATCHINSKE, 1998). The society has defined sex to be the natural attributes of a certain type of a group of people. From this distinction, the definition of gender has been drawn as the qualities that may be ascribed to each specific sex category. Sex and Gender Going with the ethno historic information provided by the Native North American societies, we notice that there is a lot of evidence regarding the fourth and the third non binary genders. This is an extension of the societies’ definition of the binary numbers of men and women. Native North American societies define the third genders as those individuals who by culture are not men but are still categorized as biologically male. On the other hand, the fourth genders have been defined as those individuals who society-wise cannot be termed as women but may be biologically be termed as women. For us to make a better distinction regarding the issue of gender and sex, we may want to consider the issue of ascribed and acquired traits. We will take gender to be the category of persons and sex as the category of bodies. This takes us to the Native North American system of genders which advocates for the use of an individual’s ascribed and acquired traits in the determination of the gender held by an individual (MATCHINSKE, 1998). This concept of gender determination seems more sensible than the biological sex assignment. This definition brings an important observation- that gender can be both acquired and ascribed. Relations between Gender and other Social Identities An American sociologist in the name of Meskell made a very important contribution to this topic by disintegrating the contradictory axes of identity (MATCHINSKE, 1998). She was of the opinion that it will not be right to think of separate important gender aspects such as the sense of “being”, the sense of “embodiment” and the sense of “selfhood”. She further pointed out that the three senses would have major contributions to the age, status, ethnicity and sexuality of an individual. In addition to her expressions, she showed that, we could use archaeology to study these contradictory axes of identity. Archaeologists have been interested with the age identity as they think that it has a special influence to the performance, maintenance and formation of a specific gender identity. Age and Gender Identity What we realize is that the relationship between age and gender identity seems to be culturally constructed, in line with most personal qualities of an individual. In most traditions today, a junior will not be crowned with the status of a “full human” until he/she has successfully gone past a certain set target. Most targets have a lot to do with attending of a school, recognizing an important day, weaning, and walking, among others. Some traditions have further extended the milestones to cover adulthood milestones such as parenthood, marriage and initiation. In such a case, the rites of passage happens to be the most important cut-lines of gender in the culture, with the mostly recognized being when an individual passes from being a child to be an adult (MATCHINSKE, 1998). Culture-wise an individual will be deemed to have successfully adopted adulthood if he/she shows the qualities accepted in adulthood. For example, a girl will be deemed to be an adult woman if she is in a position to meet a woman’s expectations such as child rearing and good behaviours. To analyse an individual’s final stage, death, an emphasis has to be made on the individual’s final stage. A process known as mortuary analysis will be done where an individual’s behaviours during his/her life will be compared to that of another at the end of life. Analysis of Household and Architecture Archaeologists have keenly focused on feminist’s approaches in their study of social changes related to the production of a household. The major implication is that an individual will tend to express his/her gender identity based on the homes they have been in a position to themselves build. This analysis was added more weight by a philosopher in the name of Prine through her prominent concept of “Double Post”. She insisted on both the size differences and the major structural elements of a household that would determine the gender identity of an individual. The double post concept was also of the view that continued public performance, mainly of rituals would act to promote an individual’s gender roles. Further analysis proved that continued public performances of would eventually allude to what was termed as “gender transgressive performance”. In this case, major ceremonial and domestic performances would lead to what has been termed as gender transgressiveness not only to the participant but to the household in general. Here, reinforcement of an individual’s integrative activities would have a lot of weight in determining an individual’s gender (MATCHINSKE, 1998). Iconography and Imagery Specialists in rock arts have made great contributions to this topic by aiding the study of gender in archaeological contexts. When we talk of imagery, we may specifically be talking about the images (pictures) that work in representation of materials or things in both the real and non-real world. Hay-Gilpin showed a lot of support to this view and went further to this provision in the examination of iconography of the age and gender in South-West rock. Her research was taken a step further by Sundstrom who introduced the concept of gender symbolism. She was of the view that those women who, in their lifetime dreamed of Double Woman, had the chance of receiving sanctions related to supernatural powers, which enabled them forgo childbearing and marriage (MATCHINSKE, 1998). Functionalism Functionalism has been classified under macro sociological perspectives. The main notion with this perspective is that a society has been formed by different interdependent elements which bring “functionality” in the society as a whole. The major task of a functionalist is to go round a society and try to identify different parts in a society and their functions in the attainment of the society’s social needs. Stability and effectiveness in a society will be attained if only the individual’s in that specific society share common values and beliefs. In their interpretation, functionalists are of the view that values directly related to gender such as family and marriage will be of great importance in determining a society’s state of equilibrium. Functionalism uses some various important concepts as discussed here below. Pre-Industrial Society: In this stage, pre-industrial societies were of the view that equilibrium in the society will be maintained in a situation where some specific tasks were assigned to women and men. It is during this time that most societies practiced subsistence farming and hunting and gathering. It was therefore important that a defined gender concentrated on certain tasks. In most instances, the role of hunting and gathering was left to men who will a lot of time away. Children’s major role will be to help in both domestic and agricultural activities (MATCHINSKE, 1998). Contemporary Society: In the contemporary society, we see maximization of harmony and minimization of disruption. The implication is that most families will benefit more when the spouses concentrated on specific non-overlapping tasks. The contemporary society advocated that the father took up instrumental roles such as bringing stability to the family and food and shelter provision. The mother on the hand was expected to concentrate of what was termed as expressive role. These roles included ensuring that the family maintained stable relationships and there was social and emotional support to everyone who needed the same. Critique: The fact that functionalists concentrated more on equilibrium makes their provisions to be seen more of conservative than realistic. Again, it will be difficult to account for the operation of different family systems. The situation is further intensified by the fact that the functionalists were not able to keep pace with the social changes that moved families to awkward attitudes when it comes to the task that every member of the society should perform. According to other socialists, it is clear that functionalism has been very influential in the promotion of male chauvinism and gender inequality. In addition to these critics, it has also been argued that functionalism focuses more on white middle-class ignoring disadvantaged population. Conflict Theory Conflict theory also falls under macro sociological perspective. This theory has also been defined as the social conflict theory. The unique characteristic of this theory is that it insists that the social order will be maintained through what has been explained as the exercise of power bestowed to a certain social class over the other. This is contrary to functionalists who thought that social order would be attained through value agreement (MATCHINSKE, 1998). Social Class, Engels and Marx: The provisions on conflict theory have its major origins from the work of Karl Marx. Here, the argument was that a society acts as a jungle where individuals struggle for dominance and power. The main reason for the struggle is scarcity and, as a result, individuals will try to scoop as much as possible of resources such as natural resources, food and land. As a result, members of different genders have to come together and challenge the system for the lack of equality. This form of domination can be attributed to the cause that saw the Soviets to power following the unity of countries such as Eurasia and Eastern Europe. Friedrich Engel’s provisions also worked in line with the provisions of Marx. Contemporary Conflict Theory: Contemporary conflict theory came up as a result of modification of the Marx’s provisions. The main aim was to see to it that Marx’s provisions also included those individuals who desired social contemporary changes and those changes took the direction away from revolutionary means and much closer to egalitarianism (MATCHINSKE, 1998). In addition to dominance of a certain group of people, where an individual belonged in the family unit, such as the parent, males and females, and country would be of great importance in the determination of the resources owned by the individual. Gender and the Family: What we realize is that the social conflict theory majors on the social operation of the family that transforms individuals at birth into families with items of values and abundant economic resources. Those individuals who are luckily born in wealthy families will most certainly work towards promoting the existing inequality. The marriage between a couple both from well-up families is seen as a sign of families trying to maintain economic power in the hands of a few individuals. Critique: The conflict theory has been highly criticized on the basis that it overemphasizes on economic factors as the main reason for inequality. Again, it has been criticized following its assumption that there is constant competition between members of a family, which is overly inevitable. Symbolic Interaction Symbolic interaction handles the concept of gender from a micro-level. The concept is of the view that people’s behaviour in a face-to-face environments will tend to shape their behaviours. The shaping of an individual’s behaviour will come as a result of interaction with other people. The major contribution of this concept is that people will tend to respond to the meaning they bring to the world around them as opposed to the environment they operate in. Symbolic interaction concept further provides that social reality will promote human interaction. Social Construction of Reality: The social construction of reality provides that an individual’s social interaction will mainly be determined by the society’s norms, which are in most instances largely affected by culture. The norms in a society will be modified whenever an individual socially interacts with other individuals living in different locations (MATCHINSKE, 1998). This is because, with every interaction, and individual will tend to advance his understanding of the situation. Doing Gender, Doing gender was of the view that the various methodologies used to differentiate people are not in the real physical world but do usually appear in a socially structured process. As a result, males can be differentiated from female on the basis of masculine and feminine characteristics. With such a definition, we find out that the meaning of “gender’ will be bestowed upon the meaning that people allocate to (MATCHINSKE, 1998). Critique: This approach of symbolic interaction was criticized on the basis that it does not give enough attention to macroeconomic happenings and the fact that it puts boundaries on the choice of action, by calling for people to involve themselves into gendered behaviour, which ends up determining what people will do. In some traditions for example, the society will decide the occupations that women and men will engage into. Feminist Sociological Theory Although the feminist sociological theory focuses more on micro sociological aspects, it has made major contributions in the shaping of both the micro and macro gender analysis. What we come to realize is that the theory has not only acted as a macro-micro gap but has also vehemently addressed andocentric bias in societies. In general terms, a theory will be said to show some feminism characteristics if, at some point we may use the theory to dispute a status quo that happens to be dragging women behind. The concept of feminisms advocates for the collaboration of sociologists in a bid to provide the best explanations regarding gender, family, sex and religion (MATCHINSKE, 1998). The main aim of the concept of feminism is to empower women in their bid for societal changes and women appreciation. Joining Class, Race and Gender: The feminism approach has made important contributions by laying a lot of emphasis on measures to curb challenges faced by people who may be termed as “disadvantaged” owing to their characteristics such as social class, race and gender. A good example can be seen with the feminization of the issue of poverty. In this case, we realize that there are high chances that women will become poor compared to men. Feminist’s family perspectives: According to traditional feminists, a family was seen as the source of male chauvinism and women oppression. Here, feminists recognized that family relations will be influenced by factors outside the family that will act to shape happenings outside the family. The conclusions made by feminists are that women may be disadvantaged three times or more by their sex, class or race. Critique: The theory limits itself to the oppression of women ignoring other important factors in families. By focusing on women oppression, the theory brings out a bad picture of women counterparts and thereby minimizing the importance of marriage (MATCHINSKE, 1998). Conclusion Going with the analysis above, we may say that the study of gender has introduced a new concept of feminism in sociology thereby creating more room for research regarding this topic, more so to do with the connection between social class race, and gender. With the way things are moving, especially in the 21st century, the issue of gender should be handled from a new dimension so as to create family effectiveness and reduced major forms of prejudices. The media has contributed in the enforcement of gender stereotypes. What this implies is that the media can be used to make feminism messages more appealing and of help to the society in general. Reference List MATCHINSKE, M. (1998). Writing, gender and state in early modern England identity formation and the female subject. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10450652. Read More