Gender idendity

Essay by elinanguyen5479College, UndergraduateA, November 2014

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Tran Nguyen ESSAY 1


Admit it or not, surely there would be a time you walk on the street or into a convenient store then see a gal or guy but still wonder if they are really are. For example, last week, when I was on my way to class, I was, by chance, seeing a guy with a very long hair covering half of his face, who at first I thought he was a girl until he greeted his buddy with a fist bump. We might naturally think that guys mostly stick with games or gangs, and girls with hair and clothes, but life isn't that simple.

Nowadays, we can easily see a girl who is gathering with a bunch of boys and playing soccer; or a guy who is chatting with his best friends about how long he has been growing his pony tail.

We somehow might find this kind of weird, but I personally think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

There is one thing that we should get clear: sex is not gender. As Judith Lorber claimed in "Night to His Day" 1, "Individuals are born sexed, but not gendered, and they have to be masculine or feminine" (57). Many of us might misunderstand what the real meaning of sex and gender. While sex refers to biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women, gender refers to socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women (WHO) 2. Kid these days cannot really choose their own favorite toys as their parents will pay all cost to prevent their sons from intruding "pink zone" and facing being judged by society (Guys And Dolls No More? - Elizabeth Sweet) 3. Nowadays, there are...