Week #1 Assignment

As stated in the text, Gender is defined by society and expressed by individuals as they interact with others and media in their society. Because gender is learned process it changes over time. We are taught how to be masculine and/or feminine based on our sex. The society’s values, beliefs, and preferred ways of organizing collective life determine what gender means and how we express it. Based on traditional views, men are viewed as strong, ambitious, successful, rational, and emotionally controlled. A woman would be viewed and trained to be physically attractive, deferential, emotionally expressive, nurturing, and concerned with people and relationships. Different cultures view gender in different ways. Among Arapesh people, both women and men took on feminine traits. The Mundugumor tribe socialized both women and men to be aggressive, independent, and competitive. While the Tchambuli society, the roles are reversed from the American society. Men are more feminine and women are more masculine. I think our current generation is not solely based on two sexes and two genders. Even though the “out of the norm” seems to be wrong, I think people are starting to be more accepting to these gender roles changes. I think society dictates the “normal” or “natural” way for a gender to behave. Depending on the cultural views, society will expect women and men to take on certain gender roles and anything out of the norm would be considered wrong.