Gender Biologically Determined Essay

Drawing upon ethnographic examples from 2-3 societies. exciteual practice cosmos biologically dogged means that whether energizeual practice is inherited or passed down by genetics. If a person is a macrocosm or woman, (which is usually called The sexuality), that is biologically determined because they inherit the chromo somes to be innate(p) a man, or to be born as a woman. In the early 1970s sex was described by biology as anatomy, hormones, and physiology (West and Zimmerman 1987). Apart from grammatical sex activity being a biological factor, there atomic number 18 an opposite(a)(prenominal) getting until nows which atomic number 18 not biologically determined sexuality was an achieved shape, which was formed through psychological, cultural and favorable means (West and Zimmerman1987).Hence the answer to the question is gender biologically determined?Is no, sexuality is a socially constructed pheno workforceon. sexual urge refers to a caboodle of roles ci tizenry perform in their communities, which be their set and attitudes that people allow toward man and woman (Bonvillain 2006). In this essay, the topics which would be discussed to support this argu handst argon Gender Identity with examples of how work force and women ar expected to act, walk, pour forth and dress in a certain manner which is suitable in their society, Gender and grammatical gender with the examples of culturally in-built norms of sexual deportment, along with existing issues surrounding sexuality, and finally Gender and Status with an example of male dominance in Traditional Chinese society.Gender identity is defined in terms of how people (i.e. men and women) ar hypothetical to turn out in the social category. Their attitudes and the means the dress, talk and carry themselves in the exoteric atomic number 18 encoded in a set of cultural assumptions which are based on the acculturations values and roles and people are expected to learn these as th ey are a part of that society (Bonvillain 2006). Each culture has certain norms for gender and these norms depart from culture to culture, most of these norms take aim a universal common material body and people seem to dwell on these social constructs as they make headway a living based on these ideologies. Cultural constructs are models of conduct and attitudes that a particular culture transmits to its members. These constructs are shared beliefs and values that make taken for granted guiding principles (Bonvillain 2006). There are so many ways that these socially constructed behaviours are exhibited in different communities, the mess sequences about how some(prenominal)ly man and woman should act depends upon several factors such(prenominal) as phrase and religious beliefs.Men and Women were distinguished based on their clothing, what they were allowed to wear as a man and woman, hence earthally signalling their genders, men wore pants and had other bodily arts such as tattoos while woman ornament dresses, jewellery and make up. This made up the very basic body structure of Gender Identity. Apart from, the basic examples of gender identity, there are several other references where women and men have unequal identities, one such case is the, Identity diversity of men and woman in family farms. In straight offs world, Gender revolves around being the fact that women are little treasure than men, and are subjected to work which are in the shadows of confinement. That being the generalised factor, the think of the European family farm only made this issue placeable to the world. Farms were considered to be the dominant agricultural production in the capitalist countries (Brandth 2002). The study used theories of gender role and identity, explaining the issue in the form of discourses. In the 1990s questions were being raised towards identity of women and men in the sylvan farms, these questions eventually shifted towards feminism (Brandth 200 2). Discourses are forms of indicant.They constitute minds, bodies, identities of individuals as parts of wider networks of agent relations (Brandth 2002). It was used in the context of giving out a meaning towards the differences of men and women, there were three discourses formulated by Hirschman, called as the exit, voice and stanchty. Women, who didnt want to be subjected to unequal status go forth the system, some used their voice to protest against it, while others simply were loyal and confined themselves to the household activities. The law stated that the family farm should be passed on from father to son, since women were considered weak and have no access and knowledge of topographic point and agriculture. Women only came into this, only by marriage.Hence, the male leads the family into it, he allocates what job has to be done, and he participates in forums decisions, and doing so he be surveys publically recognised. Since women are variable and flexible, their tas ks are confined to household chores, and these tasks are unpaid and not recognised as productive output from them. On the other hand, mens identities were tied to their ownership of the farms, their occupation and the productive outcome which give them status and economic income. Real work was equated with physical tasks and womens self ensure is based on the absence of such qualities (Brandth 2002). In recent days, with the value of farming technologies, the female work, such as milking cows, and so on are now being done by these improvised machines, making women little efficient and thus making farming a whole virile activity (Brandth 2002). Hence with this example it is clearly pointed out that the social construct differentiates and distinguishes men and women.Apart from gender being differentiated by a social construct, there are factors which raised questions and studies in the society, one of such being gender and its relation to sexuality. There is always a verboten whe n it comes to sex, and it seems to be a common pattern in the world. Even though, we have sexual feelings and we practice them as it being a part of nature, it is excessively deeply influenced by culture (Bonvillain 2006). Culture teaches people what is the right thing to do, in what way, when, where and so on. There are a lot of examples where culture intervenes and states the norms under which the people in that society or community should behave sexually. For example, sexual affinity between members of a nuclear family or far-flung relations is prohibited in most cultures. There are other countries which have the legal age of having sex, which are usually the Americans and Europeans, where the legal age is 16, so if a person indulges in a sexual relationship with a person who is below 16 it is considered against the law and will be filed for statutory rape (Bonvillain 2006).Other regions such as India, sex to begin with marriage is considered as sin based on the cultural beli efs, whereas in American society it is inappropriate to have sex if youre not husband or wife (Bonvillain 2006). While in some countries where sex could be considered as normal, other societies, like Islamic countries for example, any criminal conversation committed by a male or by a female is severely punished, or most commonly stoned to cobblers last (Bonvillain 2006). But this isnt the only issue considering sexuality, the most recent withal shocking bring forthment, is tribadisticity between men and woman. funnyness was considered to be a violation of the natural law (Bonvillain 2006). People were only meant to engage in heterosexual activity (between man and woman) to reproduce. During the 1980s indulging in man activity was considered in crime, people were imprisoned when caught doing so. But in 2003 some parts of the United States, suspended the law, and made homosexuality legal, soon European countries such as Canada, Belgium, and Netherlands passed an act which appr oved of homosexual weddings (Bonvillain 2006).If one launching pad deeper into this issue, where these debatable, one can find that it roots back from worships. Most religion disapprove of homosexuality but in religions such as Hindu, for sexuality, scriptures of homosexual activity only stated that it was normal and natural, to be attracted to the same sex (Bonvillain 2006). But in todays society the main issue is regarding the issue of males being attracted to each other, an example of this issue is Homophobia of men. Homosexuality is considered to be a cultural construct, which apart from the lesbian identities gave rise to the dauntless identities (Herek 1986). It is common for normal men, to avoid influencing with homosexual men, as they fear what the public might think of them being judged as not masculine, where as its more than normal for woman to associate with lesbians or homosexual women, as they are not being judged by the rest of the females (Herek 1986).Studies sho wed, that the social verbalism of gay identities meant that there was something psychologically wrong with that person, it was never attributed to the fact that homosexuality is more of a social construct than something being wrong with the individuals affable state (Herek 1986). Gay men are more scared to come out, or feel comfortable about their sexuality in the public than gay woman. The reason for this is because, men look for other mens approval to gain the status of being a man (Kimmel).We are under the constant careful scrutiny of other men. Other men watch us, rank us, and grant our acceptance into the realm of manhood. Manhood is exhibit of other mens approval. It is other men who evaluate the consummation (Kimmel). As mentioned earlier, men look for other mens approval, and because of this gay men are subjected to stigma and discrimination (Herek 1986). As a result, they develop defensiveness, an unconscious defence mechanism (defined in psychodynamic terms). This help s them avoid or scale down their homosexual tendencies (Kimmel). To summarise, gender is not biologically determined because people have the free will to choose their sexuality (i.e. they are not born being homosexuals, it is clearly a social construct).Gender roles, is defined as a set of rules or rather guidelines towards the behaviour of men and woman. The rights and duties, attitudes and behaviours of men and women constitutes of how they are culturally associated with gender (Bonvillain 2006). The works of men and women are separate, as in, men carry on doing work which they are culturally supposed(p) to be doing and women do their work, based on what the norms of cultures tell them to do. When these two norms act with each other, they reflect a lot of differences and changes in status, prestige and power of men and woman this is called as gender relations (Bonvillain 2006). It is obvious that men are thought to be more superior to women as they are more power driven and phy sically stronger than woman. While, men get more prestigious and leadership jobs, woman are confined to their homely duties of being a house-wife or in other words a care- bestower (Bonvillain 2006).This brings about the inequality of men and woman. There tasks which categorize what woman are capable of doing such as, caring for children and their husbands, cooking food, making clothes and other homely chores, while men on the other hand do more physical and dangerous tasks such as, hunting animals, conducting warfare etc, this is called family of labour (Bonvillain 2006). Gender and status are the most recent action and the most studied topic in todays society. Gender equality, happens when both the male and female agree to equal rights and behaviours. Gender inequality happens when the male and female do not agree to equal rights, attitudes and behaviour (Bonvillain 2006). An example of this, is male dominance in china, the male adult, was the head of the family and they verba lized their dominance over their children and wives.Traditional Chinese cultures had more Patriarchal gender relations (Bonvillain 2006). In conclusion, the question is gender biologically determined? is incorrect, even though gender has a biological definition, gender is mostly socially defined in this context. The tasks or norms which each gender (i.e. male and female) is supposed to perform in the society, is based on a social construct. They are not born to be who there are, instead these social constructions are in-built within them since childhood. Since they taught to act and behave in a specific way which is culturally approved. They choose to be what sexuality appeals to them and what each individualistic gender they are taught to be. Hence Gender is strongly driven by culture.REFERENCESWest,C and Zimmerman, Don. 1987. Doing Gender. Sociologists for Women in Society 1(2) 125-155 Herek, Gregory. 1986.on Heterosexual Masculinity. American Behavioural Scientist 29(5) 563-577 B randth, Berit. 2002. Gender Identity in European FamilyFarming A Literature Review. European Society for rustic Sociology 42(3) 181-200 Kimmel, Michael. Masculinity as homophobia Fear, Shame and Silence in the Constructions of Gender Identity. Bonvillain, Nancy. 2006. Chapter 10, Gender from Cultural Anthropology. Upper Saddle River, NJ Pearson Prentice Hall. Pp. 251-282. ISBN 0-13-045545-8